03/15/2011 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 03-15-2011 When the city is under litigation from an outside source or is involved in a contractual issue between labor and management, then the Law Director's advice is solid. This is something different - an internal issue and public issue. Lambert asked Council to ignore the Law Director's instructions and to seek out as much information as they can to make a decision. He reminded Council that the Civil Service Commission is a separate commission under the Charter and it is not under the direct jurisdiction of the Law Dept., the Administration or the legislative body. Councilman Mahoney said you're asking us to ignore the advice of our Law Director and follow the advice of a lay person. How can I responsibly do that? Lambert said you are an attorney and you understand the legislative process. Just because the Director of Law is appointed to advise you, it doesn't mean that everything that comes out of his mouth is absolutely solid information. Law Director Gareau said get your legal advice from a lawyer, and he thanked Councilman Mahoney from pointing that out. People are entitled to due process of law. Mr. Ubaldi is entitled to due process of law. He addressed Council - Mr. Lambert is suggesting that you gather your evidence in an arena outside of where Mr. Ubaldi can actually assess what it is that you've learned. The reason I asked you not to go out and independently fact find is the same advice I give to the BZA. It's because the issue will be decided here and not decided on rumor, innuendo, forums, web pages or anonymous sources. If you're going to give somebody a fair opportunity, then it's decided here and not in the street. Take Mr. Lambert's legal advice and reject it. The information that you need to make a decision will be presented to you in front of Mr. Ubaldi and not behind his back and Mr. Lambert's suggested arena would allow for. I reject that position and you should too. Lambert addressed Council and said if you were a judicial body, then he would be absolutely correct, but you're not. You're a legislative body and there is the difference. Gareau said in both forums you are entitled to due process of law. Tim Smith, 6053 Sherwood Drive said he is not sure he can attend the meeting next Tuesday, but he wants to address Council. Last year as a member of the Charter Review Commission, they were approached by the Mayor to open up the hiring and testing for the police and fire Chief to outside the departments and to try and make it easier to hire people from outside so he can attract the best candidates. It was met with resistance from the police and fire department and from the Commission itself. It did resurface with a Charter Amendment that proposed taking the civil service protection away from the bargaining units. The people saw that for what it was and decided that the bargaining units should have that protection for hiring, firing and promotions. The people voted in favor of keeping that protection for the bargaining units. People know he attends meetings and have asked him what's going on with civil service and who are they trying to replace the Chief with? The Civil Service Commission is independent and should be independent of all political influence from the Administration and politicians in this city. He hopes this isn't an attempt to replace someone who is trying to exercise the independence of the commission with someone who is friendlier to the position of the Administration. It will be a long process to replace the Chief. Maybe Mr. Ubaldi made a mistake and posted it and tried to go before, but it was in the best interest of the city to get this out there as soon as possible. Please take that into consideration next Tuesday, and the city needs to retain someone that does exercise the independence of the commission the way that the people want and the way that it has served the people for a 11