by Jeremy Morrison
Wrestling with a city charter and assessing potential revisions can be exhausting work, and Monday night, it wore out the Pensacola City Council. After more than five hours, the council decided to call a recess and reconvene next week to finish the task of determining which potential charter revisions will be put before voters on the fall ballot.
“I really don’t feel like I’m doing my best,” said Councilwoman Teniade Broughton, hours deep in the thick of the municipal document.
Broughton explained that she was committed to giving her constituents “my all” — “And I don’t have my all left” — and asked if it was possible to continue the council’s charter assessment later.
“Just to be clear, y’all can do that,” said Council Executive Don Kraher. “It’s fine because I know you’re tired.”
So far, the council had covered a little over half of the proposed revisions from the Charter Review Commission, but their discussions offered a glimpse of the legislative body’s philosophical alignment. Pensacola’s strong-mayor form of government will retain its executive integrity, with the council rejecting charter revisions designed to offer a sense of balance.
In particular, the Pensacola City Council shied away from a measure proposed by the Charter Review Commission, which would have given city department heads fired by the mayor the option of appealing their termination to the city council.
As Councilman Jared Moore put it, the city’s legislative branch isn’t meant to get involved with daily operations.
“We’re not in the operations,” Moore said. “This sort of appeal, to me, falls outside the purview of a council.”
While enough council members agreed with Moore’s assertion to squash this particular charter revision on a 4-3 vote, Councilwoman Jennifer Brahier said she considered the appeal process to be the Charter Review Commission’s attempt to balance out the executive-centric form of government the city shifted into during the previous charter review process. During the CRC’s process over the past half year, there have been assertions that department heads, specifically, former Pensacola Police Chief David Alexander, who served on the commission, haven’t always felt like they could be completely forthcoming with council, or else risk mayoral ire.
“What they are trying to do is make sure we have balance, a strong mayor and a strong council,” Brahier said.
The council also rejected recommendations limiting the mayor to two consecutive terms and constricting how much money the mayor could move around the municipal budget. Mayor Grover Robinson had supported reducing the term limits for his office from three to two consecutive terms.
The council was expected to wrap up its assessment of the CRC’s proposed revisions this week but will now hit the remaining recommendations at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, July 19. These include a measure that would require the city to conduct a feasibility study of municipal utilities every 30 years, as well as one that would tie the salaries of the mayor and city council members to an existing state salary formula for public officials.
The city council must decide which potential charter revisions will make the cut by August. From there, the final slate will go before city voters on the fall ballot.
