It’s been 75 days since the new Mayor and Council took office. It would have been a horrible environment for any one coming in, given the parlous condition this city is in. But this new Administration is not exactly playing its best game yet.
I’m not going to talk today about Inaugural Balls or personal finances. I mean, I could. These issues do provide more troubling questions about Mr. Mack’s candor and openness, which certainly reflects on his performance in office, but in (so far) only secondary and indirect ways. Beyond that, discussing these kinds of questions really focuses too much attention on one person, and that is likely a little unfair. This morning, I would like to look at another, more direct way of measuring what this government has been accomplishing.
Mayor Mack took office on July 1 by sweeping the decks clean of department heads carried over from the previous administration. It was certainly his prerogative to do so, although I think this city lost a lot of managerial talent and institutional memory. Mr. Mack appointed Acting Department heads to fill most of those positions, including the crucial jobs of Public Safety and Fire Directors as well as Business Administrator. One of the reasons given for all of the Acting Director appointments, and a fair one, is that after the runoff election in June, there wasn’t enough time to vet candidates for permanent positions before taking office.
We are now 75 days in to the administration’s term of office. Our City’s ordinance about mayoral appointments limits such temporary actions to 90 days. Article II, Section 2-4, C . (5) and (6) say
(5)Whenever a vacancy exists in any office required by the Charter or this chapter to be filled by the Mayor with advice and consent of Council, and there is no holdover incumbent, the Mayor may temporarily fill such vacancy (in the absence of any contrary provision in the Charter or ordinances) by appointing an active officer, including designation of himself/herself as Acting Business Administrator in event of a vacancy in that office.
(6)Such appointee shall have all of the functions, powers and duties of the office until it shall be filled permanently. Such appointment shall terminate no later than 90 days after the date of the appointment unless the Council shall, by resolution, authorize one or more extensions of such period.
So far, we have seen the horribly botched nomination of Carlton Badger to the position of permanent Director of Housing and Economic Development; the musical chairs at the Business Administrator’s office; a judicial appointment to the Municipal Court that was pushed through under unusual circumstances; and not a lot more.
We have, by statute, only 15 more days for the Mayor to nominate, and Council to advise and consent, permanent appointees to all of the top tier positions in City government. After that, Council will have to spend their precious time on multiple resolutions to extend any and all of these temporary appointees.
How far along is the appointment process for these positions? Not very far, apparently. At the same time that the clock continues to tick on the substantial layoffs that will see hundreds of city employees clock out for the last time, there is a massive leadership vacuum across city departments and agencies. Yikes.
How far along is the appointment process? We just don’t know. As a candidate this spring, Mayor Mack promised an efficient and transparent process for the recruitment and vetting of senior appointees. Remember?
• We will publish all budget documents and related documents well in advance of budget discussions that provide line item specific information.
• Individuals appointed to cabinet posts and boards/commissions will have their resume made available to members of the public via the City Clerk’s office and posted on the City website.
• We will publish City documents, relevant to governing, on the website as opposed to forcing residents to file costly and time consuming OPRA requests.
Those were the good old days, right? In several ways, the openness and transparency shown by this administration is even less than that of the previous crew. The City’s website, for instance, no longer even lists the names of members of the city’s board and commissions, let alone their resumes. Sections on city Departments don’t include information on who the Acting Directors are, or how to reach them. And we surely haven’t seen resumes of any new appointments or nominees.
The Mayor needs to explain his plans and timeframe for permanently filling all of his senior positions. If he doesn’t, Council needs to be aggressive in finding out; as well as considering any mayoral requests for extensions of temporary appointments most carefully. After all, each member of this Council ran on promises to take their powers of advice and consent very seriously.
On a day-to-day, department heads have as much impact on the operations of their agencies – on their employees and the citizens they serve – as the Mayor. We are now at the point where it is no longer appropriate that these departments be headed by Temporary Directors who are not accountable to Council nor to us.
Over the last several weeks, we have focused almost exclusively on the person of this Mayor. We need now to look at the bigger picture, and see that this government do what is needed to get a full, and accountable, crew on board with a process that is open, transparent and inclusive.
That is, after all, what everyone ran on and promised us.