Council, Administration Differ Again

Skirmishes between the executive and legislative branches of city government continued on several fronts Monday.

The City Council approved two ordinances over the objections of the administration, one allowing the governing body to review city bills and another to lower the bidding threshold despite Gov. Chris Christie having recently raised the threshold. On bill review, City Administrator Bibi Taylor said the same results could be achieved through the current process. Lowering the bid threshold when state government just increased it would just cause extra work for city staff, Taylor claimed.

The bills ordinance passed 6-1, with council members Rashid Burney, Cory Storch, Adrian Mapp, Bridget Rivers, Linda Carter and Council President Annie McWilliams voting “yes” and William Reid voting “no.” The bid threshold ordinance passed 5-2, with Burney, Rivers, Storch, Mapp and McWilliams voting "yes" and Carter and Reid voting "no."

The council also continued to probe why Recreation Superintendent Dave Wynn is apparently avoiding cooperation with a newly-formed Recreation Committee. Last week, committee chairman Dwayne Wilkins said Wynn attended only one of the committee’s six meetings so far and imposed rules for how the committee could communicate with officials. Wilkins said the committee’s attempts to get basic information on recreation programs met with resistance, leaving the group stalled in its mission to make recommendations.

On Monday, Wynn was expected to attend the council meeting, but his superior, Public Works Director David Brown II, said Wynn called out sick and did not report for work that day.

The council had withdrawn an ordinance that would have created a Recreation Commission with broader powers than the current committee, but it will be brought back in September.

Another controversy over Housing Authority appointments thickened as new information came out Monday on rules for holdovers. Commissioner Rickey Williams, initially appointed to a three-month unexpired term, has stayed on since 2006 in what the administration calls a “holdover” position.

Throughout the discussion in recent weeks, Corporation Counsel Dan Williamson has insisted that Williams had holdover status, but on Monday McWilliams said his stance, while it does not violate the letter of the law, “violates the spirit of the law.”

Mapp suggested that the council “pursue legal action” to settle the issue of Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs’ insistence on the holdover, the mayor claimed the council refused to vote on the candidate she brought forward.

She urged the council to “go ahead and review” the issue.

But then City Clerk Laddie Wyatt informed the council that Williams’ name was withdrawn after being submitted in 2006, so the council had no chance to give advice and consent to the appointment. In public comment later, former Housing Authority Commissioner Robert Wilson said that state rules limit holdovers to two years, raising the question of whether Williams’ votes were null and void after the first two years.

Williamson said he would research the issues. Reid spoke against taking legal action, calling for the branches to settle the matter among themselves.

A further question arose over the submission and withdrawal of the name of Ken Scott as a Housing Authority commissioner on the same resolution with Williams in 2006. Scott was subsequently approved, but Storch asked which one of the two was the mayoral appointment. Robinson-Briggs had left the meeting by then.

The confusion pointed up the reason for the recent clashes between the two branches, as the council has pushed for greater fiscal oversight and resolution of outstanding issues such as holdovers on boards and commissions. But the administration has claimed the governing body is usurping powers of the executive branch. Council watchers are expecting more of the same in coming weeks.

--Bernice Paglia