CHARTER PANEL UNABLE TO PASS COUNCIL VETO RULE; UNIONS WANT REFORMS TO LIMIT CITY COMMISSIONS' AUTHORITY.Byline: Patrick McGreevy Daily News Staff Writer Despite pressure from city employee unions that fear too much power will be shifted to the mayor, Los Angeles' elected Charter Reform Commission failed to agree Monday that the City Council retain some power to veto veto [Lat.,=I forbid], power of one functionary (e.g., the president) of a government, or of one member of a group or coalition, to block the operation of laws or agreements passed or entered into by the other functionaries or members. In the U.S. actions by mayor-appointed boards. With six of the 15 commissioners absent, the panel deadlocked dead·lock n. 1. A standstill resulting from the opposition of two unrelenting forces or factions. 2. Sports A tied score. 3. 7-2, one vote short of the margin needed to pass the veto recommendation. Commissioners Bennett Kayser and Marcos Castaneda voted against the recommendation, with Kayser concerned that it exempted critical issues such as personnel decisions by city commissions. The commission was considering a compromise that eliminates the council's authority to substitute its own action for the decision of city boards. The compromise proposed that the council be given power to simply veto an action with a two-thirds majority and send it back to the originating board for reconsideration re·con·sid·er v. re·con·sid·ered, re·con·sid·er·ing, re·con·sid·ers v.tr. 1. To consider again, especially with intent to alter or modify a previous decision. 2. . ``I think there is a need for a check on the executive branch,'' said Commission Chairman Erwin Chemerinsky Erwin Chemerinsky (born 1953) is a well-known professor of Constitutional law and federal civil procedure, has recently accepted a position at the University of California, Irvine, in the new Donald Bren School of Law, beginning in 2009. . Chemerinsky said city boards and commissions appointed by the mayor to oversee city departments sometimes make policy decisions that might conflict with the position of the City Council, which is the city's primary policy-making pol·i·cy·mak·ing or pol·i·cy-mak·ing n. High-level development of policy, especially official government policy. adj. Of, relating to, or involving the making of high-level policy: entity. Librarian Guild member Ivan Corpeno-Chavez agreed. ``There should be a court of last resort for decisions of the commissions,'' he said. The commission deadlocked on the proposal to eliminate the council's current power to overturn board personnel decisions and actions involving contracts of less than three years in duration. Currently, the City Council has broad power to take jurisdiction of board actions and substitute the council's own decision. The power was granted eight years ago when voters approved Proposition 5. However, the charter panel voted two months ago to rescind To declare a contract void—of no legal force or binding effect—from its inception and thereby restore the parties to the positions they would have occupied had no contract ever been made. rescind v. Proposition 5 as it is currently worded. The charter panel has not agreed on any substitute provision, and likely will take the issue up again in the coming weeks. That prospect that the council could lose control over the actions of city commissions was a concern for union officials who have complained that it could lead to appointed boards running amok
Running amok, sometimes referred to as simply amok (also spelled amuck or amuk with no oversight by the elected City Council. Julie Butcher, who heads a union representing 10,000 blue-collar workers blue-collar worker n → obrero/a blue-collar worker n → ouvrier/ère col bleu blue-collar worker n → , said the erosion of Proposition 5 powers was cause for concern given the charter panel's previous actions to transfer other powers from the council to the mayor, including authority over firing department heads. Several golfers who use the Encino-Balboa Golf Course told the commission Monday night that Proposition 5 allowed the Council to prevent the city Parks Commission from awarding a contract at the course to the fourth-lowest bidder, rather than the lowest bidder. |
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