In a recommendation to the Charter revision committee, according to information I have received, our mayor has requested the committee to see “If the voters wanted to go back to a strong mayor or full-time mayor” Any thoughts ?
And so The Galveston County Daily News catches up with our city blog. Read this in today's paper.
8 comments:
If this is true, it is time to recall the mayor and I am completely aware of what that translates to in League City.
Mr. Mayor, you are not smarter than the citizens and we are not your subjects. The electorate did not make a mistake in changing our form of government. The only mistake was electing you.
You are a figure head. Live with it.
Again, if this is true, this is not something a truly conservative public servant would do.
LOL “truly conservative” you mean like Ken Clark asking the commissioners court to reinstate the 5% pay cut that he voted for last week?
I do not think any politician (Conservative, liberal, tea party or independent) would ask for something like this. And yes Mr. Campbell it is true. Like all the other information I have posted on this site it is a fact and I can prove it.
Another excellent point Mr. Mallios.
We cannot forget the operative words are no matter what their political costume is: public servant.
I completely sympathize with Mr. Paulissen's sentiments about the downside of the "city manager" (council-manager) form of municipal government. You will not find a more ardent and well-researched city manager opponent in this town than I. Having already said much on that topic, I must disagree with our mayor on two points. First, we did not have a strong mayor form before the city manager. We had a "weak mayor-council" form. Big difference in the balance of power. Second, I think it's way too soon to consider returning to the previous form. There hasn't been enough time for headline grabbing abuses of power and/or "bad apple" city managers to justify another switch. If and when the time comes, let's move forward by changing back. Until then, let's make this form work as well as it can.
Chuck,I especially appreciate your answer and fairness knowing your preference for a strong mayor form of government. You bring up a very compelling point. Shouldn't our charter include a provision that would protect the stability of our form of government for a reasonable period of time before another referendum can be put before the people to change the form of government? I can't imagine anything worse than flip-flopping every time the charter is reviewed, which is currently every two years, or even with every new mayor.
Morgan,
Interesting idea. If there were to be a "settling in" time for form of government changes, I would want to preserve the ability of the citizens, via their power to put a referendum on the ballot, to change the form to whatever they want whenever they want. The citizens need to be more empowered, not less. So for a timer on a top-down initiative by committee and/or council, I can agree with you.
Chuck,
As usual, your thoughts are well organized and well supported. As you know I am a proponent of council manager. I appreciate your thoughtful approach to this issue.
Post a Comment