City of Ithaca
Chief of Police Search Process
Mayor stops 3 ballot-bound laws
Journal Staff
ITHACA - Ithaca Mayor Alan Cohen Sunday vetoed three measures governing zoning issues, the Planning and Development Board and the police chief.
The vetoes, which drew fire from members of Common Council, keeps them off the 1996 ballot.
Cohen vetoed:
- A law requiring the mayor’s appointments to the Board of Zoning Appeals be approved by Common Council.
- A law requiring the mayor’s appointments to the Planning and Development Board be approved by Common Council.
- A law requiring the appointment of the police chief through the same search committee procedures other city department heads must undergo.
If passed, the two planning and zoning measures, Cohen said, would compromise his ability to carry forward initiatives on which he ran and was elected.
“The planning board and the BZA greatly affect a mayor’s ability to influence the directions of city policy,” Cohen said.
The law governing the selection of a police chief, Cohen said, blurred the line of authority to the mayor’s office, which is necessary to run the department effectively.
Moreover, Cohen said, he’s in the process of devising improvements for the police chief selection process that will “guarantee public input.”
All three of the vetoed proposals have strong support in Common Council and will eventually make their way to the voters, said alderman John Efroymson (D-4th Ward).
Common Council can override the mayor’s veto with a two-thirds majority, sending the measures to the voters in 1997.
“They will be on the ballot certainly no later than the following November.” Efroymson said.
“But for now, the mayor has denied the voters the opportunities to speak their minds on these issues,” he said.
If council overrides the vetoes, it can also call for a special election on the laws, which would bring them before the voters before November 1997.
A special election, however, would take months to arrange and cost an estimated $20,000.
Efroymson said council will decide soon on which route to take.
Return To Main Page
This project is sponsored in part by:
Concept Systems Incorporated |
 |