Pueblog USa
Monday, December 24, 2007
What Should a Concerned Citizen Do?
When you’re watching City Council put their foot in it.
Last Monday, December 17, at a special meeting of City Council, Ted Freeman was in the audience while City Council proceeded to introduce an ordinance (or, several ordinances, judging from the Public Notices published later in the week). This was against the City’s charter (the equivalent of a constitution on the city level). Further, the ordinances were an add-on to the published purpose of the meeting, which was to reschedule the regular meeting that would have been held on December 24.
Mr. Freeman rose and challenged the actions of the City Council. He told them they were out of order. Council President Weaver told him he was out of order, gavel pounding and shouting followed, with threats to have Mr. Freeman removed, etc. I’ve been told the brou-ha-ha lasted about 30 seconds, although it probably seemed much longer.
Later in the week, Tom Jagger, City Attorney, said that Mr. Freeman was correct in that the Charter does not allow ordinances to be introduced at special meetings. So, given that the Council members, the City Clerk, the City Manager, and the City Attorney were all present, but none of them remembered that they couldn’t introduce an ordinance, just what was Mr. Freeman supposed to do?
Yes, just what was Mr. Freeman supposed to do, if not what he did do?
Personally, I have to wonder if the whole meeting wasn’t a setup to deal with the ordinance in question, quietly, without a lot of observers. The ordinance was to correct an ordinance passed earlier in the month, which dealt with an annexation. Some of the legal descriptions for the properties were wrong, and needed to be fixed before the City found itself in trouble. The City boo-booed, and needed to fix an embarrassing mistake. There was also some kind of deadline involved, so one can understand Council’s motivation.
The reason I say the whole meeting was a setup for the ordinance is because the stated reason for the meeting was to reschedule the Christmas Eve meeting. Now, anyone who has ever belonged to a club or served on a board knows that you have to check the calendar in September or October in order to see if any meetings in November, December or January need to be changed because of holidays. With a group as large as city government, someone would have checked and this matter could have been taken care of weeks, if not months, ago at a regular City Council meeting without having to schedule a special one at the last minute.
The final irony to the whole situation is that the proposed ordinance also has errors in the legal descriptions. Can’t anyone do a decent job of proofreading that stuff? Why are we paying certain city employees and contractors substantial sums of money, if not to make sure this stuff is done right?
What I’ve learned about City government during this episode is: they don’t plan ahead, they can’t proofread, and like most people, they don’t read the instructions (the Charter).