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Council trims investigatory language in charter draft after due-process concerns
Summary
Councilors and counsel debated removing explicit council subpoena and investigatory powers from the charter, with legal staff saying such authority could create due-process problems and recommending investigatory duties be channeled through the city manager or judicial processes instead.
A named provision that would have given the council subpoena powers and an explicit investigatory role was struck from the draft charter after discussion about legal risk and due process.
One councilor asked whether removing the clause would limit their ability to pursue alleged misconduct; Missy, the city's legal adviser, replied that the council can gather information but formal subpoenas and investigations are better handled by municipal court or through a city-manager-directed process to protect due process rights. "That investigations and subpoenaing of witnesses is best left to the municipal court judge or a judicial process, in my opinion," Missy said.
Councilors said they did not want to inhibit their ability to do due diligence, but they accepted the counsel's recommendation to rely on the city manager and city attorney for formal investigatory processes and to use executive-session and administrative processes as legally appropriate. The council discussed creating guardrails in council rules or a resolution to define how concerns about departments or staff are raised and addressed without embedding broad subpoena authority in the charter.
Next steps: staff will draft language and council rules clarifying information-gathering procedures, and counsel will provide recommended procedures that balance oversight with due-process protections.
