Councilman contends no confidence in Florence mayor

FLORENCE — Florence City Councilman Buddy Brand said first reading of a bill at Monday’s regular council meeting is a vote of no confidence in Mayor Stephen J. Wukela, but the first-term mayor begs to differ.

Two readings are required for a measure to be adopted by council.

Brand alluded to an ordinance to amend the city code to update the rules and order of business to be used by Council under the council-manager form of government. The update is designed to bring the rules more in line with the model rules suggested by the S.C. Municipal Association and to address and clarify inconsistencies that have developed over the years.

The amendment would:

• Give Council the ability to choose its own presiding officer.

• Identify the specific version of Robert’s Rules used by Council.

• Clarify the procedure for voting on motions and “putting the question” to resolve issues previously experienced by Council.

• State a clear purpose for the rules and regulations.

• Clarify the process for setting the agenda.

• Update the ordinance to clearly set the schedule for regular meeting in compliance with the actual practice that has been used for many years.

• Bring Council’s rules into line more closely with the model rules suggested by the Municipal Association.

“I think these seven targets hit home on every issue that we discussed,” Brand said. “This bill will allow council to choose its own presiding officer. And I think the key to this action, without a doubt, is a vote of no confidence in the mayor.

“Five council members voted for it. What we’re saying in essence is we don’t feel like we’re being led in the right direction,” he said. “This ordinance would have never come to be if we felt like council was being run in accordance with normal rules and regulations. Council is being run as a courtroom, not as a council chamber. This is a peoples’ venue, not the Supreme Court, Congress or anything else.”

Brand said Council is supposed to operate as a council-manager form of government. In this form, all members have one vote each and make their suggestions to city ,anager David Williams, who runs the city with Council’s direction.

“The mayor has made it a strong-arm mayor form of government,” Brand said, “and that’s not what we are.”

Brand also alluded to Monday’s marathon meeting.

“I think it’s pretty clear that a seven-hour meeting is uncalled for,” he said. “I think the shortest meeting we’ve had since the new council took over is four hours. There’s no call for these meetings to last that long. And to top that off, we’re not getting the peoples’ business done.”

“The people elected me to be their mayor and their chairman of city council,” Wukela said. “At Monday’s meeting, an ordinance was offered by some members of council that included a discussion of the council’s ability to pick another member as chair. It was also coupled with limits on the members’ ability to debate under Roberts Rules of order.

“I regarded that, frankly, as a somewhat veiled attempt to intimidate me in response to my position and my opposition to non-partisan elections in the city,” he said. “In response to that contention of mine, Council assured me that they had no intent of making any effort to replace my chairmanship and also agreed to pass a repeal of the original non-partisan ordinance.”
The original ordinance was passed by the prior city council and didn’t stipulate a date. Another ordinance proposed by the current city council was to set a date.
“That last non-partisan ordinance is the subject of controversy and has never even had a vote on the first reading,” Wukela said. “It was the vote of Council at Monday’s meeting to repeal the original ordinance that started all of this, which would in effect moot the second ordinance. So it would put us back to where we were before the non-partisan issue was ever brought up.”

Wukela also took note of Monday’s long, drawn-out meeting.

“That meeting had on the agenda every controversial issue known to man,” Wukela said. “We muddled through all that.

“I really do think this council is going to be able to move forward now on a much more congenial basis and get the work of the city done even more efficiently. I just know that’s the desire of the constituency, my desire and I believe the desire of Council. I think now that we’ve got all that under our belt, we can move forward.”