City Attorney Jim Messer has issued his legal opinion on the power of the council to hire council staff. According to Messer, “If a power is neither granted or implied (in the charter), it does not exist.”
The Charter is deliberately and plainly silent on the grant of any power to hire city employees to the Council. …Not only is the Charter silent on this point, the Charter expressly prohibits the Council from the appointment or removal of any City employee and the interference with employees.