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MEMO TO: CITY COUNCIL 4104 <br />FROM: MAYCR <br />DATE: N0VEMH3ER 24, 1980 <br />RE: ATTEMPT TO CENSOR THE MAYOR'S MESSAGES. <br />It is not disputed that Section 2.06 of the Home Rule Charter grants the <br />mayor the right and the duty to "...deliver messages to the Council and <br />the public...". The key issues, then, are whether the mayor is required <br />by the Charter to communicate through the City Newsletter and whether the <br />Council has the right to censor such communications. <br />Section 12.13 of the Charter mandates that a newsletter be published by <br />the City and sections 7.05, 7.06, 7.10, 7.11, 10.03 & 11.06 designate the <br />Newsletter as the means to convey information of general public concern <br />and interest. Furthermore, in most instances the Newsletter is designated <br />in place of or in addition to the official newspaper; thus the Charter <br />clearly contemplates that not even a newspaper of general circulation is <br />adequate publication for this type of information -- to say nothing of the <br />monumental inadequacey of publication in council minutes. <br />Officers of the Charter Commission have emphasized, as can also be inferred <br />from a plain reading of Section 2.06 of the Charter, that the injunction <br />to '!deliver messages" is meant to provide an independant voice for the <br />mayor in order to act, in part, as a check on a self-interested council <br />majority through the power of publicity. (It is also true that the 2-year <br />term for mayor was retained by the Charter Commission in order to make the <br />mayor especially accountable in his/her special duties.) <br />From all of the foregoing it should be obvious that the intent and the <br />letter of the Charter can only be realized by untampered access by the <br />mayor to the Newsletter. <br />Possible misinformation to the public has been offered as an excuse for an <br />attempt to frustrate the Charter. The Council of course should be concerned <br />about accuracy in everything that goes out in the Newsletter. However, the <br />legitimate remedy for disagreement with a mayor is for the Council to put <br />any disagreement in the same issue. The public would then have the benefit <br />of opposing points of view. <br />It has been asserted that the Newsletter is a tool of the Council. This <br />can certainly be a secondary function, but it should not be forgotten that <br />the purpose established by the Charter is to convey particular kinds of <br />information to the public, and that the Council,cannot interfere with this <br />central purpose. <br />