Party lines blur for council clerk job
Steve Fogarty | The Chronicle-Telegram
So on Monday, legislation to create the city’s first-ever, full-time clerk will be discussed during the Council’s Administrative Committee meeting at 6:30 p.m. The legislation — introduced a few months ago — calls for the elimination of the part-time post, which pays $7,100 annually.
“It’s been a political post since time began,” said Councilman Dennis Boose, D-2nd Ward, who is one of two Democrats on the seven-member Council. The other is Ray McLaughlin, D-at-large.
“The majority party gets together and decides who will fill a post, and the minority party is not in a position to argue. That’s just the way it’s always been,” Boose said.
The clerk’s position — normally a fairly behind-the-scenes job that involves attending meetings, taking minutes and calling for votes — has been the focus of increased attention in the wake of the resignation of Vince Farrell on June 16.
Farrell tendered his resignation just before the meeting and Council President Bernadine Butkowski pushed to replace him during that very same meeting. She was the only Council member to vote to have the post filled immediately.
Council members Robert Olesen, Richard Jaenke, and Dennis Boose say they were pressed by Butkowski to go along with the hasty vote that night, but they opted not to.
“You can’t tell half the Council and not tell the other half what’s going on,” said Olesen, R-4th Ward. “It’s a shame we’re not working together.”
Jaenke, R-3rd Ward, who chairs the Administrative Committee, said he felt Butkowski should have held a meeting of the entire council to discuss the issue.
“She tried to ram it down our throats, and that’s what I don’t approve of,” he said.
Ultimately, Republican Warren Blakely was tapped July 7 to fill the remainder of Farrell’s term, which ends December 2009. A former council member, Blakely served as safety service director for Republican mayor Jeff Armbruster in the 1980s.
Butkowski said she did inform her colleagues that she wanted to appoint Blakely, and that she did so before the meeting in question.
Even so, Butkowski agreed the way the job is filled should change. “Every two years, you can have a different person with different ways of running things. We need to have more continuity,” she said.
Boose agreed.
“In many places when a new person comes into a job, who do they go to? To the (assistant or deputy) clerk, who teaches them what to do,” Boose said, noting that that system doesn’t work in
A survey done by the clerk’s office at the Council’s request found that most similar sized cities employ full-time clerks, although those same cities also tend to be nonpartisan.
Contact Steve Fogarty at 329-7146 or sfogarty@chroniclet.com.
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Filed by Steve Fogarty | The Chronicle-Telegram July 19th, 2008 in Local and State. Popularity: 6% |
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