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December 24, 1997 To: Council ~~ From: Ed Boyle~•!"~r Subject: Ordi~nc~'97-122 I have examined the captioned ordinance with a great deal of interest, both as a government official, manager and most of all as a citizen of North Olmsted. This has lead me to several questions which I have stated below. The second "WHEREAS" implies that vacancies at the Director level e~tist from December 31st until a new Mayor can make appointments. This is not true. Those appointments have always been made, without trouble, in the time period befinreen the General Election that changes the Mayor and December 31st. This year has been no exception as the new appointments were made public in the December 18th edition of the Sun Newspapers. Even when the General Election was held in December (1985) the Mayor found no problem in making appointments. Some may remember that the director of PubNc Safety position remained vacant but I would remind you that the Mayor in that case attempted to assume those duties herself. It was that attempt that caused the delayed appointment and not a search for the proper person or an attempt to secure the services of the outgoing Director. In fact the person who eventually became Director was hired as Administrative Assistant during the interim and then moved. The third "WHEREAS" implies that past Administrations have been unable to retain directors from prior Administrations because of the lack of a proper law. In fact the past three Administrations have had no problem retaining Mr. Copeland as Director of Human Resources. This same "WHEREAS° includes the words "for a specific time periodA. This is very curious since the new Chapter 133 does not give a "specific time period'°. k states in 133.03 that "the Mayor may at any time remove the interim Director. Keeping your attention on that same "WHEREAS" and 133.03 let me bring to light yet another inconsistency. The "WHEREAS" obviously refers to the beginning of a new term or there would be no reference to prior Administrat~ns. In speaking with many of you I believe this was your intention but 133.03 does not refer to the beginning of a term, it only states "for a period not to exceed one year. That period can easily be any one year period within a term. Speaking of intention, I believe the voters of this City had an intention in mind when they passed Article III, Section 5, paragraph 2 of our Charter. This states that "the Mayor may during his term, without concurrence of Council, remove any officer or employee whom he has appointed provided, however, that heads of departments or divisions created by this Charter may only be removed with the concurrence of two- thirds (2/3) of the members of Council eligible to vote." The intention was to have