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Health & Fitness

Weaker Council, Stronger Mayor? No Thanks!

The Mayor and City Manager recently asked the Charter Review Commission to strengthen the mayor’s role in Newport by eliminating the council’s role in setting city policy. 

Although I support a stronger mayor role, I oppose doing it in this manner.  And I wanted to take a moment to share my reasons.

The council’s primary role in city government is to set policy.  It makes sense to share that authority among seven people.  In other words, if I want to change policy, I need to sell that idea to three other people – and we have to discuss it in public.  Vesting policy authority in a single person (with no public discussion) is a bad idea for open government. 

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The City Manager and Mayor disagree; and so together, they asked the Charter Review Commission to make the Newport Mayor position more powerful, by eliminating the council’s policy-setting authority. 

Jane Howington testified that it is too hard to communicate with seven councilors: “When I have a policy question, I should be able to go to the mayor for an answer.  But the other council members criticize me for going only to him.  They say he is only one of seven.  I should not have to go to seven bosses to figure out which way to go.”

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Mayor Winthrop lent his support to Jane’s idea of reducing the council’s role, telling the Charter Review Commission: [Y]ou could set the responsibilities of the chair in the charter versus the responsibilities of the council members.”

I disagree with this thinking.  It’s better when 4 votes are needed to set a policy or give policy-related instructions.

That was why it was so hard to drive any action on the Newport Yacht Club.  But eventually, I found five votes to compel the decennial bump in their rent payment.  Unfortunately, after that vote, the CM agreed to ignore the five votes anyway.  So now, instead of paying 5% of the assessed value of the city-owned property, the mayor’s yacht club will only pay about 2.5% to the city over the next ten years (about half of what it should pay).  From my perspective, I should probably testify the other way – that the CRC should provide for a stronger council.

But it’s not necessary.  Through these experiences, our council has grown stronger.  For many years, our city councils have been understated and low-key, avoiding argument.  Issues were sometimes resolved through back channels, but mostly councilors went-along to get-along. 

Over the last several months, the council has found a voice, and accomplished quite a bit: 

  • We, the council, took a very strong position on protecting Ruggles from the installation of surf-wrecking, rip-rap jetties. 
  • We, the council, finally produced a public nuisance ordinance, a concept which had languished for 10 years. 
  • We, the council, demanded fiscal accountability from the school department in the form of basic budget documents. 
  • We, the council, presented and argued several new revenue ideas – many of which were opposed, but many of which were referred to the Finance Review Committee. 
  • We, the council, fought for and obtained a lower tax increase than the 3.87% tax hike proposed by the City Manager. 
  • We, the council, fought for an ordinance to penalize aggressive panhandling. 
  • We, the council, demanded repayment from debtors such as Clarke School LP who defaulted on a debt to the city in excess of $1.8 million.

All of these initiatives were opposed by the City Manager and the Mayor at the outset.  And the battles were hard fought.  There were some defeats, but many small victories.  And the victories we obtained for the city were the result of public discussion, public involvement, public engagement and a little compromise.  These victories were the result of a council which is just realizing its strength, and becoming more courageous.  And we should encourage this courage and strength – not stifle it.  These issues would never have seen the light of day if the council had been weakened.

If the goal is to strengthen the role of mayor, perhaps it could be done through direct election.  I would support that change.  But I hope that the CRC does not strengthen the Mayor’s role simply by weakening the Council’s role.  We don’t need more powerful leaders, we need smarter leaders - and more of them. 

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