Why We Need a Strong Mayor

I want to expand a bit on my thoughts regarding making the mayor separate from the council.

One of the hallmarks of our constitution is checks and balances and separation of powers. We have a judicial branch to interpret law, an executive branch that enforces law, and a legislative branch that makes law.

Imagine if the governor was an at-large legislator? What if the president couldn’t veto anything? Would we accept that as United States citizens? Well, we do it’s called local government.

Now when I first started following city politics about five years ago, I didn’t know how local governments were set up. I didn’t know that the mayor in most cities was just an at-large council member. In fact, one of the first Google searches I did on Mayor Bowman was “ReNae Bowman vetoes.” Of course I didn’t find anything.

The council will tell you that there are checks and balances because we have commissions like Planning, Human Rights, Environmental Quality, Park & Rec, and Charter and that is where citizen input comes from. Issues are debated in these commissions make recommendations to the councils on what to do.

Well, there are a few problems with that. First, the council controls who gets on these commissions. There is an interview process and then the council votes up or down. So they hypothetically they can keep anyone off that they disagree with or they think will cause trouble. Second, these meetings are not recorded, on TV, or on the Internet. Of course, in theory they are open to the public but who has time to attend all these meetings? The minutes are poorly kept and tell you nothing. I can’t even get a roster of who is on these commissions.

Lastly, it’s again the process. The commission will discuss an issue then make a recommendation to the council. Then the council talks about it at a work session and comes to a consensus. Then YOU the public finally find out what’s going on. But, of course, a decision on what to do has already been made. The debate has already taken place.

And since the mayor is in on the meetings and has one vote, (not veto power) stopping anything you don’t want is damn near impossible. And if you go a public hearing and object, the council will condescendingly tell you that you should have showed up to a commission meeting six months earlier.

So are we represented well? Do we need a change and a strong mayor? Vote for me on Tuesday and help me make that happen.