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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