We have a government of laws and the Charter is serious about that. It allocates the power to decide commission procedures solely to the commission. That matters.
The City Charter was violated by the city manager's unauthorized inclusion of Dr. Vogel by phone at the last meeting.
It's the commission who decides how to grant the request for extraordinary accommodation, not the city manager.
Section 3.09 of the City Charter B. clearly states "B. Rules and record. The Commission shall determine its own rules of procedure and order of business and shall keep a record of such proceedings open for public inspection.
Interim City Manager Robert Daniels broke the law last week when he summarily and arbitrarily put commissioner Vogel on the phone. This was illegal.
The commission should have voted on two resolutions for this to happen.
1.) A resolution setting the procedures for remote participation.
2.) A resolution allowing remote participation in the specific meeting by Dr. Vogel.
That didn't happen. There was no such resolution on the agenda and the city manager put the commission on the spot.
Now we are going into the final budget hearings without these resolutions.
The irresponsibility of the city manager and the commission are putting us at serious risk.
According to Section 3.07 of the city charter, when a commissioner has missed four consecutive regular meetings of the city commission, he has forfeited his seat unless his absence was excused by motion. Well, guess what, that motion hasn't happened, so is Vogel off the commission or what? He missed four regular consecutive meetings without a motion so maybe he is or maybe he's not? Does his phone in appearance count even though the commission did not approve it?
Here's what should happen. On September 20, the commission should pass a continuing resolution of the current budget until October 31, fire the city management staff, request emergency intervention from the state and then resign. Oh, and an apology for wasting our time and money would be nice.
But they won't. My guess is they will all show up and keep fighting.
Kevin Vericker
September 16, 2011
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