Four strikes aren’t enough as the Concord city council errs again and again and again and again.
At their Monday June 9 meeting, the city council got it wrong. Not once, not twice, but at least four times.
Strike one, the most egregious, was the appointment to the Zoning Board of Adjustment. As reported in both the Concord Monitor and Patch, it appears the appointment is a person with mental health issues. Their issues were in the public domain before the appointment was submitted and approved. But in addition to the lack of due diligence by staff, ignoring a heads-up from Patch, the saddest part of this episode is the unnecessary embarrassment this person is being subjected to.
Strike two: During the action phase of Monday’s meeting to approve a new hanger at the airport, At-Large Councilor Fennessey noted he would have appreciated an opportunity to read the lease before he voted on it. But as we have seen with the previous item concerning the Zoning Board appointment and all too many other issues, the council is all too willing to kick the can down the road. It is not micromanaging the administration to understand what you are voting on nor is setting policy, as some councilors have suggested.
Believe it or no,t the city council has rules it must follow, yet it appears that even the mayor is unaware of at least some of them. On two occasions at Monday’s meeting the mayor got it wrong.
Strike three: An amendment to a motion was made, and it was ruled by the mayor that it would not be accepted because the person making the motion was unwilling to accept the amendment. Except that council rules allow for an amendment to a motion to be made.
It was pointed out after the amendment was denied by the mayor that it was germane to allow for an amendment to the motion.
Section 12 of council rules state: “When a question is under debate, the Mayor shall receive no motion other than: (1) adjourn, (2) to lay on the table until a date certain, (3) to amend; or (4) to lay on the table indefinitely, which motions shall have precedence in the order in which the same appear above. A motion to adjourn, except on immediate repetition, is always in order. All matters and motions are debatable except that any Councilor may move the previous question at any time and a two- thirds vote thereon – in the affirmative shall terminate further debate.”
Later in the meeting came strike four. There was debate on another motion, and a councilor moved to end debate and vote. Again, referring to rule 12, this is acceptable. Except the mayor again missed the mark by not calling for a two-thirds vote to move the previous question as required in the rules.
These are more than just errors of omission or being sloppy. This is a result of a culture that has been fostered by some members of the council for too many years. It is a culture of only providing you and me with the least amount of information the council can get away with. It is a culture that kowtows to the administration at the expense of oversight. It is a culture of shunning and berating those who insist that the council follow its own rules.
It is important that the city council and the administration has a good working relationship. But some members of the council have been fostering that relationship with the administration at the expense of remembering it is you they are representing.
When the council fails to do its due diligence, when they fail to follow their own rules and when they fail to remember who they are responsible to, they cause harm to all of us.
Allan Herschlag lives in Concord.