Joe did a great blog post today about the charter. While I disagree with some of his premises and anecdotes he is right about ONE thing;
City government would be improved if we established a better separation of powers while at the same time, strengthening the role of our legislature. Here are some changes I think are worth considering in the charter and/or the way city government operates.
- Take the next mayor off the city council to establish better separation of powers.
I think this would FORCE the council to do policy because they would be running their own meetings and agendas. This doesn’t mean the mayor could not still present policy but he would have to get at least ONE sponsor on the council and if it really is HIS policy and not something a department head cooked up, he needs to come to the council and present.
I think the charter has worked well also, but the biggest problem is the laziness of the councils since and the corruption at city hall. This of course spells incompetence.
Some rules and regs really do work, but you must apply them, this city has NOT when it comes to policy and our legislative branch.