Culver City voters have had the chance to vote to tax themselves for school repairs, help City Hall raise money during the last recession and make hotel guest pay higher room taxes over the last several years.
This November, local leaders will be asking them to decide whether the City Council should retain the authority to hire and fire the chiefs of the city’s first responders or if that duty should be passed to the city manager.
During the 2006 city charter review, the review recommended changing to a city manager led government that would give Culver City’s chief executive the authority to hire City Hall department heads. But they carved out keeping the hiring of the police chief, fire chief and city attorney under the council’s purview.
A yes vote to give City Manager John Nachbar responsible for hiring and firing the chiefs would require a change to the city charter, which is in effect Culver City’s constitution.
Vice Mayor Jeffery Cooper says the city manager is better equipped to know on a much more regular basis how a police or fire chief is performing.
“The reality is whatever happens in the city comes to us anyway but the city manager is there every day,” Cooper said.
His colleague Meghan –Sahli-Wells sees losing the authority of who runs the public safety departments differently. “Elected officials are the ones who are directly accountable to the residents and the voters. Keeping [the power of hiring and firing] doesn’t mean that we don’t approve of the job that they’re doing,” Sahli-Wells explained. “It means that this model that we’re using now is working.”
After attending a national conference of municipal legislators, Sahli-Wells said she learned that there was, in her words, “a lot of frustration among councils” where many municipal leaders want to enact certain reforms in their departments but were unable to due to their lack of control over police and fire chiefs.
While some cities can function well with the city manager deciding who runs their city’s public safety departments, an incident that made national headlines underscored how things can go wrong when there is no legislative oversight.
Kelly Thomas, a 37 year-old homeless man was beaten by Fullerton police following a confrontation near the city’s transportation center on July 5, 2011. Thomas died as a result of his substantial injuries after five days in a coma and his father sued the city.
Fullerton’s city manager is responsible for hiring the police chief.
Culver City political consultant Jewett Walker had an up close and personal view of what transpired in Fullerton because his client was running for a seat on the Fullerton City Council, which he eventually won. That case is etched in Walker’s mind because he saw how public outrage descended on the council where three sitting councilmen were recalled in the 2012 election amid protests and calls to fire the police chief.
“The political fallout was so great that the council had to assume control of what happened even though the city manager hired the police chief,” he recalled. “The city manager didn’t suffer the consequences for anything. It was the city council who had to take responsibility for what happened, even though they didn’t hire the police chief. They were the ones that the citizens held accountable.”
Thomas’ family was awarded almost $ 5million in a civil lawsuit against the city and the police department.
Sahli-Wells points to the plight of former Culver City Police Chief Donald Pederson, who was given a vote of no confidence by the department’s union during a year- long clash of wills four years ago. Because the city council has the authority to hire and fire the chief, Pederson survived the controversy with the council’s backing.
“We don’t know what would have happened if we didn’t have the authority to hire and fire the police and fire chiefs,” she noted.
Cooper is not persuaded by arguments that the council should preserve the responsibility of deciding who should be in charge running the first responder agencies. “We’re the watch keepers of the city and its eyes and ears,” he said. “Our job is to set policy- not to micromanage our city manager.”
The election will be held on Nov. 8. In order to change the city’s charter, a two-thirds vote by the public is required.
Gary Walker contributed to this story.