Introduction
In the ongoing silliness that makes residents’ eyes roll. But this actually matters. It’s one of a zillion examples where the Mayor uses the fact that most people have no idea how limited his authority is. He uses the title to take advantage of situations big and small–as has every mayor since i’ve lived here.
Over the years, the Council has created various ‘Advisory Committees’ by a vote and ordinance as defined in the Des Moines Municipal Code. These positions are nominated by the Mayor, then approved by the full Council.
To add to the fun, also over the years, some members of the City staff (most notably the Chief of Police) have created personal “advisory” groups to gather feedback from the community. To avoid confusion, I’m going to refer to them as “Listening Groups”, because, as the Mayor says below, that’s their purpose. Theye have no legal connection to the City Council and no one on the Council has authority over them. Whoever organises a listening group makes the rules and anyone who attends (like councilmembers) are just like any other member of the public.
Chief Thomas has several such listening groups and I have been attending one of them–by invitation of the Chief–on and off since I was elected in 2020.
The last part of this setup is that, *I’ve been booted off, then re-invited, booted off again, then re-invited again, and now threatened to be re-re-booted off again now three times. 😀 The Chief invites me, but then someone else, apparently dis-invites me from the Chief’s group for some made up reason.
It’s like a bad divorce where you need a court order just to ride the elevator together.
On 9/6/2022 4:43 PM, Matt Mahoney wrote: Councilmember Harris, It has come to my attention you attended today’s Police *Advisory Board without designation to do so. Per our previous conversation I had requested you to no longer attend those meetings. The primary purpose of this meeting is for the police chief, his staff and selected residents to share their thoughts and views on various subjects concerning Public Safety. It is not and has never been a place for a councilmember to push a personal agenda. As I stated in our previous conversation, I received several complaints from many different parties who attend concerning your comments, domination of time and distractions you created from the overall purpose of the meeting. It is for these reasons I asked you to no longer attend. According to council rules, should you have questions etc. you are to contact the city manager either with your questions or concerns, or ask for permission to speak to the Police Chief. I have asked city staff to remove you from invites and reiterate my request that you no longer attend these meetings. I expect you to honor this request. Matt Mahoney 425-941-6298 Mayor Des Moines City Council
Mayor,
1. You are attempting to exercise authority you do not have. Perhaps the name is confusing. Chief Thomas’ group is one of his private listening groups, not a Council Advisory Committee. (Maybe we should change this nomenclature to avoid future confusion?) Please check DMMC 4.24 which provides a list of Council Advisory Committees and the rules governing appointments. This is not such a group. And even if it were, you would not have the authority to remove anyone from such a group arbitrarily. The Code has a specific public process.
2. In my opinion you have repeatedly committed Councilmember Interference in violation of RCW 35a.13.120. You have no authority to directly ‘request’ the staff to do anything not specifically mentioned in our Rules of Procedure. By directing the Chief to remove me earlier in the year and stating in writing your intention to do so now, you are directing staff to take a specific form of action outside your authority. Is that really what you wanted to write?
In short, you had no authority of any kind concerning to (cough) ‘remove’ me earlier in the year. You have no authority to get upset now. And you have been and continue to violate State law by attempting to direct staff, which is the sole province of the City Manager.
3. The group invited me, I attended and am grateful. I hope the Chief continues to do so. I think it would send a positive signal that the Department welcomes voices from the entire community. There is -no- evidence of -any- complaints by group members. So hopefully, the members themselves recognise that value as well. If there are concerns (I cannot imagine what they might be since I have not heard them) I would welcome a chance to address them.
That’s really all I have to say of any consequence. But on a personal note…
You can continue to attempt to push the envelope for whatever reason. I get it; the urge is almost irresistible. Plus, it’s so easy to cross the line when almost no one understands what ‘Mayor’ truly means in Council/Manager government. But you know that you are simply one of seven, sir.
But your actual authority is to hold a gavel a couple of times a month. Sign letters on behalf of the Council. Cut ribbons on behalf of the Council. You are simply a mouthpiece for decisions made by the Council. As individuals we are nothing. For better or worse that was the form of government the people chose and my belief is that we should take pains to respect the process.
After 30 years here my experience has been that the best thing a mayor can do for Des Moines is to exercise restraint. Stick to Rule 5. Because every time a mayor tried to make the job into something it’s not, bad things happen.
Sincerely,
—JC
Councilmember Harris, You are not designated for this group. You fail to understand the intent of the group! You take away from the purpose of the group! The request was made thru the City Manager. All your questions and comments are to go thru the City Manager. There is nothing more to say. I stand by my decision and will be more than glad to have our city attorney interpret our actions right or wrong. Matt
If the Council and City Manager have been willing to enable your abuse of, sadly that has been the pattern here for 30 years. Hopefully at least a few members of the Council will realise that this is illegal, corrupt and contrary to the spirit of C/M/G and will be willing to speak up on its behalf.
—JC
*Timeline
- In Autumn 2020 City Manager Matthias was upset about something he read in this blog and apparently ‘ordered’ Chief Thomas to give me the boot.
- In October 2021 Chief Thomas re-invited me saying it was “his group and not up to the City Manager”.
- In April 2022 Mayor Mahoney said he was kicking me off under his authority as Mayor–which the Chief said was not true at all.
- The next week, the City web site was changed to show that Councilmember Pennington had been assigned to the Police Advisory Committee. Which again, is not an actual Council assignment. (In fact, lots of CMs have cycled in and out of this listening group over time. Again, again, it’s just a listening group by invitation of Chief Thomas.)
- Then last Friday I got re-re-invited. So I attended the 6 September meeting. Nothing exciting happened, trust me. 😀
- And the following day I got the following email from Mayor Mahoney.
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