A couple of you asked me some further clarification questions vis a vis
appointments offline, but they were good ones that other people are probably
curious about, so I’ll answer them on the list.
Question: Does the council have to approve or reject Mayoral appointments
within a certain amount of time?
Answer: Yes. The council has thirty days from the time they are given the
appointment to take action on it. If they approve/reject it earlier than 30
days, that is fine. If they take no action, it is considered approved. For
background, the time limit was set so that a council could not stall the
government by refusing to act.
Question: Can council members be appointed to other committees, boards, or
commissions? (The person who asked seemed to indicate this would be a bad idea,
as council members have a lot to do as a council).
Answer: The charter does currently allow that, but this was an issue that came
up during the campaign. Mayor-elect Spicer and some council candidates
indicated they’d be in favor of an ordinance or a charter revision that would
prevent this, so I’d imagine this might be an early decision of the Council and
Mayor.
Lastly, not a question, but some kudos for the current Board of Selectman, the
town Council and Mayor-elect Spicer. Tonight Ms. Tully Stoll had an agenda item
that welcomed the new Mayor and tasked Town Council to create a summary of
tasks that needed to happen as part of the transition. His summary memo had 23
items, many of which need to happen before 1/1/18, though others will happen in
the months after. As someone who worked on the Charter, I was aware of most of
these items, but having them in one place summarized is tremendously helpful to
the new Council and to the Mayor. Ms. Spicer spoke positively but realistically
about the work ahead, but if the new government collaborates the way the Board
of Selectman, Town Council, and Town Manager did in support of the Mayor-elect
and Council-elect, we will be in good shape. I hope and assume that memo will
be online somewhere for the public to see in the days to come if it is not
already. Special thanks to Chair Tully Stoll for helping make this happen.
Rest of post
> On Nov 14, 2017, at 3:43 PM, Adam Blumer
<<email obscured>> wrote:
>
> Ned- you are only partially correct.
>
> The Mayor appoints Division Heads and members of committees.
>
> Division Heads are appointed in the way Ned describes. He/She gets to pick
the people to lead departments. Councill has some oversight, but it requires a
⅔ majority to REJECT those appointments. the thinking was that this is the
Mayor’s team, and the Mayor will be rightfully judged by their performance, so
they deserve the leeway to pick those members. (additionally, once picked, they
have 3 year contracts, so a new Mayor may or may not be able to automatically
pick new people immediately upon coming to office)
>
> Committee membership only requires 51% of the council to reject an
appointment. According to those bylaws, most of those are 3 year terms too.
>
> Numerically, the Mayor will appoint far more people where the council can
reject by simple majority than he/she will where the council needs ⅔ majority
to reject.
>
>> On Nov 14, 2017, at 3:26 PM, Ned Price <<email obscured>> wrote:
>>
>> It is my understanding that the mayor can make any appointments she wishes
unless 2/3 of 11 = 8 city councilors take an affirmative action to oppose the
appointment within 30 days. Thus the mayor only needs 4 councilors to assure
approval.
>>
>> Is this correct?
>>
>> Does the mayor have 4 such votes on the present council?
>
>
>
> Adam Blumer
> Framingham
> About/contact Adam Blumer: http://forums.e-democracy.org/p/adamblumer
>
>
> Be sure to read our charter at
http://forums.e-democracy.org/groups/framgov/charter.
>
>
> ------------------------
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