Who rules the castle in Bradenton Beach?
Who do department heads report to at city hall? And what are they accountable for? Are the city’s attorney and clerk now de facto city managers?
The answers seem to change based on who is sitting in the mayor’s seat.
After a Jan. 21 vote, the city clerk has more power and the mayor less. The commission approved a resolution clarifying the clerk’s powers and duties regarding setting agendas.
The vote is another chapter in the most recent, colorful history of the southernmost city on Anna Maria Island.
During Nora Idso’s tenure as clerk, ending with her retirement in 2013, Idso was allowed by the mayors and commissioners to run city hall to the point where some people considered her the de facto city manager.
Idso took on the duties that the officials were more than willing to relinquish — managing the city’s day-to-day business.
After Idso’s departure, more than a handful of clerks and deputy clerks passed through city hall.
Following the Idso model, current clerk Terri Sanclemente has garnered more and more authority and responsibility since last summer when the commission — at the urging of then-Mayor Jack Clarke and with city attorney Ricinda Perry’s blessing — disregarded a city ordinance that made the clerk and city treasurer equal department heads — and promoted her over all employees who work at city hall.
Commissioners later adopted an ordinance affirming Sanclemente’s role.
However, last year, during a meeting of the city’s charter review committee, Perry said the commission that put responsibility years ago on Idso potentially put the city at risk of liability.
The most recent diminishment of the mayor’s power followed a declaration Jan. 7 by Commissioner Jake Spooner that no one at city hall should have authority to limit an agenda request.
At that time, it was agreed the mayor would include any agenda request from a commissioner on future agendas and Perry was directed to prepare a resolution to that effect.
How the resolution came to give the agenda responsibility to the clerk is unclear.
However, the commission voted unanimously Jan. 21 to add to Sanclemente’s power.
The charter states the mayor shall chair all commission meetings and Shearon and mayors before him have been responsible for setting agenda items. In the past, the clerk organized the backup materials for the agenda and prepared the notices prior to the meeting.
Now the clerk, not the mayor, will manage what goes on the agenda. Commissioners will then have an opportunity to remove items from the agenda at the beginning of a meeting by majority vote.
The resolution, which details the clerk’s powers and duties, raises questions about whether the commission is taking power away from the elected mayor and themselves and delegating it to the clerk.
Shearon said he will cease his practice of meeting with Sanclemente to organize and set meeting agendas. He voted to approve the resolution to support the will of the commission, but he expressed reservations.
Perry used as one example when a person comes into city hall with a concern about code enforcement. The clerk, she said, should have the discretion to direct that person to a department head — bypassing the mayor or commissioners who may be in the building or otherwise available to hear the person’s concerns.
Shearon objected to Perry’s scenario.
With commissioners out of the loop, the clerk — not a mayor or commission member — could decide if the issue warrants being on a meeting agenda. Or the clerk and other department heads could plan to withhold information from agendas, and therefore, from commissioners.
“When a department head has control over another department, there’s a conflict,” the mayor said. “One department head can’t go to another department head” and tell them what to do. Who settles interoffice disputes? he asked.
“That’s the duties that I feel are the responsibility of the mayor,” not the clerk, Shearon said. “The mayor is the supervisor of the department heads.”
With Sanclemente’s ascension, Shearon’s declaration is less certain.
Commissioners also agreed to hold a work session on commission policies and procedures at 1 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 23, at city hall, 107 Gulf Drive N., Bradenton Beach.