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The latest City Council information

City of ClarksvilleClarksville, TN – I wanted to pass along a couple of items that are underway or coming to the council.

Ordinance 76-2010-11

This ordinance has been brought before the council at the request of citizens concerned with the operating hours that refuse disposal trucks are maintaining. At issue are the 4:00am (maybe earlier) start times where trucks are out in the neighborhoods and businesses (by neighborhoods) picking up trash. The proposed ordinance would require operators to wait until 6:00am to start their routes.

I have heard from several citizens from both inside and outside our ward. All have requested that I support the ordinance. I know when I helped work out the property restrictions on land rezonings along Hwy76/MLK, one of the top items was to delay refuse pickup times. So this topic has been a concern with ward residents for some time.

I will support the ordinance based on the inputs and concerns I have received. However, based on comments from fellow council members I am not sure the support is there to pass this ordinance. Therefore, if you support this item you need to email or call other council members asking for their support. The point to remember is currently you may not have a problem with the refuse pickup occurring at 4:00am or 5:00am in the morning. However, operators change their schedules and this could be a problem in future months or years. In addition, there are many commercial land areas that are next to or in the middle of housing and residential areas that are not currently developed. When developed they will have garbage cans or the large metal containers that will need to be emptied once or several times a week.

The main counterpoint to the ordinance has been small businessmen are being treated unfairly by restricting their ability to operate when they want. There are many restrictions on businesses that deal with health, safety, and noise issues.  However, these restrictions have all been placed on the “books” to resolve problems that have been created by business.

The bottom line is if you want or believe this protection is needed now or in the future, then contact other members on the council and let them know. The vote on this issue is this Thursday.

City Charter Update

Hopefully the third time will be the charm. The mayor has appointed a study group to look at what may need to be updated with the last charter revision effort. I have been appointed chairman of this group. In addition, council members Burkhart, Jones, Redd and Grubbs are on the committee.

I have requested that a section on the city website be set aside that would have the last revision available for your review along with minutes and changes the committee makes at the upcoming meetings. We will try and meet about every two weeks for two hours at a time. The meetings are open to the public, however the public can only listen and watch, as this committee is not a regular standing function. Citizens that have questions about the charter should contact their council representative.

During the last efforts on the charter I keep readers advised on major developments and asked for inputs. I received about four inputs over the 18 months we worked on the charter. Again, if you have ideas or thoughts let me know. However, if you provide some ideas I need to know which exact section of the revised charter you are referring to and why you think it needs to be changed. Many of my long time readers may recall some of the topics that were brought up but did not get put into the charter revision due to not enough support at the committee or council level. Here are a few samples:

  • Vice mayor
  • Council-at-large members
  • Restricted voting on the mayoral position
  • Other veto versions
  • No term limits
  • Runoffs

These items will be revisited again.  The goal is to try and get the third effort to the state before they finish their session in May or June.  As readers may remember, the state attorney general declared the last version of the proposed charter as meeting the legal requirements of state law.  We will use that document as the base from which to start.

CDE

The mayor has sent another question to the state attorney general about the makeup of the Power Board per city ordinances versus state.  The letter to the AG is listed as an attachment to this email.

There has been some talk with the community as to why the council does not meet and remove the board members and replace them. This has been discussed at length within the city and our legal department. The reason is such removal proceedings have to be based on state and local law. In essence, a trial has to be conducted by the council. All members may have legal representation and solid proof of wrongdoing has to be presented. One party, or the other, may sue if they believe proceedings are not fair and based on logic and law. Some citizens have stated there is plenty of proof. I’ll mention the ones I have heard and provide you some rationale based on legal discussions.

Some in our community believed the law was broken when the board hired Mr. Piper. The state AG has ruled that the state law was followed and the hiring legal. Local ordinance carried no authority on this matter.

Some have citied that the Sunshine Law was violated according to what was printed in the newspaper about two board members approaching Mr. Piper about the job. If this were the case then possibly two of the seven board members may have violated the Sunshine Law, but not the whole board. Even if two board members abstained, the board vote would have still approved Mr. Piper. 

It has been suggested that if any violation of the Sunshine Law occurred then the hiring would be overturned. This is very unlikely for a couple of reason. First, as I just mentioned, only two board members potentially talked about the job outside a regular board meeting. Second, while the board may have elements of “sunshine” concern, the board as a whole carried out an assigned and lawful duty. If all other lawful actions were accomplished and a “contract”, as such, was made (to hire someone in this case) then the action would stand and be considered legal.

It has been mentioned that the position was held open for a number of months and that should be illegal. There is no law dictating a time-line for hiring and it is up to the Power Board, by state law, to make that decision.

Some citizens have stated that Mr. Piper was not qualified to take the job. General qualifications are listed for the job; however, the Power Board writes the specific job description and hires accordingly. I have not seen the job description utilized for Mr. Piper’s hiring. However, I have heard the prime consideration in the description was past business and management experience and accomplishments.

One or two members of the council have publicly stated that state law was violated in the hiring process and inferred they had proof. I, and other council members, have asked that any proof be provided to the mayor, council and legal staff so that possible proceedings could be developed. At this time, no one has provided any proof of state laws being violated. Unless there is legal proof of a law violation then there is no action to be taken with this particular process. The AG review and opinion may have vaporized what some may have considered proof.

The there have been issues raised that is was unethical. Again proof is needed. It has been accused that the former mayor stacked the board for this move. However, a mayor cannot stack the Power Board. He can nominate citizens for the Power Board positions, but the council has to approve each one. Four of the seven positions that became open and filled in 2010 and 2009 were approved by a 12-0 council vote. Any council member could have raised issue with any nominee, however, none did.

It has been stated that the board members all knew Mr. Piper and that should be an ethics violation. The process of networking, making contacts and knowing people at potential jobs or industries has always been part of any job hunt.  Knowing the people that may hire you does not violate any law. In fact, having a board that may know you usually result in two extremes. Either they like you and hire you based on past accomplishments or dislike you and make sure you don’t get hired based on past actions.

As I have stated previously, I believe the hiring of Mr. Piper to the CDE position (a function of the city per the AG review) violated the intent and spirit of the city ordinances that cover this issue. However, the AG and other legal reviews state local ordinances don’t apply in this case. So a hole/loophole in the local ordinance on this subject has been found. We will try to correct that in the charter update. In the attachment you see the question on how local law and state law vary on the board makeup. The AG will hopefully lay out which applies and why. We await the AG response.

I will keep you posted as events happen.

Supplemental AG Request Letter

Bill Summers
Bill Summershttp://www.cityofclarksville.com/
Bill Summers is the City Councilman for Ward 10 in Clarksville, TN. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author are not necessarily those of the City of Clarksville or Clarksville Online.
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