Two weeks ago, my Outtakes column focused on my recommendations for changes to the city charter. As set forth in the charter, a charter review commission has been established and has begun meeting.
Mayor Grover Robinson would like to see the mayor’s tenure limited to two four-year terms. My suggestions were more radical:
- City council members should run every two years and be limited to three terms, or six years.
- Any restructuring of city government should require a council vote.
- The charter needs to require that each department head appointee appear before the city council and answer questions from the board.
- The charter needs to have an employee rights section. Employees need an independent, non-political appeal process. An HR manual must be approved by the city council, as well as any changes to it.
On NewsTalk 1370 WCOA, I had DeeDee Davis, a member of the 2008 Charter Review Commission, talk about some of the challenges that board had.
Escambia County School District annual budget approximately $750 million, superintendent salary approximately $160K, largest operation in the county and largest number of employees
Escambia County annual budget approximately $560 million, county administrator salary around $185K, 2nd largest operation in the county and 2nd largest number of employees
City of Pensacola annual budget approximately $250 million, mayor’s salary $100k
Yeah, do the math…
“City council members should run every two years and be limited to three terms, or six years.†A better idea is that all terms of office for all elected officials of the city be for two years with a maximum of six total years to include all years served in all elected offices of the city in all forms of government. The council should be a smaller five members. All offices should be citywide with elections at-large. The candidate receiving the most votes should be the mayor and the candidate with the second most votes the deputy mayor. “Any restructuring of city government should require a council vote.†This is inherently a legislative power. Up until August 19, 2009, this power was going to be under the City Council as Section 4.02.(a)(3). At that meeting, the CRC voted to move it to Section 4.01.(a)(15). This gave the mayor both the executive power to recommend the organization of the government and distribution of powers “to the city council†and the legislative power to approve his or her own recommendations to include in secret as Mayor Hayward often did. Sometimes, the city council did not learn that the city government had been restructured until they read about it until months later in the PNJ. In 2011, Finance Director Dick Barker made the legal decision that because the mayor exercised both the executive power and its corresponding legislative power – effectively precluding any kind of checks & balances – the mayor could move money around as he wanted without telling the council. Barker also decided – and again he is a CPA not an attorney – that the mayor exercises an unwritten “reverse line-item veto.†Since 2011, the council’s annual state law-mandated vote to approve the budget is purely symbolic. As I recall, Barker made his comment on the mayor’s budget supremacy during a council meeting so there will be a video recording of exactly what he said. “The charter needs to require that each department head appointee appear before the city council and answer questions from the board.†The council has the power to subpoena department heads but refuses to do so. In multiple instances, department heads have also refused even to attend or speak at their own charter confirmation hearing/vote and the council still voted to confirm their appointment. Mayor Hayward refused to all the council to ask questions to Fire Chief nominee Allen saying that he was not going to allow the nominee confirmation process to be turned into an “inquisition.†Police Chief nominee Lyter later refused even to come to the meeting at which he was confirmed. Both Hayward and Robinson have decided that a department is also a “division†when they want to avoid submitting a department head nominee to council approval. During the recent budget workshop, multiple people who said they were department heads have never been nominated and confirmed to be department heads but you can bet they get paid the big bucks. Mayor Robinson refused to let the council meet with the three police chief nominees though they got to meet with all sorts of other people. “The charter needs to have an employee rights section. Employees need an independent, non-political appeal process. An HR manual must be approved by the city council, as well as any changes to it.†Voter approval of the charter had no affect on the city’s civil service system. I have letters from both CRC Chairwoman Spencer and City Attorney Wells to the council that say so. The Charter’s Section 10.05 protects the rights of city employees. However, once in office, Mayor Hayward and his Chief of Staff John Asmar conspired to have the Florida Legislature revoke the city’s civil service act. Fired City Attorney Rusty Wells wrote a legal opinion for Allen, Norton & Blue saying the exact opposite of what Wells had advised when city attorney. The city council did nothing to stop Hayward. I have a copy of a ridiculous e-mail sent to State Representative Clay Ford in which Hayward lied repeatedly. When Ford died, State Representative Clay Ingram finished the dirty deed. The city council was told what was going on by me but was afraid to stand up to Hayward. Perhaps the city council should ask the Florida Legislature to repeal its repeal of the civil service act.