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| City Council, Apr 25, 2011 |
Cslr Decelles introduced a resolution calling for an update on the Moran Center project. The last update on the working budget and City expenditure- to-date was Oct 21, 2010. At that time, the City had had expenditures of $859,593.60 and had assembled $1,582,128 in sources for interim expenditures of which only 42% were from City funds. Tenants were expected to be signed by now. Changes include Sailing Center building their own building north of Moran. Update, please!
Cslr Wright introduced a resolution calling for the Charter Change Committee to create a recall ordinance and present it to the voters. Recall is a powerful tool for citizens to assure accountability from elected officials, and understandably citizens are usually for it and elected officials fear it. Cslr Dober, who co-sponsored a recall resolution last year, expressed disappointment that a co-sponsor had backed out and thus the resolution never got out of committee. Monday, the RESOLUTION PASSED AND NOW MOVES FORWARD TO THE CHARTER CHANGE COMMITTEE. But a read of Council's thinly veiled hostility toward recall leads to the conclusion that it will take a citizen initiative (petition) to bring the recall option to voters. To sign a petition, stop by the Mobil Short Stop, or see your city councilor.
Cslr Hartnett, who sits at the other end of the table, requested that the Annual Report of the Board for Registration of Voters be taken off consent agenda, and that the board Chair and board Clerk be invited to the following meeting to address checklist issues that surfaced at our NPA in April. (North End Voters Inspired has been asking questions about the voter checklist for two years.) Council used to honor boards and commissions by receiving their reports in deliberative session and publicly recognizing their work. Hopefully this practice will be revived. Concerns expressed at NPA about refreshing boards routinely instead of reappointing members automatically were carried to Council by Cslr Hartnett. Appointments are soon. We'll see if Council was listening....In general, there was a sense of no-nonsense accountability about Council Monday night, and Cslr Adrian was quite impressive as Chair. Instead of the tweety gadfly, we saw the tough prosecutor. Next meeting, NPA members will be speaking at Public Forum, in favor of turnover on boards to encourage emerging civic leadership, and in opposition to approval of the airport hire. At NPA, we get lots of practice addressing our Councilors at the mic during Open Forum.
