City roundup

I wanted to recap some things from Council committee meetings Tuesday and the Charter Review Commission yesterday afternoon.

Committee meetings

Councilwoman Megan Pratt was appointed by unanimous vote to the CMPA board after Mayor Wiggins withdrew his name from consideration. Wiggins says he wants to be able to lobby CMPA members. I’m not sure that’s legal either way.

On a motion by Mayor Wiggins, the Committee of the Whole voted to direct the City manager to find the $1 million needed for recycling cans citywide. The city manager has until Council’s “goal setting session” some time in March. Progressive Pensacola applauds the mayor for his leadership on the issue.

Councilwoman DeWeese made her stand on the PCIP issue. To quickly recap, three neighbourhood associations (all in DeWeese’s district) were set to lose out on City grant money for landscaping projects. On a motion from Councilwoman DeWeese, the Economic and Community Development committee voted to fund the projects from the City’s tree fund (which is one of the few places the City actually has some money tucked away). This still needs to pass at the full Council (needs a minimum of 6 votes), so we’ll see tomorrow.

CRA Director Thad Cohen gave the CRA/Council an excellent presentation about CRA goals and initiatives. I don’t agree with everything Mr. Cohen does or has done, but he is incredibly talented and we really are lucky to have him.

Charter Review

The CRC made a few important decisions at yesterday’s meeting (though, keep in mind they are drafting a charter and that all decisions are reviewable and not set in stone in any way).

Regarding compensation of the mayor, the CRC decided that the City Council would set the compensation of its members and the mayor. Commissioner Jim Reeves, though, kept lobbying for the CRC to specify an initial salary in the charter, so that potential mayoral candidates would know how much they’d be getting paid and all. That didn’t fly with several other members of the Commission, though, and so they decided (weirdly) to send a letter to the current City Council, along with the finished charter, asking them to set the salary of the post-charter mayor and Council. I’m not sure how that works legally, but I think it’s a stupid idea either way.

The CRC adopted pretty standard language regarding mayoral incapacitation and recall. Basically, if a supermajority of the Council rules that the mayor is incapacitated, the Council president or chair would assume the mayoralty until such time the mayor is no longer incapacitated. Thereafter, that person would revert to Council president or chair. On recall, the CRC adopted language to follow the state recall provision, outlined in s. 100.361 F.S.

They next took on the issue of forfeiture of office. The CRC adopted language from the Jacksonville charter, which states that a mayor (and presumably Council members) would forfeit, and be removed from, office if he or she ceased to possess any of the previously outlined qualifications (such as residency).

And finally, the CRC tackled the date on which a mayor and Council members would take office; as you know, there is currently a 2 month+ delay from when Council members are elected until they take office. Recent actions of lame duck Council members have prompted the desire among some for this period to be shorter. On a motion by Jim Reeves, the CRC voted that the Council and mayor would take office on the fourth Tuesday of November. I’m fine with that, although that’s two days before Thanksgiving. I hope that doesn’t cause problems.

Hit the CRC’s web site (which is actually easy to use and informative) for all the documents relevant to yesterday’s meeting.