Friday, June 8, 2001
Friday, June 8, 2001 |
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First reading of PTC charter revisions passed with no comment from public By JOHN
MUNFORD
Apparently, no one was too unhappy with the changes the Peachtree City Council has for the city's charter. After no one chose to speak about the revised document, council passed the first reading of the charter at its meeting last week. The document will likely be discussed again at council's next meeting Thursday before the second reading may be passed. The charter will become official after the second reading. The charter revisions include provisions that somewhat weaken the mayor's power, particularly in giving the daily operation and administration of the city to the city manager. The mayor, however, retains "general supervision and jurisdiction over the affairs' of Peachtree City, the charter revision states. The mayor's power to veto has been taken away, although for technical purposes since that provision may have been written before the mayor was required to have a vote on all council matters. The charter revisions also clarify the role of the city clerk, one of the more contentious subjects council has discussed during the process. The clerk will now report to the city manager, but can only be terminated or removed from the position by council. Council is also given the option of appointing the city manager as city clerk. The revised charter also eliminates the need to appoint officers such as the city clerk, city attorney and city auditor on an annual basis. Instead, such persons will serve at the pleasure of the mayor and council and can be removed at any time. The charter revisions also address the possibility that more than one vacancy could occur on council. In such a case, the remaining members of council would be allowed to meet to appoint persons to those vacancies and, if the vacated term is longer than 12 months, set the date for a special election to permanently fill those vacancies. The mayor or mayor pro tem would chose the process council will use to make its selection and must notify each council member of that process in writing at least 10 days prior to that meeting, the revised charter states. One portion of the charter is designed to prevent council members from interfering with the work of city employees with unreasonable requests. Council members are forbidden from directly ordering city officers or employees; instead, such requests must be handled through the city manager. The revised charter would allow council members to gather routine information which city officers and employees could easily and quickly assemble, however. In addition to rewriting portions of the charter to match with state law that has changed over the years, City Attorney Rick Lindsey also intended to simplify parts of the charter so citizens could better understand council's intentions. The charter will also include references to the recreational path system, particularly in portions discussing the city rights of way. Other parts of the charter were added because council felt they should be included. For instance, a section on the fire department is included since it was left out of the previous charter, which did address the police department.
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