This past summer St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Kriseman spent a considerable amount of time making perhaps the most important hire of his time in office — selecting a new police chief.
Though four candidates were announced as finalists in June, Kriseman was unsatisfied with his choices and ultimately selected Clearwater Police Chief Tony Holloway to replace Chuck Harmon, a choice that has been met almost universally with high praise.
But it was a bruising process, and in the middle of it City Attorney John Wolfe told the City Council that they should withhold their opinions on those four choices, lest they fall in violation of Section 4.05 of the City Charter. That section reads, "Neither the Council nor any of its committees or any of its members, individually or collectively, shall direct or request the appointment of anyone to, or removal from, office by the Mayor or any of the Mayor’s subordinates, or in any manner, directly or indirectly, take part in the appointment or removal of any officer or employee or members of boards in the administrative service of the City." It goes on to say that any violation of that order "shall be grounds for removal from office under Section 3.04(c)."
To most of the Council members, that seems like too severe a restriction on their right to express their opinion and be a watchdog on the Kriseman administration, or any future administration, which is why they voted in August to amend that provision and let the voters decide. The measure that St. Pete registered voters are now considering would "allow Council Members to express their personal opinion concerning the hiring by the Mayor of any chief or administrator or higher management level employees, while continuing to prohibit any formal action concerning hiring by City Council."
Sounds reasonable enough, Council members say, but not to the Tampa Bay Times editorial board, which huffed in an editorial on Tuesday that such a revision would lead to "further politicizing" of "City Hall's top jobs." It went on to say that the true risk from the initiative is the potential for a "grandstanding council member to interfere, mount a public campaign for a particular candidate and undermine the mayor's authority among his or her staff."
Council members naturally disagree.
"Major hires happen with some regularity, and to assume that the City Council would be so disconnected from that process that we would not even be allowed to voice our opinion is ridiculous," says City Councilman Karl Nurse, who led the board to approve the charter amendment.
"It doesn't give us hiring or firing authority, it just says that if we exercise our constitutional right, the city isn't going to try to have us removed from office," adds Councilman Steve Kornell.
Council members say they were queried throughout the community this summer as the search for a police chief grew nearer, leading to their frustration. Kornell says that his problem with the provision in the charter precedes this summer's imbroglio, but he was unsuccessful in attempting to get the Charter Review Board to address the matter.
"For the record, I think Anthony Holloway was a great hire, " Kornell says about the new police chief. "This is about the overall system."
Like her colleagues who support the measure, Council member Darden Rice says the Times editorial was an "overreaction," and says the issue is about free speech. "I think just being able to speak to the issue does not undermine the strong mayor form of government. I think freedom of speech only strengthens democracy, and it legitimizes mayoral decisions."
Nurse says in fact that Mayor Kriseman privately solicited the advice of himself and other council members, and he says that absolutely was to "directly or indirectly influence the outcome." He calls the response from the city's legal department an "amazing overreaction."
Former police chief and city administrator Goliath Davis penned an op-ed in the Weekly Challenger in August urging St. Petersburg voters to reject the charter revision, writing, "those who did not get the candidate of their choice seek to once again, change the rules."
Undoubtedly Mayor Kriseman opposes the measure as well, though he has made no formal statement against it.
This article appears in Oct 2-8, 2014.