Wausau City Hall. MWC file photo.
CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – Here’s something you may not know about how city government works. Most of the decisions are made at the committee level. The full city council votes on the recommendations of the various committees. Usually, but not always, committee recommendations are approved.
If you’re a council member who serves on the public health and safety committee, you may have an excellent idea for improving city parks. But if that’s not your committee, you’ll need another council member to second your proposal and then a majority vote to reopen what the parks committee has already approved. Your input may or may not even be considered.
Wausau Mayor Doug Diny proposed cutting the number of city committees from six to four. That’s a good idea; fewer committees allows more council members to be involved in the decision-making process.
I’d also like to see more items considered through the Committee of the Whole. In COW meetings, every council member may attend, speak, and vote. Those are the most-inclusive decisions that the city’s leaders make.
Why might some council members object to fewer committees? It’s about political power at city hall. A committee chair holds a lot of power. Four committees instead of six means two fewer chairs, two fewer fiefdoms.
Some of Mayor Diny’s proposals are unpopular among the city council, but after tonight four new members will be sworn in; four new sets of eyes and four more opinions about how city government works or doesn’t work. The proposal for fewer committees has merritt. Let’s try it.
Chris Conley
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