Although the newly-elected mayor asked aldermen to wait two weeks before appointing department heads, a motion to confirm the fire chief set off a cascade of votes that eventually led to a mayoral veto of the city clerk position last week.
"This is a new administration and I think I deserve that right, to talk and sit down with them in their departments and at their pleasure and discuss those changes, those issues that I have and want to deal with so we are all on the same page," said Mayor James A. Young at his first meeting last Tuesday.
Ward 3 Alderman Ronnie Jenkins early in the meeting made a motion to grant Young's request for a delay, but the motion died for lack of a second.
But before the meeting adjourned, aldermen had re-appointed Pierce Clark as fire chief and Robert Thomas as city attorney in unanimous votes.
The position of police chief was not discussed.
Young vetoed the re-appointment of James Johnson as City Clerk.
After Ward 2 Alderman Roy White questioned why the appointments should be made into an issue, Young said he needed a little time to talk to those under consideration.
Young said he also wanted more time to sit down with the individual aldermen to discuss the visions each have for the departments they oversee.
The board is required to elect a mayor pro tempore and Young recommended White for that position, but he respectfully declined.
Jenkins then made a motion to nominate Alderman-
at-Large Janice Payne, which received a unanimous vote.
White was reappointed street commissioner unanimously.
As is customary, the mayor appointed aldermen to other commissioner posts, shuffling some positions.
"Some of y'all have been serving on different things for many years," Young said. "I want to shift some things around and get some new blood and a different set of eyes in each department.
"We want to start off with some new ideas, new responsibilities. If it doesn't work, we can always change them back," Young said.
Young appointed Ward 1 Alderman Joe Tullos as fire commissioner and Ward 4 Alderman Cecil Nichols as police commissioner.
Tullos had previously served as police commissioner. Nichols is serving his first term and replaced Bobby Jackson who was longtime fire commissioner.
Young switched Payne to cemetery commissioner and Jenkins to sanitation commissioner.
As the two-hour meeting was nearing adjournment, Tullos made the motion to reappoint Clark as fire chief, saying he didn't think it was right for him to have to wait two more weeks to know if he has a job.
"If I'm going to be fire commissioner, I don't have a problem tonight of accepting him as chief of the fire department and I put that in the form of a motion. I may be out of line but I don't want to subject someone to two weeks of wondering whether he has a job or not," Tullos said.
After that, Payne made a motion to re-appoint Johnson and Thomas as city clerk and city attorney, respectively.
Young asked her to put the reappointments in two separate motions.
Both passed unanimously and Young promptly vetoed the city clerk appointment.
Young said later in the week that he had hoped that aldermen would have given him more time to discuss job descriptions, not only for the city clerk and his deputies, but also the building official and others.
During last week's meeting and again on Thursday, Young said voters called for change in the way the city is operated in the last election.
He said that change included how the different departments operate on a day-to-day basis.
The new mayor said he would like to see the clerk serve as the city's public information officer and have a role in economic development in areas such as grant management.
He also cited a need for the city clerk to develop policies and procedures for the mayor's office and the aldermen.
In addition to issuing permits, Young said the building official needed to be LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified by the Green Building Certification Institute within a 12-month period.
He also wants the building official to be knowledgeable of and inspect all phases of building (foundation, plumbing, electrical, structural, new gas lines, etc.).
Reader Comments
Posted: Thursday, July 16, 2009
Article comment by:
Jonathan Tullos
I agree with Mayor Young's actions. There is nothing wrong with questioning the way departments are run and making sure the right people are in the leadership positions. The board needs to get with the program. The days of "good ole boy" politics may be over and I welcome that change. Obviously I'm not the only one. After all Philadelphia does have a new mayor and one new member of the board (it should have been an entirely new board if you ask me).
