by Mary Rupert
With only two weeks to go to Christmas and at its last meeting of the year, the Unified Government Commission sprung a power grab Thursday on Mayor Tyrone Garner, limiting his ability to set the UG agenda.
After the meeting adjournment was started, it was called back by a letter being passed around by Commissioner Angela Markley.
The audience wondered what was going on for several minutes, as this action was not on the agenda. It was not released to the public in advance nor was it even explained at the meeting for some time.
At the UG, the mayor sets the agenda, deciding what the commission will discuss. The change that was approved on a 9-1 vote Thursday concerned the UG standing committee agendas. Commissioners would be able to add to the agendas and decide what moves forward to the full commission, and an item could not be removed without the approval of the standing committee chair.
Recently, the mayor had taken some items off the full commission agenda that had passed through the standing committees, saying they needed more work.
Mayor Garner said if the action passed, his powers have been reversed and he is just someone who runs the commission meeting. It is a backdoor way of taking the power of the mayor away from him, and from the people who voted for him, he said. Everyone in the community needs to know that he was the first mayor since unification not to have the same powers afforded to the mayor-CEO, he said.
The mayor said he was not notified in advance that this would be presented.
Commissioner Markley said only three commissioners knew about it, herself, Commissioner Andrew Davis and Commissioner Christian Ramirez.
Commissioner Tom Burroughs urged the rest of the commission not to take action now.
“It sows discontent and distrust among people,” Burroughs said. “It pains me to see us do it this way.”
If there is a move to change how they function as a government, they should be working together, he said. It did none of them any good to air their differences in public, he added.
Burroughs has been running a UG task force that is looking at changes in the UG charter. He said it was a very transparent committee. He hated to see the UG Commission do this at this particular time and especially this particular season. “It’s just not the transparent way to do things,” he said.
Commissioner Ramirez said the rules procedures approved Thursday night did not take away from anyone but it equalized the sharing of the agenda.
He said in other cities, mayors do not have control of the agenda, and that the UG was the only one who did it that way. He said it was something that should have been put in place a while ago.
Commissioner Markley said the mayor would still be completely in control of every other part of the agenda.
Commissioner Chuck Stites said it’s an avenue for the commission to get items placed on an agenda that the constituents want them to discuss. It isn’t taking anything away from the mayor, he said.
Commissioner Brian McKiernan said he viewed changes as promoting collaboration rather than taking it
He said recently, an item was pulled from the full commission that had been approved unanimously at the standing committee. He was not consulted, but was told the item was pulled, he said.
Commissioner Burroughs said he found the process Thursday a little disheartening and concerning. He did not know about this in advance, he said. He said if the commission does work, it should do it in the public eye.
Commissioner Melissa Bynum said she still believes they are a commission and a mayor that can work together.
This meeting is online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOZoIgHxOMI.
