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Tuesday, October 9, 2012

10/9/12. Agenda Item 14: City Commission Will Discuss the Annual Organization Meeting for Appointments.


A two year term for the Mayors ?
On Page 174 of the Agenda Packet is a memo   from City Clerk Amy Burton to Mayor McClure and the City commission which is printed at the bottom of the page. Unlike the social media draft it is signed and dated October 5th which was last Friday.

For those who don't know, Amy Burton as City Clerk more or less runs City Hall and the clerical aspects  of the City. Amy is highly regarded for efficiency and helpfulness. The residents  owe her a debt of gratitude and the information in this publication would not be possible with her and the efforts of her talented staff. Burton is an employee of the and City not a resident.  Her employer is the City commission and she comes under the auspices of the Mayor.  In other words  if municipalities decided to paint the sky and Amy  thought chartreuse a nice color  for the city she would not have look at it when she went home.

In every administration from Presidential  down to office politics there is much conjecture on who the boss really listens to. Thus the famous Mort Sahl joke that made the rounds after President Eisenhower’s non-fatal heart attack. The question was asked wouldn’t it be terrible if Ike passed away and Vice President Nixon became President. The answer was “Worse !   What if Sherman Adams  (a notorious White House Insider) dies and Eisenhower becomes President “.

The current Mayor Sarah McClure as a City Commissioner has worked, on projects (ethics  code and possible  charter revisions) with Amy Burton.  As a commissioner McClure also worked on projects like the Woodward Island Tree Beautification program with City Manager and  City Employee Jay Cravens.
As a result It is believed that Amy Burton and Jay Cravens have the ear of the Mayor. While few committees have been appointed by the current Administration they usually consist of one City Commissioner and one of the above City Employees.

The fact that Amy Burton was the first to discover  the Catch-22 described in her memo is not surprising, Sure per the Mayor she was working with related  documents but it is safe to  say that little slides by Amy . The same could not be said of the Commission or even the Mayor who 24 days previous passed  the resolution changing the date of the election which also changed the frequency which now  presents a problem and may contain many more undiscovered time bombs. You can believe that or you can believe the commissioners  diabolically master minded the chain reaction.

The end result  according to the memo is that either Mayor McClure serve a second term or the City Commission change the charter. The latter is illegal  but corners have been cut in the past an City Manager Jay Cravens has written on the cost saving benefits of letting the Commission  make on the spot changes.
There is also a third solution we  which most likely not be the one the Commission chooses in their two minute discussion this item.  We suggest May or MClure serve the one year term she was elected to. If an election has not by May 15th been held to allow the people to resolve the matter the commissioners elect a new Mayor to serve from a one year term 2013 to 2014. By then the course of action per the charter will have been determined by the people.  It is possible that  the commission which will not change by then, will elect   and Mayor McClure to a second term.  We have no objections to that or any other elected outcome determined by the people. We are vehemently opposed to Charter changes by anyone other than the people and we are opposed to assuming the Charter gives us no other choice. If wise heads prevail the City will benefit. If people act in act in a manner that benefits only themselves, as we have seen on Wall Street the alternative is not pretty


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