I want this post and comment thread to be on the current Pensacola government, not the proposed charter, not strong mayor. No personal attacks or conspiracy plots.
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Pensacola has a unitarian form of government, meaning the power, in theory, is vested in one elected body. There is an administrative staff, but its role is to implement the directives, programs and policies of the council. In other words, the council passes it, the staff gets it done. If the staff fails to do so, it is removed. If the council fails to follow the wishes of the voters, its members aren’t re-elected.
It’s very straight-forward. The council runs the city. Voters can change the council if they aren’t happy and can thereby change how the city is run.
Pensacola city government doesn’t quite operate this way. There are several barriers to this straight-forward governance. Some are actually good, others are not.
The City Council only controls two positions, city attorney and city manager. By law, council members are not to interfere with the city administration.
Separation of council and city staff
The council members are not to deal directly with department heads or city employees, without permission of the city manager. In theory, council member who has a problem with a street in his district calls the city manager not the public works department. In practice, I understand council members do call department heads, which can either listen, ignore the request or complain to the city manager.
This law does buffer the department heads and city workers from politics. The staff, in theory, can operate solely on the basis of how it can best implement the directives from the entire council.
There are two problems though:
1) There is no objective performance evaluation system by the city manager that is made public to the city council on how well a department head is implementing the directives from the entire council. Objective means measurable results— such as pot holes repaired, reduction in response times, increases in program participants, etc.
2) What happens if a department head has an agenda that isn’t aligned with the council? If his/her actions don’t implement the directives of the council, without an objective evaluation of their performance, department heads can become entrenched and can simply wait out leadership changes in the city council.
City Manager and City Attorney Employment
The City Manager and City Attorney, in theory, serve at the whim of the City Council, meaning if the majority so votes, they can be fired. The reality is City Managers and City Attorneys aren’t fired. They hold the positions as long as they wish. And even if they were fired, they have contracts with hefty termination payments.
Removing a city manager or city attorney is nearly impossible for two reasons:
1) There is no objective performance evaluation system in place that would help the council determine if any change is warranted.
2) A council member has no way of knowing if he has five votes to replace the city manager or attorney. The City Manager and City Attorney can lobby individual council members for their jobs, but the council member can’t do the same without violating the Sunshine Laws.
The City Council has opened the hiring process for the City Manager in the past. Tom Bonfield was hired from Temple Terrace. However, the City Attorney has actually been handed from assistant city attorney to assistant city attorney for over 40 years. That doesn’t mean the attorneys—all white, all male— haven’t done good jobs, but an open job search does provide an opportunity for more fresh thinking and more independence.
Council Structure
The structure of the City Council is also a barrier to straight-forward unitarian governance. There are ten council members – with seven single member districts, three at-large – one of which chairs the meetings and is the ceremonial mayor. It is by far the largest council of any Florida city with similar population size. And its size greatly dilutes the power of any one member.
In a five-member council, a member doesn’t have to share the mic with nine other people. He has time to express his ideas and ask questions. He only has to convince two other people, not five, to win a vote. The City Manager must listen and keep all the members informed – because it takes only three to remove him. One council member speaking out in a five-member board has to be taken seriously. One from a ten-member board speaking out can be dismissed as disgruntled.
The City Council doesn’t initiate policies and programs—-let me be fair, rarely does it do. It can direct staff to study an issue and come back with a recommendation – but the council can’t talk with the staff members about what they will recommend, only the city manager.
Nearly all recommendations come from the city manager and his staff. The council is rarely given more than one option on an issue. There is rarely an alternative offered – the council usually approves the one recommendation or not. Substantial amendments are rare. And the size of the council makes discussions of alternatives difficult. City Manager and staff can lobby individual council members for their recommendations, but the alternatives suggested by the council can only be discussed in open meeting.
This gives a huge advantage to staff and makes a council member reluctant to suggest a plan or program without the support of the city manager and staff. They can kill an idea before it ever gets mentioned at a council meeting.
Individual council members can’t put items on the agenda. If they are on the appropriate committee, they can make a motion to add something, but must have the votes to add it. The City Manager has significant control over all council agendas. The committee chairs can add items, but the individual council members can not without the votes.
This limited access to the council agendas is unique to Pensacola. In talking to other councils from other cities, individual members can have anything placed on the agenda for discussion. The Escambia County Commissioners are allowed to add agenda items.
Power of the Voter
The voter has three outlets to impact how he is governed:
1) Votes for his district representative and hopes that council member can persuade five other council members and the city manager to govern better and implement the programs and directives important to that voter.
