Councilor Jerah R. Cordova yesterday submitted to the acting city manager an ordinance for consideration by the council that will guarantee certain rights for councilors and citizens, an effort to make the City of Belen a more open government.

State law requires the city council to set rules for its meetings, which the proposed ordinance will do.

Among other things, the ordinance would guarantee the right of any citizen to publicly comment at all meetings of the city council. Right now the city denies citizens the ability to publicly comment during special and emergency meetings.

For example, Belen resident Gloria Sanchez was denied the opportunity to speak at the March 22 special meeting where the council appointed people to the positions of police chief, fire chief and airport manager, despite Cordova’s effort to allot time for public comments on the agenda and Sanchez’s request to speak.

The new ordinance would also require roll call votes on all action items before the council to ensure the public knows how each of its councilors are voting.

It would also protect the rights of councilors to dissent, ensuring that dissenting opinions and failed proposals are detailed in meeting minutes and available to the public.

The ordinance would also more clearly define the role of the city council as the city’s legislative branch, requiring councilors to directly sponsor legislative proposals instead of those proposals being proposed by the mayor or city manager, who are a part of the executive branch.

While Cordova requested that the proposed open government ordinance be given a public hearing at the meeting on April 5, the ordinance doesn’t appear to have been included on the agenda for that meeting.

This page was published on March 31, 2010 at 12:25am and is filed under Reform.