Hall on the charter debate
Pensacola City Councilman Sam Hall waded into the charter debate today with a post on his blog titled “Mayor-Council: Who has the power?”
Councilman Hall argues that under the proposed Mayor-Council government, both the mayor and City Council would have “the power,” and that they would have to work with one another to get things done. Anti-charter advocated No Boss Mayor argue that power would be consolidated in the “strong” mayor, who would dominate the Council.
He criticises the current government process as staff-controlled:
In order to understand, let’s look at how the agenda is set now. It’s set by staff, the unelected 900 at city hall.
To be sure, committee chairs have “some” control, but not much, and junior councilmembers have almost no control, despite the fact that Pensacola now has one of its most aggressive freshmen classes in most of our recollection.
When Tom Bonfield was the city manager, I tried to get items added to the agenda about three times……for discussion. He said it couldn’t be done unless staff approved it.
When I asked if there was any other way to get it on the agenda, he indicated that a committee chair could place it on there, but he also indicated I could not ask the chair ahead of time for that to be done. He cited Florida’s Sunshine Law.
While Al Coby has been a breath of sunshine, no pun intended, I know some members feel frustrated that the agenda is out of their hands. Take Maren DeWeese and her Pensacola Promise. She can’t get even 15 minutes to present it.
Why?
Staff doesn’t like it.
Councilman Hall envisions a mayor-council system in which the elected mayor and the elected Council members control the agenda, with staff serving an advisory role:
But, in a Mayor-Council government, the council will set the agenda. If the mayor is hostile to the council, then his agenda will never be heard. Conversely, if the council is hostile to the mayor, then the mayor can veto what council has passed, which is subject to override by a supermajority.
Either way, it will be the elected, the accountable ones to the public, who will set the agenda.
Yet, without a doubt, the professionals (staff) will have to weigh in to make an issue successful.
That’s a valid perspective. More than anything else, though, the precise structure of a mayor-council government, and its success or failure, would likely depend on the personalities of those elected officials.
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Actually, I don’t think the council likes the proposal DeWeese has made. Otherwise they would have voted to put it on the agenda. And to say that the 900 unelected city employees have control is ridiculous. How much control do you think the police officers, firefighters, those who pick up your trash, mow the parks, run after school programs, dig ditches for gas lines, etc. have? They have no control or power.
I think the Council (or at least a majority) DOES like DeWeese’s proposal. It’s a great idea. The fact of the matter, though, is that City staff has been very icy to it and that influences Council members to leave it alone lest get on staff’s bad side. While I think Councilman Hall exaggerates a bit, I think he’s pretty on point overall.
This council must be a laughing stock with cities having a successful Council-Manager form of government such as Sarasota, Tallahassee, Greenville, Ashville, Charlottesville, Milton and Gulf Breeze Proper.
They should all actually read Svara’s second page titled “The Case for the Council-Manager form” and ask why they’re can’t make it work. The document is posted to ProgressivePensacola.com for anyone to see a checklist of good government practices in either form of government.
Tom Bonfield was “staff.” If this group of ten lacks the management expertise to get a City Manager and City Attorney to do as they direct what hope have they in any form of government? They couldn’t even get the CRC Chairwoman Crystal Spencer to write her Final Report. She just snubbed her nose at the council, lectured “The people want change!” and they all said and did nothing, as usual.
In the end, the problem is a lack of leadership, period. Sam Hall said it best in December. He told me he was going to start showing some “Leadership” by going along with the others. In the Marines we called that “Followership.” Hall also said the council was going to focus on “low hanging fruit,” so they all had “accomplishments” to run on in November 2010. They’re still dodging the pension debacle.
If Hall, DeWeese or any other member want to talk about anything at all they can just raise their hands and speak during “New Business.” Stop whining and quit making excuses and do the work we pay you to do, or get out of the way.
Link to the page/document that Mr. Lewis is referring to:
http://progressivepensacola.com/2009/10/30/4739/