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A Publication of Guidry News Service |
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A Publication of Guidry News Service |
The City of Galveston Charter Review Committee voted 9-1, with Greg Roof opposed, to propose an amendment to the City Charter to provide that the mayor and candidates for each council position shall be elected by majority vote, rather than by plurality. There was some discussion of changing the way the mayor is elected and what powers the mayor should have, but no action was taken on that issue. Ruth Kempner recalled the history of the mayor's office, beginning with the commission form of government prior to the current City Charter. "The commissioners were all equal with the mayor," Kempner said. "Each one ran his own department; the mayor ran what was left over." Under the Charter approved in the 1950s, the mayor was just one member of the city council, elected by the others to be mayor. Later, the Charter was amended to elect the mayor separately, but gave the office no additional powers. The committee discussed a return to that system or a change to a strong mayor form of government. "I am opposed to changing it," said Eddie Walsh. "I think that if we are going to have a mayor, the mayor needs to be elected by the entire population of Galveston. "I am opposed to a strong mayor form of government for Galveston," said John Theil. "I don't perceive the problem we are having," said Don Mafrige. "Some people have more time, or spend more time, representing the city. That changes every six years at a maximum, because of term limitations; so I think you are going to get new faces on council as mayor and I think everybody is going to have their own way of representing the city and I don't perceive a problem." "This is the first time I have ever lived in a city with this form of government," said Sylvia Joyner. "To tell the truth, I don't care for it." Former city attorney Barbara Roberts, who is currently running for city council, said the problem is that recent mayors do not follow the Charter. "I think Barbara Crews was the last one who absolutely followed the Charter as to what the mayor should do," said Roberts. "I was just astounded when other mayors came in behind her, that they would not do that." "It seemed that it is the unenviable job of the city manager to enforce the city charter, to keep the council in line," recalled former mayor Barbara Crews. City Manager Steve LeBlanc admitted that he has had to defend his position with past city councils. "After about the first year, I had an executive session with the council, and I won't name names, but I basically said, 'Let me do my job;' and it concerned the collective bargaining contracts with both police and fire at the time," LeBlanc recalled. "I left the council meeting and one of the council members came over to my office and said 'There are six council members who want to fire you right now'." The committee agreed on tentative wording for proposed amendments to exclude the central business district from the Charter's prohibition of privatization of sanitation services, to permit 36 calendar months to repay emergency loans, to remove a requirement that the Planning Commission review the capital improvement program and maintain its own budget, and to require the city to follow state law on open record requests. The committee deferred action on a proposal to exempt certain areas of revenue from the seven percent cap on expenditures over the previous year. The committee discussed a proposal to restrict interfund loans from enterprise accounts to the general fund with attorney Bob Randolph, who said those loans are permitted by state law. Chair Steve Greenberg said he may bring the issue back to the table with new wording to be consistent with state law. The committee discussed a proposal by Kempner to remove bonded indebtedness from the tax cap, but the motion failed on a 5-5 tie. In favor were Kempner, Mafrige, Roberts, Crews and Mike Rogers. Opposed were Greenberg, Joyner, Thiel, Walsh and Roof. Harold Thomas, Fred Micks, Andrew Houston and Debbie Cano were absent. The committee will meet again at 4 p.m. next Monday, January 26.
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