City residents need to drive scope of charter review process

The city charter review process that Mayor John Dailey has been talking about for years has finally begun.  But what started as a broad, open-ended call for a full review of the charter has devolved into a considerably narrower view reflective only of what the mayor and City Commissioner Dianne Williams-Cox want. Public input has been requested through a survey on the city’s web site.  The link to the survey that had been posted on the city’s home page has since been removed, although the survey itself can still be found if people know to search for it: (www.talgov.com/doingbusiness/charter-survey).

After the public survey had been in place for just a couple of weeks but had not been publicized at all except by a link on the city’s web site (since removed), the majority of the commission used the results up to that point, 29 responses out of a city of over 200,000 people, to dictate the scope of the charter review.  Some of the survey responses suggested addressing the role or jurisdiction of the Ethics Board, but this was not part of the approved scope.

The city charter is the foundational document of city government, its “constitution”.  It lays out such things as the form of government, method of election, and the roles of the five elected and four appointed officials, as well as that of the Independent Ethics Board.  It can only be changed by the voters of Tallahassee, not by the City Commission, although the ballot language that voters will see will come from the City Commission.

Mayor Dailey has indicated that all he really wanted to see was a larger City Commission and single-member districts. This would restrict which seats on the City Commission voters could vote for and increase the polarization that we have seen at all levels of government.  By using this platform to fix non-existent problems, he is attempting to avoid suggested charter amendments that would fill documented gaps in government oversight.

Commissioner Jeremy Matlow suggested the review also include recommendations made by both the Independent Ethics Board and by the Inspector General, but this was defeated by a 3-2 vote, with commissioners Matlow and Jack Porter in the minority, as has become customary.

The inspector general has an important and far-reaching role as the watchdog for proper procedures across city government.  However, he is not independent.  If a commission majority decides that it doesn’t like one of his reports or investigations, not only can they fire him, but they can dissolve the office, since it’s not defined in the charter.  The inspector general is the designated protector of whistleblowers, but he can’t protect himself from a disapproving City Commission.  The Ethics Board is independent in that the members are not city employees, but their role is limited to the very narrow scope of the ethics code as defined by the City Commission majority.  These problems can be fixed by charter amendment.

Mayor Dailey is clearly attempting to push through his ideas of what the city charter should look like, under an expedited timeline, with limited public input. But in the end, the people at the top of the city’s organizational chart, as noted on the city’s web site, are not the mayor or city commissioners, but the citizens of Tallahassee.  It’s their ideas and votes that are most important, not the commissioners’.  Since the City Commission has said that public input will still be collected during the review process, I urge all concerned citizens to take the survey and provide your ideas.

Ernie Paine was a member of the Independent Ethics Board from January 2019 until October 25, 2023.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION

Send letters to the editor (up to 200 words) or Your Turn columns (about 500 words) to letters@tallahassee.com. Please include your address for verification purposes only, and if you send a Your Turn, also include a photo and 1-2 line bio of yourself. You can also submit anonymous Zing!s at Tallahassee.com/Zing. Submissions are published on a space-available basis. All submissions may be edited for content, clarity and length, and may also be published by any part of the USA TODAY NETWORK.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Tallahassee residents need to drive scope of charter review process