Reasoning for these changes is to bring the document into compliance with the city’s traditional form of administration, according to the Lamar Ledger article by Aaron Burnett. Councilman Roger Stagner stated that the charter should show the exact method of operation for the city, for the last forty years. Since the charter does not currently match the mayor-council-administrator form of government by which the city operates, these changes will bring this process into compliance, by changing the document to meet the practice.
Councilman PJ Wilson echoed Stagner’s sentiments, “All we’re doing is making legal what we’ve done over the past 40 years.”
The City Administrator, appointed by two-thirds vote of the council is in charge of day to day activities and personnel issues, including the appointment of the clerk and treasurer after changing the charter. Currently the clerk and treasurer are supposed to be supervised by the City Council.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t the former City Administrator having access to the financial records and processes part of the problem with that Administration? Isn’t that the whole reason for the massive investigation that thwarted police and city administration over the past several years? Is it a good idea for a City Administrator to have THAT MUCH power over the community, since HE/SHE is NOT an elected official?
Currently, according to the Lamar Ledger article, the Council only has contact with the Clerk and Treasurer during the bi-monthly council meetings. These employees need greater information and supervision, according to the council, because the council doesn’t want to make decisions about raises, performance, evaluation, etc. These issues are being corrected to minimize improprieties within the fiscal (read financial) record keeping phases, to clarify the structure.
Is it fair to ask if there’s a misfire in the logic of this issue on the part of the Council? If the problem with the prior administration was money disappearing and no factoring responsibility to the City Administrator, does this project not give the City Administrator more power?
During the Interim process, a local citizen acted as Administrator and handled issues of the city in a level, even-handed manner that gave back to the community, using multiple-level decision making processes that integrated many leaders of the community. His manner of leadership gave the people in the community a bit more say into the development and choices of the city, as well as opened up doors of communication. Consistently, the current Administration has closed those doors, one by one, bringing in more and more “professionals” from his past and moving local people out of positions of power within the infrastructure of this community.
Are those people who come from Florida smarter than local folks? No. Do they have more experience at running a city than the local folks? Not this city. Do they know more about what should happen here in this community than the local folks? Heck no they do not. We don’t need people from Florida, California, or any other far reaches of the world to hop into this town and tell the local folks how to live. We NEED local people in those offices.
The people who have been brought in are no better educated or capable than the people who live here. It’s absolutely absurd to think that some yay-who from “Outrageous” Florida or any other city on the map can come in here, remove all the local folks and have a greater knowledge of how to make this city better. Perhaps, while they’re removing all the local folks, they’d like us “local folks” to take our money and stop paying taxes to support their migratory back-sides in protest? Interesting thing is, if ALL of us stop paying taxes to support them, take our business out of town for a bit, and insist that we have LOCAL FOLKS in powerful, high-paying positions instead of “newcomers” it would make a difference.
