Common Council Finds Little

Of Merit In Charter Review

By JIM KEVLIN • allotsego.com

ONEONTA – For a rancorous 90 minutes this evening, Common Council debated the 20-page Charter Review Commission report and decided to do little about its recommendations.

“The council feels, virtually unanimously, that the charter was implemented,” Mayor Dick Miller said when it was over, summing up the sense of the board.  Miller had appointed the commission to review the charter, approved by a wide margin in 2011, after the first city manager, Mike Long, retired May 31 after only 18 months on the job.

There was a general agreement on streamlining Common Council’s committee structure, folding five committees into two: Finance & Administration, including Human Resources, and Facilities & Community Improvements.

The Police Committee, a committee of the whole, would be replaced by reports from the police and fire chiefs, as well as the code enforcement officer, directly to council during its regular meetings.

There were some other adjustments, and Miller said he would issue a memorandum in the next few days specifying them.

MORE DETAILS IN THIS WEEK’S HOMETOWN ONEONTA

The evening was one of rancor, with Council member David Rissberger, who chaired the original Charter Commission, focusing criticism on the ad for a city manager that said a bachelor’s degree was satisfactory, when the charter calls for an MPA.

Council member Chip Holmes pointed out that City Attorney David Merzig had approved the change. “We had Merzig in on the whole thing,” he said.

Other debate surrounded whether and when Council members should circumvent a city manager and go directly to department heads. “If things aren’t getting done,” said Holmes, “then you have to bypass him to get it done.”

Working through a city manager “is a very new idea for us,” said Council member Maureen Hennessy. “That is a sea change for us.” But, she added, “with an effective city manager, that will take a lot of the angst out of it for us.”

Oneonta’s second city manager, Marty Murphy, who was sworn in during a ceremony earlier in the evening, sat through the meeting at the mayor’s left hand, and offered opinions when asked.

In a couple of instances, he suggested trying a couple of approaches for sixth months, then adjust as appropriate.