Simplest, though not necessarily the most complete. Yesterday, a discrepancy was noted.
Stormwater Board: No paid city employees allowed, except for the one who is.
I asked city attorney Shane Gibson to explain, and he replied very quickly, for which I'm appreciative. However, it's still a bit confusing.
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Roger:
Thanks for the opportunity to address your email, but as I understand you have already posted something to your blog. The simplest answer is that it was an error on my part. The Storm Water Board and the Sewer Board are both set up under the same Indiana authority. The former board member was on both the Sewer and the Storm Water Boards. When he stepped off the boards, I looked at the Sewer Board membership requirements in the City Ordinance. That Sewer ordinance states one member shall be the City engineer. I let our City engineer know this and his duties as required by the Ordinance. I didn't, however, review or the pull the Storm Water board requirements for members and assumed they were the same since the two boards were established under the same Indiana authority. As I mentioned above, this was an error on my part. We will be taking the necessary actions to remedy this matter.
SLG
Shane L. Gibson
Corporate Counsel
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Does this mean that Gibson advised the council to select Summers based on his own misreading of the ordinance? If so, through whom was the message conveyed? Paddy Mac? After all, according to the ordinance, it's the council's appointment -- not the mayor's ...
(B) One member appointed by majority vote of the members of the Common Council, provided that the member shall be a registered professional engineer, and further provided that the member shall not otherwise be a paid or unpaid official or employee of the city. The member shall serve an initial term of two years;
... and the council's attorney is Matt Lorch, not Gibson. If memory serves, the whole point of stipulating a non-employee on the board was to prevent this or any other mayor from having 2/3 control, with the city council wanting an independent board. Didn't Gibson write the original storm water ordinance, or at the very least review it before it went to council back in '06?
Maybe if someone on the third floor is reading, we can get a clarification. We know how seldom they ... clarify.
LOL.
10 comments:
I don't buy Gibson's story that he made a mistake. As the first chairman of the stormwater board, I am outraged that the Gahan administration circumvented the ordinance and made a mockery out of the city council's authority to appoint its members as specified by law. Mr. Gibson reviewed all stormwater ordinances before they were submitted by The City Council in 2006. "an error on my part." Sell that story to somebody else Mr. Gibson. Now the larger question, what other "errors" have been made regarding the oversight of the stormwater utility?
The council needs to take action to remedy the illegal board appointment.
If it were left up to the council there wouldn't be a damn board. We all know that they pass ordinances one day and forget about them the next. Shane has admitted that he made mistake. Now ask the council president or Matt Lorch why they haven't been appointing members to the board they created.
I have, and await a reply.
The following are culpable for this illegal appointment: Jeff Gahan, Shane Gibson, Stormwater president and Council president. All knew the ordinance and none of them followed the law.
Question for The Mayor, how could you not know that having a city employee on the Board was not allowed, You were on the council when the Board was formed and you complimented The Garner Administration and myself for ensuring the Board was created in a way that would give the council two of the three appointments and keeping any city employee off the board so that the Board would be free from political control of any Mayoral administration. With Summers on the Board you had 2/3 control and who on the council did you get to do your bidding? Guess that's you Pat.
Unknown, please read the terms of engagement for future postings. We're in favor of non-anonymity hereabouts.
Haven't used this commenting system before. I changed it from Unknown as far as I can tell.
Hold on Marcey... I'm still looking up where it says the Council's attorney makes appointments (or any decisions for that matter) on behalf of the body. I'm also not sure why the Council President is being mentioned as complicit somehow because no appointment has occurred. No appointment has occurred by the Council President because it takes a majority vote of the Council to appoint someone to these particular boards. Further, the Council President would not make a motion to vote to appoint someone as he is the chair of the meeting and the chair does not usually make such motions to be decided by a majority vote.
This appointment/continuing vacancy issue was brought up at the last meeting or two (incidentally, I don't recall seeing anyone commenting here at either meeting) but it was also mentioned by multiple members that there has been some difficulty finding a registered PE in NA willing and able to put the time/energy to fill the spot vacated. The spots for both boards are being advertised and will hopefully be filled soon.
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