While the City Councils Rules & Procedures state that the Council President and Mayor will collaborate on council agenda, the mayor has no power to place anything on the council agenda, according to Rule 9 b) Committee Agendas and Reports: “The agendas of items for consideration by the Committee of the Whole shall be established by either direct referral from City Council or by the President of the City Council.”
If I’m reading this correctly, only the Council President can place something on the Committee of the Whole agenda. The mayor’s only alternative to get an item on the agenda is to ask the council to do so by a vote.
This appears to be in conflict with the concept of “strong mayor.” The charter specifically gives the power to the mayor to make recommendations to the council. However, he can not do so without the consent of Council President, unless he gets a vote from the council to allow it to be added to the agenda. I really don’t think this was the intent of the charter commission.
For example, Mayor wants to place the budget on the agenda. Council President wants the budget changed and refuses to place it on the agenda without the changes he requests. Mayor has to circumvent the Council President and go directly to the council to ask them to put the budget on the agenda. This appears to be a huge expansion of power in the Council President outside of what the charter states – which is Council President is to preside over the meetings.
There is nothing in the rules, that I can find, that states the Council President makes his own recommendations on the each agenda item.
The process here appears to be flawed, creating unnecessary steps and delays, and hurts transparency. The council needs to review their rules. I do believe this conflicts with the charter.