City Attorney Jim Messer advises the Pensacola City Council on the charter and how conflicts can be resolved. His tone is professional and candid. He sees the tension between the council and mayor as natural, especially in the early stages.
He says the first and primary reference for settling disputes between the two is the charter document itself. It should be taken a face value.
If one side believes the words can’t be taken a face value, then the second reference is the intent of the charter commission which can be discerned from their minutes, video from the meetings and by asking the commission members themselves. The process was extremely open and transparent. Many of the documents and videos are on the city’s website.
The final course is to take the differences of opinion to a judge and ask for his ruling on the matter–something that Messer says isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
The council responds. One gets the impression that it really didn’t matter what Messer said. It’s obvious some don’t believe he is their attorney and there are still hard feelings that the council didn’t have more say in naming Rusty Well’s successor. (I expect the battles over the next city attorney will be epic.)
The members talk about the mayor’s expected reorganization and if he must get council approval….this, too, could be another area for conflict. Can the mayor reduce the size of government, combine departments and streamline city operations without council approval?
Council member Sherri Myers is very concerned, and questions how the mayor and his staff communicates with them. Many of her points were covered in the daily newspaper.
There are hard feelings between some of the council members and the mayor:
