Mayor Grabs More Power

In response to questions about how and when the latest committee to look at the houses in James Madison Park was formed and appointed, we get this from the city attorney’s office – unlike the past 12 – 15 years that I have been paying attention – now, the Mayor just is making appointments without Council approval. Even when the staff who ordered it doesn’t know what I’m talking about.

The committee is stacked to get the mayor the answer he wants. There is no doubt about that. He tried last time, and didn’t get the answer he wanted, so this time, he didn’t form the committee through the council. Most short term committee are formed by resolution that passes through the council. Permanent committees or “standing committees” are formed by ordinance. Then, the mayor openly appoints committee members and the council gets the list two weeks before voting on them. For this controversial committee, the mayor bypassed the council, perhaps legally, in yet another power grab. I seriously haven’t seen this in the many years I’ve been observing city government. Is this the new way of doing business.

Finally, this is kind of funny, it sort of seems like they bumbled into their excuses about why they did it. See below.

CITY ATTORNEY WEIGHS IN

From: Zellhoefer, Anne
Sent: Wednesday, November 03, 2010 4:33 PM
To: Harmon, Ray
Cc: Rolfs, Daniel
Subject: JMP surplus committee

Ray & Dan:

You can go ahead with your meeting Monday. The Mayor’s appointments to the James Madison Park Surplus Committee need not be confirmed by the Council. This is unique to Surplus Committees. Here’s why:

Sec. 33.01(5), MGO, provides that appointments to standing committees shall be made by the Mayor and confirmed by the Council. Appointments to ad hoc committees shall be subject to the rules set forth in the resolution or order establishing the committee. The James Madison Park Surplus Committee is an ad hoc committee, created by order of the Mayor. Sec. 8.075(3)(d), MGO. The Mayor’s order to create this ad hoc Committee did not, presumably, set forth any rule requiring Council confirmation of his appointments.

Please note that once the Committee establishes point values and criteria for disposal, the Real Estate Manager is charged with preparing a resolution for Council action that directs him to proceed with the public bid process for the sale of the surplus property. Sec. 8.075(d)(3).

Please let me know if you’ve any questions.

Anne Z.

SHOW ME THE ORDER
Ok show me the order. Presumably? She gave legal advice without seeing it?

from Brenda Konkel
to “Harmon, Ramon” ,
“Phair, Connie” ,
Mayor Dave Cieslewicz ,
“Maniaci, Bridget”
date Mon, Nov 8, 2010 at 1:33 PM
subject Please send me a copy

Of the mayor’s order creating the Surplus Committee for James Madison Park.

Brenda

Response:

from Harmon, Ray
to Brenda Konkel ,
“Phair, Connie” ,
Mayor ,
“Maniaci, Bridget”
date Mon, Nov 8, 2010 at 2:20 PM
subject RE: Please send me a copy

BK-
What order are you referring to?
Sincerely,

Ray Harmon
Office of Mayor Dave Cieslewicz

Giggle . . . I sent him the above email from Zellhoefer. I also then asked Dan Rolfs for a copy of the order and got this:

from Rolfs, Daniel
to Brenda Konkel
date Tue, Nov 9, 2010 at 8:30 AM
subject FW: James Madison Park Houses

Brenda,

Per your request, here is the copy of the order to form the Committee.

dwr

Dan Rolfs, AICP [snip]
– – – – – –
From: Harmon, Ray
Sent: Thursday, October 14, 2010 1:25 PM
To: Rolfs, Daniel
Cc: Marx, Don
Subject: James Madison Park Houses

Dan-

Below is the list of invites for the James Madison Park Disposal Surplus Property Criteria and Selection Committee. The invites are going out today and I’ve spoken to each person and they are on board. Tomorrow please begin contacting everyone to schedule an initial meeting.

The 7th person has not been identified because Ald Maniaci has yet to respond with a name but we should move forward. Any questions please let me know.

LIST OF INVITEES:
1. Ald. Maniaci
2. Ald. Clear
3. Ald Clausius
4. Dave Wallner
5. Ray Harmon
6. Kevin Briski
7. To be named later

Sincerely,
Ray Harmon

Eventually Ray caught on that he was the one that ordered the committee to be formed and sent me this:
from Harmon, Ray

to Brenda Konkel
cc “Phair, Connie” ,
Mayor ,
“Maniaci, Bridget” ,
“Rolfs, Daniel”
date Tue, Nov 9, 2010 at 12:15 PM
subject RE: Please send me a copy

Brenda-

Upon the request of Ald Maniaci Mayor Dave instructed me to create the committee pursuant to MGO 8.075 (3)(d) and on behalf of the Mayor I set forth that order in written correspondence to Dan Rolfs. That correspondence you’ve seen.

Attached are the appointment letters from Mayor Dave to committee members. Let me know if you need anything else.

Sincerely,

Ray Harmon
Office of Mayor Dave Cieslewicz

Wow. Well, I guess they bumbled their way into a legally satisfactory answer on procedure, but I’m not sure that is a legally satisfactory “order”. The committee still doesn’t appear on the city’s website as of 6 am today. Here’s most of the appointment letters. Bob Shaw is the final/unnamed committee member. I was half way through the meeting they had on Monday before I realized that both Briski, the head of the Parks Department and Harmon, mayor’s staff were not staff to the committee but committee members. Briski is even the Vice Chair. Those are two solid votes for the mayor. As are Clear (who thinks its not his damn problem since its not in his district), Clausius (who’s hoping to get a library if he does what the mayor wants) and likely Wallner (who has made it crystal clear he doesn’t want to be there). So, game over. Unless, of course, those who don’t want to be there want to resign and make way for those who would like to serve.

OTHER SURPLUS COMMITTEES
Now that I’ve noticed this, it appears, the change to the ordinance the Mayor sponsored in 2007, made some changes I didn’t realize and the mayor has taken full advantage of those changes. I’m pretty sure I voted on it, and didn’t realize what I did. There have been several pieces of surplus property sold without committees recently and the process has really changed. I need to do more research on this to figure out what happened. I swear the library surplus committee went through the council, but the search for the creation of that committee and appointments is not being fruitful.

Mayor Dave 1, transparent democracy and community input via council vote 0.