In this article I will address City Charter Section 4.02 which states " the Council shall consist of nine (9) members elected by the qualified voters of the City by nonpartisan ballot: one of whom shall be separately elected as the Mayor" and discuss the Mayor's voting privileges as a member of council. I will also show that council was wrong when they changed the rules on how committees work. Before I get to those issue though I think it is important to address those duties where the Mayor is a "figure head".
There is no doubt that if you look at Section 4.04 of the City Charter it recognizes that the Mayor has some ceremonial duties, just like other members of council, and that when council gets together to do those ceremonial duties, the Mayor is considered the head of City Government. For instance when council decides to participate in the 4th of July Parade the Charter expects the Mayor to be in front of the rest of the council members. So when you read "shall be recognized as head of the City Government for all ceremonial and nonadministrative purposes" in Section 4.04, you're right to conclude that the Mayor has some "figure head" like duties. However, you have to ignore the rest of Section 4.04 to conclude that the Mayor is "just" a figure head. For instance that section tells us:
1. The Mayor has all "the powers, rights and duties as a member of Council as provided under this Charter"
2. "the Mayor shall preside at meetings of Council"
3. the Mayor " shall serve as an ex-officio member of all Council appointed committees"
4. the Mayor shall be recognized as head of the City Government "by the Governor for military purpose"
5. "The Mayor shall have judicial powers and the other powers and privileges to which Mayors are entitled under general law and the Constitution of the State of Ohio, provided such other powers and privileges are consistent with the provisions of this Charter"
Hopefully, we never have an occasion where Marshal Law is declared by the Governor and duty 4. above is necessary. Duty 5. has been a pleasure so far because I've had the privilege of marrying a dozen couples.
Looking at duty 1. we do see that there is a caveat. The Mayor's responsibilities as a council members are "as provided under this Charter". Some people look at that caveat and then look at the sentence in Section 4.04 that states the Mayor, "shall not have the right to vote" and get hung up on these first seven words without considering the rest of the sentence. The rest of the sentence reads, "except in the cases where the vote for the remaining members of Council results in a tie vote, in which cases the Mayor must cast the deciding vote. The Mayor shall have the power to veto any ordinance or resolution enacted by Council except (i) those enacted as a result of the Mayor's casting the deciding vote, and (ii) those enacted by a vote of at least two-thirds (2/3) majority of Council." Examining the entire sentence you will see that for every vote before council the Mayor's power is superior than every other single council member. Don't get confused, I said, the Mayor's power is greater than one council member. I do know it is not greater than two council members. And this is proper in the Council - City Manager form of government where the Mayor is a member of council and not the day to day administrator of the city. It is good to have one member be a little more powerful than the rest, but it wouldn't be good to have a single person with too much influence. Otherwise someone might confuse us with the Ukraine.
Also, don't get confused into thinking that the Mayor's vote is less powerful than it really is just because there are a couple issues where I believe council choose the wrong course of action and I wasn't able to convince enough council members to choose a different path. As long as six council members choose to vote together the power shown by that coalition over powers the extra authority given to the Mayor in the City Charter. And that is the way the council should be set up. I say this even though I still believe if council had adopted my positions on the specific issues it would have produced better results for the city. But fundamentally I believe in the Council - City Manager form of government no one individual should be able to overpower six other council members. Hopefully, someday we will get to the place were residents have more influence on council members and some of the positions I champion get fair consideration. But making friends and influencing others is a different issue than how a government should be structured. So I can agree that our Charter is set up nicely and still wish for better execution and results.
I wrote the last two paragraphs so that we can compare the Mayor's voting power with any other single member of council. I've created a couple of tables below so we can visualize the voting power of the Mayor compared to the voting power of the Ward 3 representative. Looking at the results you can see overall the Mayor has much more influence over legislation than any single council member.
According to the City Charter council consists of nine members: The Mayor, Ward 1, Ward 2, Ward 3, Ward 4, Ward 5, Ward 6, At Large 1 and At Large 2.
