Council members debate who should hold custody and control of city buildings in charter rewrite

Council members and staff spent substantial time on proposed charter language that assigns custody, control and construction responsibility for city buildings, debating whether that authority should rest with the mayor and common council or be shared with the city clerk and the Department of Public Works director.

The discussion centered on differing sections in the draft charter. One provision (noted in the draft as 6.03) currently lists the mayor, city clerk and the DPW director as having “custody, control and management” of public buildings; another provision (4.053 in the draft) describes responsibility for construction, alteration and repair. Several speakers said those two formulations could be read as inconsistent and recommended clarifying that custody and ultimate legal control are the responsibility of the governing body and the chief executive officer.

A participant suggested changing the custody/control language so that it is explicitly vested in the mayor and common council, while allowing the DPW director and city clerk operational duties for managing, maintaining or supervising building work. Another participant recommended adding a general clause that DPW duties be subject to the direction and supervision of the mayor and common council to avoid any ambiguity about decision authority.

Speakers also raised drafting issues in the construction/repair paragraph, noting older draft language required professional engineering oversight (PE) for certain work; participants suggested striking or updating that requirement where redundant or inconsistent with modern procurement and building codes. Several members recommended adding a catchall clause such as “related duties as assigned by the mayor and common council” to reflect the department’s broad responsibilities.

The group agreed to defer final wording and to continue work at a subsequent meeting so additional members and those with operational knowledge of city facilities could attend.

Ending: Council members directed staff to produce a revised draft that: (1) expressly vests custody and ultimate control of public buildings in the mayor and common council; (2) retains DPW operational responsibility for construction, maintenance and repairs subject to mayoral and council supervision; and (3) cleans up references to professional-engineering requirements. The item was continued to the next charter-review meeting.