It's become customary for newly elected City Council Presidents to appoint whomever he or she chooses to all commissions and groups on which the Council is entitled to a seat.
New Albany's laws, however, seem to point to a different procedure.
First, the presidential duties are outlined:
§ 30.16 PRESIDENT.
(A) The President shall preside at all meetings, preserve order, decorum and decide all questions of order subject to appeal to the Common Council. He shall appoint all standing committees and all special committees that may be ordered by the Council. All standing committees shall be appointed at the commencement of each year of the term of Council and shall serve only during the term of the President appointing same. He shall fill all existing vacancies that may thereafter occur in any of such committees.
(B) He shall sign all ordinances, orders and resolutions passed by the Council before their presentation to the Mayor, as well as the journal of proceedings.
(C) He shall vote on all issues, his name being called last.
('71 Code, §30.05) (Ord. 4600, passed 3-4-57)
The standing committees referenced are listed in § 30.50:
§ 30.50 STANDING COMMITTEES.
There shall be ten standing committees in the Common Council, appointed by the President, which shall consist of three members each, except the Committee on Budget and Finance which shall consist of all the members of the Council; provided that the President shall appoint a chairperson of each committee from its members:
(A) Budget and Finance.
(B) Rules.
(C) Public Utilities and Transportation.
(D) Police Department.
(E) Fire Department.
(F) Public Safety and Traffic.
(G) Public Works.
(H) Public Health and Welfare.
(I) Schools and Library.
(J) Development and Annexation.
('71 Code, §30.25) (Ord. 4600, passed 3-4-57)
Other commission and group seats are covered under § 30.20:
§ 30.20 ELECTION OF MEMBERS OF COMMISSIONS AT FIRST MEETING EACH YEAR.
The Common Councilmember of the City Plan Commission and of any other special body to which the Council shall be entitled to name a member or members, shall be elected by the Council at its first meeting in January of each year, to serve until the end of the current calendar year.
('71 Code, §30.20) (Ord. 4600, passed 3-4-57)
I don't remember any elections. Have the laws changed and not been recorded? Are current appointments valid? What am I missing?
Here's my take: Only an elected council member may challenge the process. Residents (even the mayor) can only point out the violations. Only a member can raise a point of order, and even then, must garner the votes to overrule the president. And subsequent ratification of the minutes makes the non-vote final and complete.
ReplyDeleteFor example, the council president may decide that he will not allow public comment that is not germane to the meeting agenda. The public can protest, but only a council member may raise the point officially.
Reading the ordinance (which, of course, can be changed in an instant by the council if they so wish), I can see where a president might dispense entirely with what we call "public comments," on- or off-agenda. The council president could declare that the council will only accept written submissions/petitions and dispense with the spoken comments. She could even ostentatiously bury those submissions in a file (or the trash can), thus moving the meeting to the business at hand without being annoyed by those pesky constituents and outsiders. Only the council could overrule such a tactic.
As annoying as it is, the attitude that YOU have no standing regarding general council matters unless you run and win office is valid.
The only statutory recourse is the remonstrance, which has nothing to do with the bi-monthly council meeting.
The council is not required to engage in colloquies, respond to questions, or even pay attention to comments from the public unless the council passes an ordinance making it so. And they would be well within their privileges to bar all comments (during the meeting) that involve a non-agenda item.
Laws? Laws? We don't need no stinking @*#! Laws!!
ReplyDeleteactually if a city council fails to comply with city code the other recourse is to file a complaint with the Indiana Attorney General, just a thought.
ReplyDelete