Do We Elect Aldermen to Rubber Stamp the Mayor's Agenda?

Searcy, Arkansas, has a mayor-council form of city government. According to the National League of Cities (NLC), the mayor-council form of city government includes the following characteristics:

• "Separation of powers between directly elected mayor and city council
• Mayor has executive powers while council has legislative powers
• Mayor is directly elected to office, often full-time and paid"

The separation of powers should result in the Mayor overseeing the day-to-day operation of the city, and the City Council authorizes spending, appoints commission and board members, and passes ordinances and resolutions that serve as the laws of the city. Since Mayor Belinda LaForce maintains tight control over the City Council meeting agenda, the subjects that can be brought before the City Council are limited.

Based on the Searcy City Council meeting minutes from January 2009 to September 2010, this current group of aldermen (Nutter, Arnett, Dixon, Sterling, English, Liles, Brewer, and Chalenburg) have voted approximately 400 times in those 21 months. Roughly 85 percent of those votes were procedural, authorized spending, or were appointments of commission and board members. Almost all of those 340 votes were unanimous. In the remaining 60 or so votes, one or more aldermen voted against a motion, an ordinance, a resolution, or a procedural step in enacting an ordinance or resolution.

Five aldermen (Arnett, Dixon, Sterling, English, and Chalenburg) voted for every item Mayor LaForce placed on Council meeting agendas during those 21 months. The other three aldermen voted against the following agenda items:

• The A&P Tax ordinance without referring it to the people for an election
• An ordinance permitting people who live outside Searcy to serve on Searcy's Parks and Recreation Advisory Board
• The unconstitutional appointment of the initial seven A&P Commissioners
• A resolution making Searcy city elections nonpartisan
• An ordinance limiting the deadline for the people to submit referendum petitions to 30 days
• The Searcy Tree Board ordinance that allows the city to remove citizens' trees, plants, and shrubs that overhang city rights of way
• An ordinance establishing new inspection fees for large scale developments

The other "No" votes in the past 21 months were cast by one or more aldermen for motions and other non-agenda items brought up during City Council meetings.

Most of the agenda items listed above that were rejected by 3/8 of the City Council were unpopular with the people of Searcy.

• A majority of voters rejected the A&P tax.
• As discussed in a March 4, 2010, article in the Daily Citizen, The Mayor LaForce herself noted that the "residency issue" for "A&P commissioners Oliver Montano, Bob White and Amanda Foust" "needed to be resolved."
• A major topic of discussion on News Talk 99.1 during the third week of October was nonpartisan elections with many callers not understanding the change and some strongly disagreeing with it. They even made it a "Talk Back" subject.
• The ordinance limiting the deadline to file referendum petitions is a repeat of the attempt to suppress the people's right to vote (albeit, this time a legal one)
• More fees for large scale development could discourage such activity, and those costs are often passed on to the the people who will be living or shopping in those newly developed areas.

Do We Elect Aldermen to Rubber Stamp the Mayor's Agenda?
Alderman Mary Ann Arnett has voted with the group of alderman that rubber-stamp Mayor LaForce's agenda whether the people want it or not (and in some cases, whether it is legal or not). As our city legislators and representatives, our aldermen should listen to what the people say, not what the Mayor tells them to do.