Mayor's Veto Overturned
January 06, 2008 |
Politics
Issue:
On November 20, the City Council introduced an ordinance that would allow it to negotiate up to a year's severance pay to attract qualified, independent city manager candidates. The ordinance was designed to allay concerns of qualified candidates, well aware of Englewood's adversarial political climate and concerned about being fired for political reasons within five years of being hired by the current Council. Thus, the previous cap of three months severance pay was extended, for negotiating purposes, to 12 months.
On December 17, Mayor Wildes vetoed the proposed ordinance labeling it a "golden parachute" for a city employee. Mayor Wildes kept his veto a secret until after the Council's final 2007 meeting. On December 26, the Council conducted an emergency meeting to override his veto before the year's end (The Bergen Record, 12/27/07).
Facts:
• November 20: Ordinance 07-33 (12 month severance ordinance) is introduced. No comment from Mayor or public.
• December 11: Ordinance 07-33 is discussed officially in public session. Mayor has no comment. One member of public (Curtis Caviness) dislikes the ordinance because it doesn't provide additional severance to all city employees.
• December 16: Mayor writes letter vetoing ordinance.
• December 17: Mayor signs veto and has it notarized. Mayor keeps this a secret.
• December 18: Mayor continues to keep his veto a secret at the already scheduled council meeting.
• December 20: The Mayor hand delivers his veto to the city clerk shortly before he leaves town for two weeks.
Commentary:
It is clear from the timeline of events that Mayor Wildes intended to hide his veto from the Council until after it was on holiday recess. Why? Because the severance pay ordinance would have died on December 31 if his veto was not overridden by the Council, forcing the Council to stall its hiring of a new city manager. Yet, the Council went back to work the day after Christmas to ensure the hiring process would continue unabated.
Now the Mayor is slamming the Council for overriding his veto while he was on vacation, despite deliberately hiding his veto until after the last Council meeting.
Furthermore, the Mayor is claiming that his veto was issued to defend the public treasury against the Council. (Download a PDF of his veto here) Yet, the Council was forced to step in during its holiday recess in order to prevent the Mayor from stalling the appointment of a new city manager and forcing taxpayers to foot the bill for a prolonged search for a qualified, independent candidate.
In fact, this is not the first time the City Council has been forced to clean up after the Mayor's reckless fiscal behavior. It was only last August that the City Council majority defended the taxpayers against a multimillion dollar tax giveaway that the Mayor and his Planning Board gifted to HKT, the developers of the South of Route 4 construction project. (Download a PDF of the Council majority's press release here)
On November 20, the City Council introduced an ordinance that would allow it to negotiate up to a year's severance pay to attract qualified, independent city manager candidates. The ordinance was designed to allay concerns of qualified candidates, well aware of Englewood's adversarial political climate and concerned about being fired for political reasons within five years of being hired by the current Council. Thus, the previous cap of three months severance pay was extended, for negotiating purposes, to 12 months.
On December 17, Mayor Wildes vetoed the proposed ordinance labeling it a "golden parachute" for a city employee. Mayor Wildes kept his veto a secret until after the Council's final 2007 meeting. On December 26, the Council conducted an emergency meeting to override his veto before the year's end (The Bergen Record, 12/27/07).
Facts:
• November 20: Ordinance 07-33 (12 month severance ordinance) is introduced. No comment from Mayor or public.
• December 11: Ordinance 07-33 is discussed officially in public session. Mayor has no comment. One member of public (Curtis Caviness) dislikes the ordinance because it doesn't provide additional severance to all city employees.
• December 16: Mayor writes letter vetoing ordinance.
• December 17: Mayor signs veto and has it notarized. Mayor keeps this a secret.
• December 18: Mayor continues to keep his veto a secret at the already scheduled council meeting.
• December 20: The Mayor hand delivers his veto to the city clerk shortly before he leaves town for two weeks.
Commentary:
It is clear from the timeline of events that Mayor Wildes intended to hide his veto from the Council until after it was on holiday recess. Why? Because the severance pay ordinance would have died on December 31 if his veto was not overridden by the Council, forcing the Council to stall its hiring of a new city manager. Yet, the Council went back to work the day after Christmas to ensure the hiring process would continue unabated.
Now the Mayor is slamming the Council for overriding his veto while he was on vacation, despite deliberately hiding his veto until after the last Council meeting.
Furthermore, the Mayor is claiming that his veto was issued to defend the public treasury against the Council. (Download a PDF of his veto here) Yet, the Council was forced to step in during its holiday recess in order to prevent the Mayor from stalling the appointment of a new city manager and forcing taxpayers to foot the bill for a prolonged search for a qualified, independent candidate.
In fact, this is not the first time the City Council has been forced to clean up after the Mayor's reckless fiscal behavior. It was only last August that the City Council majority defended the taxpayers against a multimillion dollar tax giveaway that the Mayor and his Planning Board gifted to HKT, the developers of the South of Route 4 construction project. (Download a PDF of the Council majority's press release here)
