I attended a Downtown Neighborhood Association meeting where a SPPD Officer gave a report.
She explained that she had accepted a promotion into management ranks on the force and was
now an “at will employee”. Did everyone in the room know what that was? Officers not in the
management ranks are in the Police Union and governed by their work rules.
A few years back, I watched a briefing for new City Council Members and it was explained to
them that no one on city staff works for them. But rather all city staff work for the Mayor. This is
a function of having a strong mayor form of government. Council members do have an
administrative assistant to help with their mail and appointments.
Many times, during a council session, a council member will request more information from staff
in order to aid in their decision making on how to vote. Sometimes what they are asking for
could take several man-hours to assemble. City staff are under no obligation to respond to such
a request because their boss is the Mayor. The Mayor’s office could direct staff to help if it
could secure a needed vote of approval.
What does all this mean? The Police Officer was explaining that she now serves “at the will of
the Mayor”. Normally every four years we have an election and all the “at will” employees have
the potential of adjusting to a new authority over them.
Their are several positions near the top of the city’s organization chart that are expected to
change with a new administration. But the vast number of “at will” employees down the chart
will have to wait and see how the new mayor will govern.
How does this play out? Your typical city staff will have a mortgage on their home. They might
have kids in school. They like St. Petersburg and feel they are working to give us all a better
place to live. So if the head of Finance, Fleet Management, Sanitation, Parks and Recreation,
or that newly promoted Police Officer gets a directive from a Mayor that seems ill conceived do
they push back? Or do they think, I need a paycheck to make my mortgage and I do not want
to find a new job or move.
This system could prevent a Strong Mayor from getting good feedback from experienced staff
because everyone knows the Mayor controls their employment. Mayors are transitory, they
want to get things done in their time in office to take credit for it. But many of the issues of the
day will need to span multiple Mayoral administrations. There should be satisfaction in laying a
foundation the next Mayor can build on.
Former Mayor Rick Baker has made the point, as seen on YouTube, that our system of Strong
Mayor is so powerful that it is really important who gets elected to it.