"MEDDLERS": Did former city councilman blast current council on radio show?

COLUMBIA, 1/3/10  (Beat Byte) -- A voice that sounded suspiciously similar to former 4th Ward Columbia city councilman and Central Missouri Humane Society board member Jim Loveless blasted the city council for considering Home Rule Charter Changes that would diminish the power of Columbia City Manager Bill Watkins.

Calling several council members "meddlers" on today's KFRU Sunday Morning Roundtable radio talk show, the caller -- who did not identify himself -- said, "I just hope there are only three of them," referring to the possibility of a fourth vote majority in favor of placing the charter changes -- which must be approved by voters -- on the April ballot.   

The call is newsworthy because similarly to former Presidents, former council members rarely criticize their successors in public. 

Pointed and biting in his criticisms, the caller joined an ongoing conversation about proposed Charter changes that would give city council members more say over such manager duties as hiring and firing key personnel.  

Local attorney and talk show regular Skip Walther likened the proposals to "the camel getting its nose under the tent," the camel in this case being a move away from a council-manager toward a council-mayor form of government, where the mayor has many of the powers currently vested in the city manager.   

From the "sky-is-falling" tone of the conversation, which also included local attorney and talk show regular David Shorr, Charter changes that reduce the city manager's power will be greeted with howls from the city's old-line establishment.   Shorr and Walther have repeatedly implied that such charter changes will open the door to corruption, and what Shorr this morning called the rise of "little fiefdoms" all around City Hall. 

[Editorial note:  Over the years, Columbia's old-line establishment has been all too happy to wheel and deal exclusively with the city manager behind closed doors and beyond the confines of public discussion, as acres of emails the Heart Beat has previously published clearly detail.  Talk about little fiefdoms!] 

 

Former councilman Loveless did not return a call this morning for comment.