Monroe council majority throwing too many bombs

At some point, the nicknamed “Brown Bombers” on Monroe’s City Council need to stop throwing bombs and to start trying to govern more responsibly.

Almost a year ago two new councilors, Democrats Rodney McFarland and Verbon Muhammad, joined the panel after city elections. With another Democrat who won reelection, Juanita Woods, since then the three have made it a point to inject an adversarial relationship as much as possible into their dealings with independent Mayor Friday Ellis. Accordingly, they have picked up the appellation from supporters in their districts that comprise southern Monroe, which have majority black electorates and they themselves are black.

The latest Council meeting provided two more instances where it seemed the body’s majority acted primarily to oppose for opposition’s sake Ellis’ governance. One involved unspecified but hinted activities in the Fire Department where the majority initiated the process to invoke an investigation. Section 2-07 of the city charter allows it to call one where it may subpoena witnesses, administer oaths, take testimony and require the production of evidence. However, that takes a final vote of four of five councilors, and neither member of the Council minority, Republicans Gretchen Ezernack and Doug Harvey, indicated through their opposition to the introduction, seems willing to go along.

But if financial irregularities are involved, instead of a bunch of politicians duffing around the Council would be wise to call in the state’s Legislative Auditor, who investigates these matters routinely on request from governing authorities or other specified sources. Otherwise, the matter threatens to devolve into a political sideshow that maximizes theater and minimizes real corrections, if needed.

The Council majority also voted to change the disadvantaged business enterprise requirement of a $1.7 million water pump replacement project. DBE proportions are a target percentage of spending on a project going to smaller firms owned by racial minorities or women or other presumed disadvantaged individuals that by state law must be attached to infrastructure-related projects, and also federal law requires these for transportation projects utilizing federal dollars.

A standard formula typically is used, with inputs such as the type of spending and available area firms certified as DBEs, to determine the proportion that the government entity must budget a good-faith effort to equal or to surpass. For this project, which had come before the Council last month originally, the number derived was 2.32 percent.

Instead, in authorizing bids for it, the Council majority hiked the number to 12.32 percent, a level that the city in recent years has met with difficulty and is well above the typical goals across all projects filed periodically to which certain city departments must aspire, but a number which exceeds the 12 percent aspiration level established by ordinance. But if set unrealistically high, likely no applicable bids will be made because the extra expense in contracting to out-of-area firms will exceed the budget for the project. And because of the long lead time required for this project’s completion, empty runs at letting a contract will increase the risk of future major water system problems.

The majority complains about communications with the Ellis Administration over specific reporting of DBE goals, but that shouldn’t invoke a response more out of pique than scrutiny. Rather than pull numbers out of the air, the Council has authority to attempt to pump up DBE participation by passing ordinances with dollars attached to add to outreach efforts by the executive branch to solicit DBEs in their certifications and in taking notice of upcoming projects.

The Ellis Administration has demonstrated its good-faith commitment to maximal DBE participation, such as by having a 17 percent goal exceeded in the over $47 million upgrade to water treatment facilities it was able finally to kick off in 2021 after years of discussion. Chances are better that similar successes can be reached in the future if the Council majority works more cooperatively with the administration rather than adhering to a political agenda that dictates redistributive efforts aimed at its presumed political base.