2) Tries to elect a slate of four council members – his district, two at-larger members and the mayor. Slates are difficult politically because it is hard to find four like-minded candidates willing to run on one platform. Even then, the four will have to persuade two other council members and the city manager to govern better and implement the programs and directives important to that voter.
3) Waits for a specific vote that opposes the initiative or program that he wants and then lead a petition drive, get nearly 6,000 signatures and win a referendum vote. However if there is no vote on the issue, then the voter can’t do a petition drive.
Voters can not change their government. If they want a more conservative or more progressive government, they can not elect enough people to change it. The city manager and his staff not only are buffered from the politics of the council, but also from the power of the voters. The result is the voter is dependent on the city manager and his staff doing a good job and listening to his concerns. If they don’t listen, the voters has little recourse—either move away or wait for the city manager to do so.
How important is the voter? If the city staff is competent and does a good job of providing the basic services of police, fire, sanitation and roads, the voter’s wishes may not be important. It is only when the city steps outside of these services are there issues – airport, port, downtown redevelopment, poverty, libraries, disparity in purchasing programs, job creation– then there is controversy.
Or as one Pensacola resident told me, Pensacola government works until you have a problem.
Popularity: 28% [?]
James, Moore delivered curbside recycling a year after ECUA. A year!!!
Fischer is giving us a downtown library that we voted for in 1997 when we approved the LOST…he will give it to us in 2013. BTW the county has taken over much of the library system, and Santa Rosa County left it entirely, because the city was taking back two dollars of every five that it contributed to the system.
Who recommended the Port extend and amend port leases, even though the council voted for mixed use in 2005? How about Melinda Crawford’s predecessor who was caught lying to the council and pushing through the airport hotel lease? A lease that the auditor say staff overstepped its powers.
How about pensions? Who recommended that they be restructured in 1997?
What happened to the annexation plan the council passed in 2007?
Who recommends the budget?
Who recommended the CMP bonds be backed by city revenues? Who let Avalex slip away?
How many times has the staff given the council more than one option on an issue?
Do all the staff members listen to council are to the city manager? If the council is talking to them, then they are breaking the law.
Gen X — I hear from the pro-charter side that city staff is directing council but I don’t see that in what happens in my city. I’ll give you a few examples.
Jerry Moore is the sanitation director. Did he direct council not to start a recycling program? Or did he make a recycling program happen ounce the council finally approved & appropriated money so he could fund such a program.
Gene Fischer is the library director. Did he direct council not to appropriate funds to renovate the downtown library? Or is he grateful that he is finally able to open new branch libraries and fund a renovation of the downtown branch?
Al Garza is the public works director. Just what has he done to direct the city council? And the city engineer — Derrick Owens — how is he directing council members? What about Melinda Crawford –the interim airport director — is she controlling city council? Or Russell Beaty, the interim fire department director — how is he directing the council? Maybe Thaddeus Cohen — who was criticized by a primary fund raiser & supporter of the mayor & was thus stripped of some of his duties — is calling the shots.
What about Dave Flaherty, the parks & recreation director. Is he responding to council requests or requiring the city council to respond to him?
I could go on, but you get the idea.
It seems to me that city staff can’t make anything happen without approval and funding from the city council.
What does it say about a city that has two former city attorneys, a former mayor and two city council members, P.C. and Jewel, run such a negative campaign? It would have been nice for them to show how this current system is so great. What ever happened to civility? I watched the Don Caton video and agreed with him that the mentions of his pension were unfair, but then I read his viewpoint in which he belittles and attacks the other side so much that I can’t finish reading it.
Anon:
Is it negative to ask James to explain why he disagrees? Is it negative to be upset with how No Boss Mayor has attacked its opponents without offering any facts or stats that tell us why the current system is such a good one? Is it negative to be upset about a negative mailer from No Boss Mayor? If so, then I’m guilty.
Ms Haddigan — It seems to me that you are the most negative among in this discussion.
PC is a former district governor for Rotary. Does the No Boss Mayor campaign literature that bears his picture and name agree with the Rotary Four Way Test?
1. Is it the TRUTH?
2. Is it FAIR to all concerned?
3. Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
4. Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
I’m still waiting for James to tell us what he disagrees with in this analysis. He attacks what others write but all we get is his fear that money will control the city if the new charter is passed. Concrete reasons, not fear, should be the basis of any vote.
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It always bothers me when one side does little but attack the motives and character of their opponents. I don’t see much positive from No Boss Mayor. They aren’t trying to show us how well the current system is working. Why is that? Why such a negative and demeaning name for their PAC?
