The Charter meetings are improving over time. There seem to
be more comments from the members as time goes on. This would be an
improvement. Maybe it just takes time for them to find their voices.
The meeting last night was an improvement over previous meetings.
Once the meeting got going, Jason Lemons brought up a few points and discussion
followed that maybe there does need to be more time to allow for gathering
signatures. He also brought up the point that maybe the requirements for a
successful petition should be changed from 10% of all registered voters to a
larger percentage of those who voted in the last election, which would have the
effect of lowering the number of signatures required. In the end, they decided
to stay with a percentage of registered voters rather than a percentage of
those who voted in the previous election.
Perhaps one of the most surprising of the suggested changes
was to Section 6.01. Since the first charter, the city manager has been limited
to a two year contract. It was suggested they eliminate that restriction, and
they voted to do so.
My take on that restriction would be that you don’t want to
tie the hand of future council. Suppose one council signs a 20 years contract
with the manager of their choice. And then suppose the next council really does
not like the previous council’s choice, and then fire’s the guy. The taxpayer’s
would probably have to pay for two city managers. Not a good deal for the
taxpayers.
There was other interesting stuff going on and you can see
it when the video is uploaded.
No comments:
Post a Comment