- A three part charter amendment was discussed at City Council
- It would give the council authority to vote out members
- Watch to learn more about the amendment
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
A three part charter amendment was discussed at City Council, aimed to hold members accountable for discrimination and promoting self interest over constituents.
Some people are calling the amendment the Vinny Palermo rule.
Palermo is a former who was charged with multiple counts of wire fraud, conspiracy, and abuse of public trust and while he was in jail, Palermo received city funds and health care benefits despite not attending city council meetings.
City Council Aimee Melton says it is in an effort to protect city employees and make sure something like that doesn't happen again.
"Literally a council member could commit a misdemeanor, be convicted of it against one of our city employees. I literally could punch one of our employees be convicted of it and still show up the next week at council. And as egregious as all of my colleagues here think it would be, they don't have any way to even reprimand me for it. I think that's wrong," said Melton.
Grounds for removal under this amendment include:
If the city council member moves out of their district (with exceptions for redistricting), if they commit an egregious act of discrimination or if a council member misses four consecutive meetings.
For a member to be removed council would need 6 yes votes.
Some feel it's an attack on current council members. District two council representative Juanita Johnson spoke about her concerns that this new ordinance could be used to remove members that are not liked.
"It is unconstitutional to violate the will of the voters by silencing or removing a member who has not been, has not violated any legal or lawful laws simply because certain members of the body either do not like care for or are offended by the member's comments or actions," said Johnson.
City Council voted 6-1 to approve each of these ordinances, next neighbors will get the chance to vote on these changes.
