MIN CHC 1999-08-11 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

• seeking an opinion on something, that if that opinion displeases the Mayor that there is some protection. HERKES: Thank you. RAY: Any other discussion on CHAPTER 2 CORPORATION COUNSEL at this point? Okay, so we're going to work on that last issue and come up with some language and so we'll leave this for now. Thank you, Mr. Wurdeman. BESS: Mr. Chair, we focused on the "special counsel" issue but is there consensus with regard to the housekeeping issue on 5.2.3? Mr. Wurdeman suggested that we add some additional language making it clear about appointment of necessary staff. RAY: Does anybody have any problem with that? No? Okay, so we'll just assume - no let's wait on that as well. Okay, thanks Mr. Wurdeman. To go back to our agenda, New Business A., it says Managing Director Discussion. It probably should have been Council/Manager Form of Government Discussion. In the past couple of months, we've pulled together a fair amount of material and distributed this material to the different Commission members and this is a topic that's come up on • past Charter Commissions and it's one of the items, probably the item of greatest potential impact on the Charter, that we'll be discussing. In regard to that, I'd like Mr. Yuen to just briefly talk about what it would mean logistically, organizationally, to the Charter if we should decide to pursue the Council/Manager form of government as a serious option. YUEN: Just very briefly, it would require a major rewrite of the Charter and I would suggest that if the Commission were to propose a County Manager form of government that it be presented to the voters in the form of a new Charter rather than as 44 amendments to different sections of the Charter. In either case, it would be one vote. If you went with 44 amendments, it would all be voted on at one time but it is such a fundamental and basic change that if it is going to be proposed, it ought to be done as a new Charter. The Charter is presently written in bodies, separation of powers idea, between the Council and the. Mayor that is really largely eliminated under the County Manager form of government where the Manager is directly accountable and chosen, usually, by the Council. Apart from that, there are a lot of specific things that need to be discussed and I think, if the discussion goes further, the members of the Commission will bring up most of them. A very fundamental kind of issue that comes up is whether you have a Mayor, somebody called a Mayor, or not. Many jurisdictions which have a City Manager form of government have a person who is designated as a Mayor and does the ground breakings and the ceremonial functions. Often times it is a person who's either elected - it's an elected position. Generally speaking, the Mayor is 11