In June city voters will be asked to make permanent the change from a City Manager style of government to a "Strong Mayor" form. In 2004 voters approved a trial period of this new form of government. Some will say it has been a success while others (me included) believe it has been a dismal failure. The leading supporter of Proposition D is none other than the little rube. He has been pushing this proposition for almost a year now and his arguments to support are shallow at best. His web site titled: "accountabilityatcityhall" provides his spin for support of making this trial permanent.
Those of us who have watched the mayor perform his role in this new system take a different view of reality. The League of Women Voters of San Diego has put forth the best argument I have seen against Proposition D. I spent an excessive amount of time reading the proposition and all of the arguments in support and opposed. The arguments in support seem to paint a picture of a better way because the old way so to speak is what got us in the trouble we are in. This is simply not true.
The last five plus years of governance under the "Strong Mayor" has proved to be more dictatorial than anything else. The mayor chooses to ignore city council meeting unless he is demanding something. He does not participate in the meetings of the council and gives off the appearance of indifference to their role and if they dare speak out against him or his idea god forbid. The ability of the council to legislate has turned into a battle of will and wit. It is about power and ego. The mayor wielding all the power and projecting all the ego.
The mayor should be the leader of the council. He should be at every meeting of the council and participate in the discussions and held accountable to the public as such. There is no avenue for open debate with the strong mayor form of government because the mayor in the present form does not have to listen to the public or take their input. The council is required to do so and the mayor can ignore it.
We cannot afford to continue this failed trial of governance. I would urge you all to tell friends and family to VOTE NO on Proposition D. It is time to restore the city to a form of governance that makes sense.
2 comments:
The "mayor" is counting on the city's and its police officers' apathy to snail through this....once again
The councilmembers are by and far, individually, decent people. However, collectively they turn into bumbling buffoons. Half of them are so focused on becoming Mayor that they don't realize if they actually wanted to make a difference they would vote against D. They are absolutely POWERLESS in the present form. How many vetos have they overturned? They are pissed about the fire brownouts but can't do one thing about it. If they Mayor doesn't want to fund it, he doesn't have to. If they were smart, they would reject his budget until he funded the brownouts. They have no will or intellegence to figure it out. If they had a City Manager, they could direct him or her to fund whatever they wanted...
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