Asheville City Council Extra

Getting away from it all: Asheville City Council members during their retreat at the Municipal Building. photo by Jonathan Welch

It’s just not a new year until the Asheville City Council sequesters itself for its annual retreat. Historically, this is a time for Council members to state their individual goals for the next 12 months and participate in team-building exercises led by an outside facilitator.

That happened at this year’s two-day event, held Jan. 20-21 on the fourth floor of the Municipal Building, as Council members reflected on fulfilled goals from last year and indicated their preference for certain initiatives by affixing stickers to topics posted on the wall. Gradually, the top priorities emerged, and the short list of big issues included: energy and environment, sidewalks and greenways, funding for mass transit, tax relief, housing, planning-and-zoning enforcement and eliminating hard drugs. Familiar topics all, but the list did illustrate this Council’s ideals, as did the longer lists of personal passions each Council member shared with the group.

But perhaps the most telling part of the weekend came during the discussions, when Council members made some revealing comments. One big issue was the length of Council meetings, some of which have stretched to the six-hour mark over the past year. And with the lineup unchanged for 2007, Council members considered ways to communicate more effectively and thereby make meetings shorter.

Here are some snippets that convey the flavor of those exchanges:

• The meeting agenda is set by the mayor; city staff and Council members can ask that particular items be included. With individual Council members working on various projects and initiatives, it’s sometimes hard for the left hand to know what the right is doing. Additionally, Council member Carl Mumpower‘s recent criticism of the Police Department’s drug-interdiction efforts has focused attention on the legalities of Council/staff interactions.

• Mayor Terry Bellamy: “We have got to set the bar up. We’ve got to do better.”

• Council member Bryan Freeborn: “We can help each other out more if we know what each of us are doing.”

• Bellamy: “We don’t say, ‘This person has to go,’ or ‘That person has to go.’ But we can express opinions. I’ve been in meetings where we blast staff. That needs to stop.”

• Mumpower: “I don’t personally feel like I should ever put staff under any direct pressure.”

• Council member Brownie Newman: “We cannot direct staff, except for Gary, Bob and Keisha, and then only with a majority of Council,” referring to the city manager, the city attorney and the city clerk, respectively.

• In a council/manager form of government, a City Council majority makes policy decisions. These are communicated to the city manager, who oversees staff. Council members cannot directly make demands of staff, either individually or as a group.

• Discussion on agenda items sometimes drags on. While some consider it a waste of time to defend one’s vote, others say such discussion informs the viewing public on issues.

• Bellamy: “We are a bit loquacious. We like hearing ourselves.”

• Council Member Robin Cape: “I have heard from viewers who didn’t know about an issue until we discussed it.”

• Freeborn (to Bellamy): “You can try to herd us in a little more.”

• Bellamy: “You know when you are getting off topic. Why should I be the one to police you?”

• Vice Mayor Holly Jones: “My mind is changed by information gathering.” But items at the end of the agenda, she noted, can get shortchanged if everyone is tired.

• Council member Jan Davis: “It’s this thing of letting us know why before the vote. I know it’s political.”

• Cape: “Not everything has to be weighed against a larger philosophy.” And to Mumpower, who has branded some Council initiatives as “socialism”: “I’m not a socialist because I believe in development issues. Being called socialist every week is distracting.”

• Mumpower: “I’m not going to stop. I’m going to use every tool I have to accomplish my goals.”

• Jones: “We’re not a team; let’s not pretend.” And on Mumpower getting a disproportionate amount of speaking time because he’s the lone Republican: “There is a disproportionate voice, and I don’t think that’s fair.”

• Mumpower: “Let’s face it, we have six liberal Democrats.”
(Bellamy and Davis objected to the designation.)

• Davis: “Everyone has the right to talk, and I think we need to cherish that time.”

• Bellamy: “I would like us to stop at 10 p.m.”

Where this all will lead seems uncertain at this point. Bellamy has been more commanding with her gavel at times, and Council may increase its use of “calling the last question,” in which they vote to end discussion after 20 minutes if everyone has had a chance to speak.

But it’s too soon to gauge the effectiveness of those resolutions. Although the Jan. 23 meeting ran a very compact two hours, the evening’s most contentious topic—relocation funding for McCormick Heights residents—was punctuated by political sniping at its end. Stay tuned.