Is a Charter Amendment Required to Make Council Do Their Job ??

 
 Just about a  year ago most of us found out how the former Manager intended to carry the former Finance Director over the    ‘25 year additional   $1,900  per month  screw the taxpayer  golden parachute un-earned pension payment for life’ goal line.
 He did so via his authority to enter into a ‘legal agreement’ with the former Finance Director that was crafted by a disloyal City Attorney.
 Each councilman purported to be outraged by that agreement   ( with the exception of the Mayor who had the resquite prior knowledge )  and   said if they had known of it earlier  they would have taken steps to have that agreement  made null and void.  
 Were they serious or were they just jollying us along ??
 IF COUNCIL WAS SERIOUS  —  THEN WHY IN THE YEAR SINCE HAVE THEY MADE ZERO EFFORTS TO

• REIGN IN THE AUTHORITY OF THE MANAGER, 
• AND ESTABLISH CLEAR POLICY FOR THE ATTORNEY TO ABIDE BY ?? 

 At a bare minimum Council should be approving the hiring of all department head’s,  their performance, and their termination including any sweetheart agreements related thereto.  And who approves of a situation where the Manager can advise Council in a memo of a  ton of changes he intends to make with regard to employment policy and if Council does not object within 10 days or 2 weeks those changes become effective. Do we allow the Governor or the President to operate in this manner  – I think not.    
 As for the Attorney,  well earlier this month Council  could not even answer  if the Attorney was required to review all RFP’ above a certain dollar amount as evidenced by the embarrassing herky jerky revelations regarding the legally non-compliant RFP for the YMCA  that had to be withdrawn.      
 None of this is acceptable  and at  the December 3^rd  meeting  I will again raise this matter and request that Council do the  job they were elected to perform –which among other things includes providing adequate supervision of the only 2 employees they have on God’s green earth ……their  Attorney and Manager.
 If they  fail to take meaningful action again,  then I will be calling upon blogs such as yours to aide in establishing a citizen led petition to place an amendment on next year’s ballot to amend the Port Orange Charter to force Council to do their job.    

 Ted Noftall