The Tallahassee City Commission will take up a series of recommendations tomorrow (Wednesday) to amend the city’s charter. The list includes two proposals that city commissioners didn’t ask for. Both relate to the city’s Independent Ethics Board.
The recommendations come from a ten-person committee, with two members appointed by each city commissioner. They began meeting in mid-January and unanimously elected former city commissioner Mark Mustian as chair. He’ll be the one to present their recommendations to the commissioners.
“We had decided early on we weren’t going to present anything unless there was a majority vote to do so," said Mustian. "And so I think the four items the city asked us to look at -- there were fairly large majorities on all of those.”
Commissioners tasked the committee with reviewing four issues: whether to expand the number of city commissioners from the current five…whether to increase commissioners’ pay from the current $45,000…whether to eliminate the August primary election in two-person city races…and whether to hold regular charter reviews. During an October meeting, Commissioner Jeremy Matlow moved to include two other items on the charter review board’s list.
“I move that we include -- as part of the scope within the bylaws -- reviewing suggestions made by the Independent Ethics Board and the inspector general," Matlow said.
Mayor John Dailey and Commissioners Curtis Richardson and Dianne Williams-Cox voted against the motion, and it failed. Nevertheless, the charter review committee has issued recommendations on those items.
“Back on October 11th when the city commission voted on the scope of the charter review, a lot of people, certainly me, thought the scope was too narrow.”
That’s Ernie Paine, who used to serve on the Independent Ethics Board. He resigned last fall…
“...and stated at the time it was because I felt that the city commission, the majority of the city commission wasn’t strongly focused toward ethics reform.”
Matlow appointed Paine to the charter review committee. And once the commission’s short list had been addressed, Paine returned to the concerns of the Independent Ethics Board.
The charter review committee voted unanimously to give the ethics board jurisdiction over the city commissioners when they serve on other public entities, such as the Blueprint Intergovernmental Agency and the Community Redevelopment Agency. They also agreed to extend whistle-blower protection to the inspector general and his staff, who report to the city commission. Paine says he appreciates how well members of the committee worked together.
“A lot of people expected that the well-known 3-2 split on the city commission would be reflected as a 6-4 split on the charter review committee. That was absolutely not the case," Paine said. "Everybody was very willing to do what they could.”
As for the other items on the committee’s list: They voted against expanding the number of commissioners. They voted in favor of holding regular charter reviews and of eliminating the August primary election in two-person city races. They tossed the question of commissioners’ pay back to the commission by recommending the creation of a study group.
Tomorrow (Wednesday) the city commission will vote up or down on each of the six items the charter review committee has recommended. The items they approve are what voters will see on their ballots in November.
