Elected Officials: Rulers or Representatives?

The below excerpt from City of Houston Council Member Mike Knox's August newsletter, explains well the current situation between the Mayor and the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association. 

Elected Officials: Rulers or Representatives?

                                                              

Once again, the Houston Council is being confronted with another ethical issue. 

During July of 2017, the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association, Local 341, submitted a petition to amend the Charter of the City of Houston to require the city to pay Fire Fighters of comparable rank equal to the officers of the Houston Police Department.

The Fire Fighters followed the requirements of the city ordinance and collected the required signatures and turned them in to the City Secretary to be verified. The City Secretary failed to verify the signatures in a timely manner. The opportunity was lost to place the petition before the voters on the November 2017 ballot. Following a court order, the city secretary verified the required signatures. 

The Mayor has subsequently delayed placing the petition on the agenda for consideration by Council Members until August 8, 2018. The Mayor reasoned that he did not understand what parity means, how it is defined, or how much it would cost. Following weeks and months of questions by Council, and the attempt by some Council Members to force the item onto the agenda, the Mayor directed the Budget and Fiscal Affairs Committee (BFA Committee) to conduct a meeting. The purpose of this meeting was not to discuss placing the item onto the agenda but rather to inform Council Members about the merits and potential costs of the proposed City Charter Amendment.

Two things to note about the timing of this meeting. First, Council Members were informed by a memo from the city legal department that Council Members have a “ministerial duty” to place the item onto a ballot because the requirements to do so had been met. However, there is no requirement to place the item on the next available ballot. The suggestion was we, as Council Members, could vote to place the item on some future ballot beyond the upcoming November 2018 ballot. Second, The BFA meeting called was to focus on the costs to the city and the impact of those costs on the city budget. Therefore, the meeting provided Council Members the opportunity to legitimately postpone placing this item on the November 2018 ballot. Clearly, the unstated basis for the delay in placing the item on the November 2018 ballot is that it will adversely affect the current budget approved by council in May of 2018. The Mayor and several City Council Members do not agree with the content of the Fire Fighters’ petition. Therein lies the ethical issue.

Regardless of your stance on the issue, each Council Member and the Mayor must decide if it is their duty to rule over the citizens of Houston by denying this petition a place on the November 2018 ballot or, should they honor the process and represent their constituents by placing the item on the November 2018 ballot for the voters to decide. 

Should the Charter Amendment pass, there is no doubt significant changes will have to be made to the existing budget. By postponing or delaying the placement of the item on the ballot your city leaders are indicating they think they know better how to spend your money than you do. More importantly, the City Government is suggesting they can ignore the process and decide, based on whether or not they agree with the proposed amendment, to place it on the first available ballot or to delay the item to some future ballot.

The upcoming August vote by council to place the item on the November 2018 ballot will be very telling. The citizens of Houston will be able to clearly see which of their elected officials view themselves as rulers and which ones recognize their responsibility to represent the will of the people.

It is my belief I was elected to represent the citizens of Houston – not to rule over them. The city charter has a provision which allows the citizens to force the city to consider their concerns by using the petition process. We should respect that process. We should not work to circumvent it by delaying, slow walking, or ignoring these issues altogether. Therefore, regardless of what I think about the merits of the Fire Fighters’ petition, or for that matter any petition brought forth by the citizens of Houston, I will be supporting placing the item on the November 6, 2018 ballot.

Thank you Council Member Knox for the excellent explanation and for always asking the right questions. #tb