Suppose all council members are present
| What if seven other members vote yes | While zero members vote no | If the representative from Ward 3 Votes yes | then Ward 3 influence on the outcome of the vote is none | And the Mayor's influence on the outcome of the vote is none |
So the Mayor's influence compared to the representative from Ward 3 influence is the same |
| What if seven other members vote yes | While zero members vote no | If the representative from Ward 3 Votes no | then Ward 3 influence on the outcome of the vote is none | And the Mayor's influence on the outcome of the vote is none |
So the Mayor's influence compared to the representative from Ward 3 influence is the same |
| What if six other members vote yes | While one member votes no | If the representative from Ward 3 Votes yes |
then Ward 3 influence on the outcome of the vote is none | And the Mayor's influence on the outcome of the vote is none | So the Mayor's influence compared to the representative from Ward 3 influence is the same |
| What if six other members vote yes | While one member votes no | If the representative from Ward 3 Votes no | then Ward 3 influence on the outcome of the vote is none | And the Mayor's influence on the outcome of the vote is none |
So the Mayor's influence compared to the representative from Ward 3 influence is the same |
| What if five other members vote yes | While two member votes no | If the representative from Ward 3 Votes yes | then Ward 3 influence on the outcome of the vote is none Caveat: it will prevent a Mayoral veto though so it influences the outcome of the legislation |
And the Mayor's influence on the outcome of the vote is none | So the Mayor's influence compared to the representative from Ward 3 influence is the less |
| What if five other members vote yes | While two member votes no | If the representative from Ward 3 Votes no | then Ward 3 influence on the outcome of the vote is none Caveat: it will allow a Mayoral veto though so it influences the outcome of the legislation |
Then the Mayor may choose to veto | The Mayor has more influence |
| What if four other members vote yes | While three member votes no | If the representative from Ward 3 Votes yes | then Ward 3 influence on the outcome of the vote is none |
Then the Mayor may choose to veto | The Mayor has more influence |
| What if four other members vote yes | While three member votes no | If the representative from Ward 3 Votes no |
This gives the Mayor the power to make decision | Mayor's vote decides the issue | The Mayor has more influence |
Suppose one council member is absent then the table changes
| What if six other members vote yes | While zero members vote no | If the representative from Ward 3 Votes yes | then Ward 3 influence on the outcome of the vote is none |
And the Mayor's influence on the outcome of the vote is none |
So the Mayor's influence compared to the representative from Ward 3 influence is the same |
| What if six other members vote yes | While zero members vote no | If the representative from Ward 3 Votes no | then Ward 3 influence on the outcome of the vote is none |
And the Mayor's influence on the outcome of the vote is none |
So the Mayor's influence compared to the representative from Ward 3 influence is the same |
| What if five other members vote yes | While one member votes no | If the representative from Ward 3 Votes yes | then Ward 3 influence on the outcome of the vote is none Caveat: it will prevent a Mayoral veto though so it influences the outcome of the legislation |
And the Mayor's influence on the outcome of the vote is none | So the Mayor's influence compared to the representative from Ward 3 influence is the less |
| What if five other members vote yes | While one member votes no | If the representative from Ward 3 Votes no | then Ward 3 influence on the outcome of the vote is none |
Then the Mayor may choose to veto | The Mayor has more influence |
| What if four other members vote yes | While two member votes no | If the representative from Ward 3 Votes yes | then Ward 3 influence on the outcome of the vote is none |
Then the Mayor may choose to veto | The Mayor has more influence |
| What if four other members vote yes | While two member votes no | If the representative from Ward 3 Votes no | then Ward 3 influence on the outcome of the vote is none |
Then the Mayor may choose to veto | The Mayor has more influence |
| What if three other members vote yes | While three member votes no | If the representative from Ward 3 Votes yes |
This gives the Mayor the power to make decision | Mayor's vote decides the issue | The Mayor has more influence |
| What if three other members vote yes | While three member votes no | If the representative from Ward 3 Votes no |
This gives the Mayor the power to make decision | Mayor's vote decides the issue | The Mayor has more influence |
I know I promised that I would talk about the "Rules of Council" changes that told us the rest of council decided that the Mayor shouldn't vote in committee meetings. Sorry, but I'm only taking 5 minutes to write out this section.
Remember one of the duties of the Mayor is " shall serve as an ex-officio member of all Council appointed committees". As an ex-officio member of a committee according to Roberts Rules of Order the Mayor should be given full membership rights of that committee. This includes voting rights and the right to be chairman of the committee. During the debate about the rules Council Member Tyler Starline also noted that the City Charter also makes the City Manager an ex-officio member of some city boards and when it does it specifically states that the City Manager is a non-voting member of these boards. As a lawyer Mr. Starline interprets that because the authors of the Charter specifically said the City Manager was a non-voting ex-officio member but didn't also state this when declaring that the Mayor was an ex-officio member then by default the Mayor is legally entitled to vote. This makes sense to me, even if I didn't take the time to write it clearly here.
Edited
Comments
Powers
Your examples are very in depth and detailed. The reality of the topic is, when was the last time any vote on council was anything but 8-0 or 7-1. You stand very little chance of ever getting to break a tie or veto anything the current council votes on. Hang in there, hopefully change is coming but it is going to take some time.
Thanks for the encouragement. In this article I was presenting a civics lesson on how the City Charter addresses the position of the Mayor and Council.
The fact that the Mayor hasn't voted or vetoed for quite some time is a political lesson.
These are two distinct items.
Recently, some factions have been purposely highlighting the political reality that council generally votes together in order to try and diminish the City Charter define role of the Mayor. This is done strictly for political reasons. I've been asking for things like a budget for the music center and the five planning reports that are supposed to be done for "The Heights" development. Instead of responding directly to these request these factions have under taken a campaign to try and marginalize the Mayor position so they can say things like, "I don't know why he thinks there should be a budget, he's only got a ceremonial position anyway".