Council should drop changes to charter

Published 10:41 pm Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Members of the Dalton City Council say they should have the final say on the hiring of police chief and fire chiefs and assistant chiefs. In fact, some of them say they’ve always been the final authority when it comes to hiring the two chiefs.

That latter claim is disputed by members of the Dalton Public Safety Commission (PSC), who say the city charter gives them the authority to hire police and fire chiefs.

This disagreement first surfaced earlier this month, when the City Council voted to accept the resignation of Police Chief James Chadwick and appoint assistant chief Jason Parker as interim chief, actions already taken by the PSC.

Now, Dalton City Council members are considering amending the city charter to clarify who has the final say in these matters.

But is the proposed amendment a clarification? Or is it a substantive change to the charter. There’s disagreement not just between the PSC and the City Council but also seemingly between members of the City Council.

Under the current charter, which body has the final authority for choosing chiefs? Is the charter language really unclear on that issue? Does state law mandate the City Council make those choices, regardless of what the charter says?

City Council members say they are the ones who face the voters, so they should be the ones who choose who fills such important positions as police chief and fire chief. PSC members say the charter gave them that authority to remove politics from such major decisions.

Critics of the council say the proposed changes are a “power grab,” an attempt to circumvent a reasonable check built into the charter. At this point, if the council plows ahead and makes the changes they will be giving credence to that perception. They simply have not yet made a strong case that the charter should be amended.

Reasonable people can disagree over the best way to pick a new police chief. But before the City Council changes the charter, they should carefully explain why they are making those changes.

There is no reason why the council needs to make these changes now, if at all.



The Daily Citizen