City Council takes action to correct a major problem
Posted in Greensboro City Council
May. 16, 2008 at 07:20
by BrendaBee
Greensboro's City Council voted 5 to 4 to place the City Attorney directly under their jurisdiction. We need to commend Trudy Wade for making the motion to do this and Council members Zack Matheny, Mike Barber, Sandra Anderson-Groat and Mary Rakestraw for joining Ms. Wade to make this much needed improvement to the efficiency of City government happen.In my opinion all of the heads of departments should be directly under the authority of the City Council with the City Manager acting in the capacity of a foreman. When this City Manager/City Council form of government was set up in Greensboro a great injustice was done the people. It put too much, in fact all the power in the hands of one person. Even the elected officials have come to realize how llittle influence they have under this system altho the the impression is given that the elected City council is really in charge because the City Manager reports to the City council for their vote.
All the information the City Council requests however must be gotten from the City Manager. A situation that allows the City Manager to filter the information then given the City Council to his own desired outcome. This is wrong. The people elected the City Council members to govern the city and this is how it should be.
Mike Barber pointed out that only one other city in North Carolina operates under this system that puts so much power in the hands of one person. A person who is not even elected by the people. He went on to point out that the state legislature by statute allows city councils to directly control up to 8 employees and the budget director is one of these eight. I have previously blogged on this issue and it is my opinion that all heads of departments should be directly under the direction of the City Council with the role of the city Manager being that of a foreman to see that the Council's wishes are carried out.
Zack Matheny pointed out The Institute of Government at UNC/Chapel Hill informed him when he contacted them for advice that their research shows "that city managers have a tendency to filter the reports of city attorneys". And as we have seen the filtering applies to everything else with disastrous results. The current City Manager Mitchell Johnson has lied and manipulated information to single handedly take down a police chief and his entire command staff minus one and all but destroy the GPD. If the Police Chief had been under the direct control of the City Council the City Manger would have had to bring his complains before these 9 people thus giving David Wray and the other officers a forum to state their side of the story. Then the City Council would have made the decision to retain or force Wray to resign. Since this didn't happen the tax payers are going to be paying thru the nose for years for the blunders made by this one man and the City Council that followed him blindly.
The City Council is directly responsible for deciding on the City Budget so it only makes sense that the Budget Director be under their direct control. The system of having the City Manager pass on the recommendations of the Budget Director with only the facts he sees fit is ludicrous at best.
It is clear to me that when this type of government was set up it was done with the clear purpose of putting the power in the hands of a few power brokers in the city. And by some of the things that have been done in Greensboro not only in the recent past with the current City Manager, but further back many decisions made were to benefit a few to the detriment and costs of the people. It is high time this system be overhauled to reflect American values.
One other thing that greatly upsets me is the Protest Petition having been taken from the people of Greensboro when every other city in NC has it. This is the right of the people concerned to petition the City Council when they feel strongly about a zoning issue. And when this is done and has the signatures of a majority of the people in the affected area then any zoning changes must have a super majority vote from the City Council rather than a simple majority.
This was another shady shenanigan obviously pulled off by power brokers and I think the seriously flawed way some of the city has been developed is proof that more control needs to be placed in the people's hands where zoning is concerned. The City Council will still make the ultimate decisions concerning zoning as they should, but when the people see a problem serious enough to petition then the need for a super majority vote of City Council should not be difficult to obtain if the decision is a good one.
The way things are now there is a definite bias in the voting. I will be blogging on one such instance of this bias in zoning after this last decision the City council made not to allow an apartment building built adjacent to a residential area after the residents complained and comparing it to another decision the Council made. BB
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