What do you want on City Council?

[kraig]

kraig,

Your question was a good one.

You might also want to ask: "What do you want in voters?", because some don't even seem to know the purpose of City Council. If they don't understand the real role Council plays, and the power it does and does not have, how will they know what qualities they should seek in a Council person. They'll elect the person who promises to keep the streetlights on, rather than the person who talks about ensuring that the budget is aligned with priorities. The first sounds better, but Council can't do anything but pester department heads. The second sounds vague, but it is actually the thing that Council can do to ensure proper focus.

That's an excellent point.

[Hypestyles]

20% pay cuts across the board.. no more "fact finding" mission trips where they stay at pricey hotels and have first-class plane tickets, unlimited expense account, etc.

a true spirit of cooperation and zeal to do right by the citizens of the city, but at the same time be cognizant that regionalism is the key to future progress of all..

transparency on decision making.

focus on real neighborhood issues. No more debates on renaming streets!

no more pointless proposals, i.e, impeach George Bush [[?!?), etc.

[Locke09]

Amen to 99% of what you said Hypestyles.

My only disagreement is on the pay cuts, because I believe you get what you pay for.

Detroit needs a full-time council, because of the number and complexity of issues they have to deal with. That council needs to be adequately compensated so they don't have to have secondary gigs and are less vulnerable to "gifts" offered by those who wish to shape their votes. Those councilmembers need to be sharp, critical thinkers who are capable of assessing proposals. Those proposals might be those affecting finances [[contracts, budgets, etc.) those affecting quality of life [[incinerators, fees, etc.) or those affecting sustainability [[regionalism, down-sizing Detroit, etc.). We need people capable of dissecting the facts and evaluating the opinions in order to make good decisions.

I'm afraid a salary in the 60's excludes many of the caliber of people we need. Unless they're retired or independently wealthy. We also don't need businessmen who still have to run their businesses and are only giving part-time attention to council. Or media personalities who have to take a lot of speaking engagements in order to supplement their council pay.Or entertainers who have to do likewise.

Just my thinking at this point.

[Hypestyles]

Amen to 99% of what you said Hypestyles.


Detroit needs a full-time council, because of the number and complexity of issues they have to deal with. That council needs to be adequately compensated so they don't have to have secondary gigs and are less vulnerable to "gifts" offered by those who wish to shape their votes. Those councilmembers need to be sharp, critical thinkers who are capable of assessing proposals. Those proposals might be those affecting finances [[contracts, budgets, etc.) those affecting quality of life [[incinerators, fees, etc.) or those affecting sustainability [[regionalism, down-sizing Detroit, etc.). We need people capable of dissecting the facts and evaluating the opinions in order to make good decisions.

we definitely need critical thinkers/intellectuals on council who can reason by logic and pragmatism.. not robots, but definitely not the people who are prone to resort to tent-revival rhetoric like the current crop of folks..

[sumas]

I think I will stick with my part time solution. Our full time council seems prone to graft too. The city also has no problem re hiring former officials that did time in prison for bribe taking.

Did anyone else notice that Bing, Cockrel and Conyers all showed up for work Monday at 11:00 am?

[Locke09]

I think I will stick with my part time solution. Our full time council seems prone to graft too. The city also has no problem re hiring former officials that did time in prison for bribe taking.

Did anyone else notice that Bing, Cockrel and Conyers all showed up for work Monday at 11:00 am?

Well, I think we can give Bing a pass because he wasn't mayor until he was certified and sworn in.

As for the Councilmembers, I view their treating council as a part-time job as a big part of the problem. Watson is an exception.

[OriginalG313]

I think I will stick with my part time solution. Our full time council seems prone to graft too. The city also has no problem re hiring former officials that did time in prison for bribe taking.

Did anyone else notice that Bing, Cockrel and Conyers all showed up for work Monday at 11:00 am?

Showing up at 11:00 am does not mean they could not have been working prior to showing up.

[firstandten]

kraig,

Your question was a good one.

You might also want to ask: "What do you want in voters?", because some don't even seem to know the purpose of City Council. If they don't understand the real role Council plays, and the power it does and does not have, how will they know what qualities they should seek in a Council person. They'll elect the person who promises to keep the streetlights on, rather than the person who talks about ensuring that the budget is aligned with priorities. The first sounds better, but Council can't do anything but pester department heads. The second sounds vague, but it is actually the thing that Council can do to ensure proper focus.

people don't understand that under the strong mayor form of government City council member do a lot of routine activities, Now they can introduce ordinances, spend lots of time on resolutions and other ceremonial type stuff but Mon Con statement that this is a part-time job is probably not too far off the mark. Maybe we need to start treating it as such.