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Why aren’t they telling us how great the current government is and showing us the stats to prove it? Why can’t they run on the current and past record of this government?
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What I got in the mail from No Boss Mayor was some of the most negative, vile campaign literature my family has ever received. I can’t believe such nice people like Mayor Wiggins and Councilman Wu endorse such behavior.
James:
Anon’s point is the senior staff isn’t responding to council directives. Senior staff is directing the council.
Anon — if the staff wasn’t bringing forward items that council supported then you’d say staff wasn’t responsive to council’s direction. Since they do respond to council’s directives, you’re critical of that.
Joe, it is in the high 90′s percentile-wise.
And that is the problem. Entrenched staff, managers, attorneys, do exactly what they want with what I would call something close to relative impunity. They need to be changed regularly, challenged often, and controlled by the letter of the law. But saying that is easy, doing it will be quite a feat. I’m not optimistic. I believe unfortunately apathy will once again rule the day and the machine will go right back to SOP.
It would be interesting to see what percentage of council votes have been in accordance with staff recommendations.
The issues are even more fundamental. During normal times, No one — not even the patriot Fairchild– praises the accountability of the city government. Few except the most ardent defenders of the status quo and their rent-seekers support it.
But now everyone has been called out. 50 percent of the city council turned out at one election? compare the accoutability of the couhty commnission where it is not unrealistic that between 40 percent and 60 percent of the commissioners are new every time. you may not like the county commission but no one can deny that the elected officials are much closer and more accountable to the electorate than the city council.
True, the county does not have a strong mnayor system, but the difference is that history shows that county commissioners step up to the plate and exert leadership or try to exert leadership in a way that is alien to the city council.
Rick, i doubt you win this debate only on debating points. The naysayers have been called out and no matter how badly the current systemn functions, they will quibble over this detail or that detail and claim they are not against change, only this particular detail or that one. no system will be perfect and satisfy everyone.
the challenge is whether any proposed changes could be any worse than the existing system. the porblems will be different, and nothing is perfect– but could it be worse than the non functioning complacent rent seeking that exists now?
Pensacola government works as log as you do what staff says. If you ask for something different or question something then problems start. Example, when the city hired Frank Edwards as fire chief city staff put him in the FRS. When someone asked if he was a state certified firefighter (yes he was) then the chief should have been in the fire pension plan. Mr Bonfield and his staff (AL, Rusty Barker, Stalcup) almost lost the fire pension $600,000 per year from the state for doing this. If this had happened the city tax payers would have been out more money. In the end they moved the chief into the fire plan. The bad guy in this situation was the person that questioned staff. This is how the city works now.
Did you guys even read Rick’s article? The problem is that managers, city attorneys etc never have to run for election and become entrenched and can pretty much run the show as long as they stay under the radar and onced entrenched, they are very difficult to remove.
That nailed a big part of our problem.
James,
Is that the best you got? “I disagree” but no reasons why. What is it in this analysis that you disagree with?
anon: In the interest of accuracy, I want to clarify your statement.
We have not had 50% turnover for Council in either of the past 2 elections, but if you’re combining them, then yes, that’s the case.
In 2008, 4 of 10 seats changed, or 40%. In 2006, 1 of 10 seats changed, or 10%. Put another way, only 50% of the members of the 2005-2007 Council remain members in the 2009-2011 term.
Last year was unusual. Three of the Council members that left (DeSorbo and Nobles were voted out, and Fogg retired) served on Council for 10+ years: DeSorbo since 1986 with the exception of 1993-1995, Fogg since 1989, and Nobles since 1994.
Turnover is uncommon on the Pensacola City Council.
Put another way,
Your bias is showing. I disagree with your analysis, but it seems that those with money will prevail so that the majority of voters will vote for a strong mayor.
I agree with pretty much everything you wrote until you got to the end. I think the voters can control the government. In the last two elections we’ve had a 50% turnover in Council members. The people were unhappy and spoke at the ballot box. That’s power.
Perfect example Rick, of how local public officials (sometimes even decent people to begin with) get entrenched and then the intoxicating elixir of absolute power hooks them like crack to an addict.
The problems ALWAYS start after the first few years called the honeymoon phase. That is where and when the pervasive nature of corruption from power begins its process. Just as sure as the sun rises, power corrupts most after a little time of having their rears kissed, realizing they don’t really answer to anyone and as long as they don’t get exposed it is GAME ON. And the public loses.
City staff management and all its management should be changed regularly, just like not allowing the same referees work the same team in every game. The NCAA knows of the process and the corruptive nature of absolute power.