Editor, The Commercial:
This quote in a recent Pine Bluff Commercial front page article begs attention: “What is considered an appeal hearing, because are we just going to allow whenever a department head decides that they want to write a person up and that’s the end and we’re done?” said committee member Glen Brown Sr. “This is our job, to hear what they have to say.”
I beg to differ. As I recall from my eighth-grade civics teacher, levels of government in the United States consist of the executive, legislative and judicial branches. In this system, the executive branch runs the show, the legislative branch hatches up law and the judicial branch interprets the law and metes out justice.
That said, if the “chain of command” is followed, department management falls under the executive branch, not the legislative branch.
The point is, if recent history serves us at all, we can recall a former administration well remembered for its Olympic-class micro-management, with a big part of the council as a tweedle-dee-dee, tweedle-dee-dum supporting cast. The last thing we need now are city department managers fearing headline-grabbing council members questioning every move they make. The managers’ jobs are complex enough without having to put up with that kind of sophomoric interference.
Joe Dempsey,
Pine Bluff