CITY COUNCIL: First vote on major change to city manager powers

COLUMBIA, 1/3/10  (Beat Byte) -- In its first major

push to balance power at CSkala, City Council meetingity Hall more equitably between voters, taxpayers, council members, and the Office of City Manager Bill Watkins, the Columbia City Council will take up legislation tomorrow night to alter a key provision in the Home Rule Charter of the City of Columbia, the city's guiding constitution.

The change -- which voters must approve -- would allow council members a so-called "advise and consent" role in the hiring and firing of top city administrators.  "The city manager shall appoint and remove department heads only with the advice and consent of the city council," the amendment reads, leaving unclear exactly what form the council's new role will take.

After its introduction and 6-1 support at the council's last meeting in December, city attorney Fred Boeckmann has apparently fast-tracked the amendment, scheduling it to appear with five other charter changes on the April 6, 2010 ballot.

The move is a surprise because on its introduction by 3rd Ward councilman Karl Skala just two weeks ago, Skala only proposed "formal discussion" of the idea for future meetings, without any defined ballot timing.

"I just want to open the idea for debate," Skala repeatedly emphasized. 

Community wide discussion over a greater role for council members in senior level hiring/firing commenced over a year ago, after what some believed was the untimely and ill-advised departure of Columbia Water and Light director Dan Dasho.

Unanswered concerns about his successor, Kraig Kahler, and the dramatic escalation of Kahler's subsequent legal problems, has encouraged the process. 

Questions about City Manager Bill Watkins' power have also grown, reaching a nadir this year after he stepped out of his charter-defined role as policy implementer and into the role of policy maker -- a role the Charter exclusively reserves for the city council. 

Without the council's knowledge or consent, Watkins placed the now infamous "eminent domain" ordinance on the City Council's all-important consent agenda, where items are voted on without debate or public discussion, essentially as "done deals."  

Were it not for sharp eyes and loud protests, City Hall could have then used eminent domain to take land from several private citizens for a new State Historical Society museum. 

So singularly influential was former city manager Ray Beck that Inside Columbia magazine named him—not long-term mayor Darwin Hindman—Columbia's most powerful person when Beck was still in office. 

RELATED:

Proposed charter change

http://gocolumbiamo.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=2&meta_id=11520

Council Agenda Item VIII B7-10

http://gocolumbiamo.granicus.com/AgendaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=2   

The Columbia City Charter

http://www.gocolumbiamo.com/Council/Columbia_Code_of_Ordinances/Chapter_99/01.html