{"id":3257,"date":"2010-04-01T12:12:15","date_gmt":"2010-04-01T18:12:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flovalleynews.com\/?p=3257"},"modified":"2010-04-01T12:12:15","modified_gmt":"2010-04-01T18:12:15","slug":"center-of-charter-review-debate-possible-change-to-city-manager-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?p=3257","title":{"rendered":"Center of Charter Review Debate: Possible Change to City Manager Government"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Carol Arnett<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Florissant City Council has engaged in some heated debate as they discussed a bill that would set up a committee to review the city charter. Proponents contend it’s time to review the charter, while opponents contend it’s political and aimed at putting a city manager form of government in Florissant.<\/p>\n

The bill was introduced by five of the nine council members \u2013 Karen McKay, Ben Hernandez, Tim Lee, Keith English, and Andrew Podleski. The bill would authorize the creation of a review committee made up of nine residents. The committee would review the city charter and recommend any changes. The council would receive the recommendations and could decide whether to act on them or not.<\/p>\n

In order to change the charter, city residents must vote to approve changes. It would be up to the council to decide if any proposed changes were put on a ballot.<\/p>\n

McKay said there was some confusion regarding the bill. \u201cIts purpose is to establish a charter review commission,\u201d she said. However, she said, the council had received several letters from residents saying they oppose changing the city government from one with a mayor to one with a city manager.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe charter has only been reviewed once, in 1974,\u201d McKay said. \u201cThis bill will allow the council to put together a commission to study the charter,\u201d she said, and noted, \u201call recommendations will have to come back through the council.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery letter we\u2019ve received mentions the city manager,\u201d Lee said. \u201cBut in 30 pages, the charter has one paragraph about city government.\u201d Lee said he became interested in reviewing the charter after he asked City Attorney John Hessel about having a consent agenda at meetings.<\/p>\n

In cities that use a consent agenda, several items can be placed on the consent agenda and approved in one vote. If a councilperson wants to discuss an item, he or she can remove it from the consent agenda for an individual vote.\u00a0 Lee said Hessel informed him that the city charter did not allow for a consent agenda.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t been upfront,\u201d said Councilman Mark Schmidt. \u201cThat is why the rumor mill has started.” Schmidt said he would vote “no” on the bill. \u201cThere\u2019s been no discussion, no executive session, no talking with other council members,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s time to review,\u201d said Hernandez. \u201cIt\u2019s been several years.\u201d Hernandez also pointed out that any proposed changes would go through the council.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Podleski agreed. \u201cI thought this was a great idea, probably something we should be doing on a regular basis,\u201d he said. Podleski likened it to a doctor visit. \u201cYou go to a doctor for check-ups,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mayor Robert Lowery was strongly opposed to the bill. \u201cThere is in my mind skepticism about what you are trying to accomplish,\u201d he said. He said there were five council members sponsoring the bill, \u201cand not one of the sponsors called me to tell me it was coming.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lowery said that one of the bill\u2019s sponsors called the [St. Louis County] Municipal League, \u201cand asked how to get rid of the mayor.\u201d He said the bill was an attempt to move to a city manager form of government.<\/p>\n

English disagreed. \u201cOne of the people who introduced the bill ran for mayor,\u201d he pointed out. \u201cWhy would he shoot himself in the foot?\u201d English pointed out that any of the five bill sponsors could potentially run for mayor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t buy that this is just a review, something we should do periodically,\u201d Councilman Tom Schneider said. \u201cIf this was an innocent as you say, we would have had months of discussion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schneider said that he alerted people that the bill was an attempt to go to a city manager form of government. \u201cI called everyone I know about it,\u201d he said. \u201cI called out the alarm.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schneider said he reached this conclusion after talking to Lee about the bill. Also, he said, Hernandez talked to the Municipal League about going to a city manager form of government.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not a conspirator,\u201d said Lee. \u201cI\u2019m sorry if you read anything into our conversation that indicates I have a hidden agenda,\u201d he told Schneider.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, I spoke to the Municipal League,\u201d said Hernandez. \u201cI wanted to get insight. I needed information. I told you about it; it was no secret.\u201d<\/p>\n

Councilman Keith Schildroth said he was against the bill. \u201cThe city manager form of government does not take politics out of a city,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Councilman John Grib said he found it \u201cvery unusual\u201d that there was not discussion before the bill was introduced. \u201cI would not support this because we didn\u2019t discuss it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a Trojan Horse,\u201d Lowery said. \u201cI\u2019m not going to sign it.\u201d If Lowery vetoes a bill, six votes are required to over ride the veto\u2014that means one of the “no” votes would have to change for passage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Carol Arnett The Florissant City Council has engaged in some heated debate as they discussed a bill that would set up a committee to review the city charter. Proponents contend it’s time to review the charter, while opponents contend it’s political and aimed at putting a city manager form of government in Florissant. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-florissant","entry"],"yoast_head":"\nCenter of Charter Review Debate: Possible Change to City Manager Government - flovalleynews.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/flovalleynews.com\/?p=3257\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Center of Charter Review Debate: Possible Change to City Manager Government - flovalleynews.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Carol Arnett The Florissant City Council has engaged in some heated debate as they discussed a bill that would set up a committee to review the city charter. 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