After Anna

What exactly does a City Council president do?

by Isaiah Thompson

[ power ]

Evan M. Lopez

Just over a week ago, 2nd District Councilwoman Anna Verna announced that after 36 years on City Council, 11 of those as its first female president, she will not seek re-election. That means Council will have a new president — and that, in turn, could mean a lot of things. Or, possibly, not much at all.

The power of the position of City Council president is, essentially, twofold. The president has the authority to assign legislation to committees of his or her choice and generally get bills on or off the agenda. It doesn't sound so exciting, maybe, until a president can't seem to find that little ordinance you needed passed.

And then there's the money. Council gets a little more than $16 million for its operating costs from the city — no tiny sum — and that money is administered by the Council president. Little differences in how it gets divvied up make big differences to Council members: A tad extra moolah might pay for a better computer, a fancier office party or even a whole job, say, for a beloved constituent.

The Council president holds a small lever, perhaps, but keeps it wedged beneath a highly interested group of people. The position is as big or as little a deal as the president makes it.

Former Mayor John Street's Council presidency was, famously, of the big-deal variety. Street did not just run the body; he ruled it with an iron fist. Defy his agenda (as did then-Councilman Michael Nutter) and you felt his wrath. For Street, the entire body was a means to an end. Council was his poker chip.

Councilwoman Verna, on the other hand, played it cool. Her years as president have been characterized, insiders say, by a shift away from the drama of inter-Council warfare and the systems of punishment and reward that kept Council members glued to their leader.

Each model has its merits — and drawbacks. Under Verna's equitable reign, newer Council members probably had an easier time pursuing their agendas and finding a place at the table. But equity comes at a cost. Over the past few years, for example, the very fact that Council members have felt comfortable doing as they please has led to a series of unnervingly long delays in Council's most important job: passing the city's budget. The atmosphere also allowed for stonewalling on difficult votes by Council members worried about their image. Council wound up rejecting Nutter's sweetened-beverage tax because it was too controversial, then rejected raising property taxes enough to make up for the difference in revenue, then finally shrugged and left the mayor with a hole to fill — not exactly a model of coordination.

What kind of president will we see next? The presumed front-runners are Councilman Darrell Clarke and Councilwoman Marian B. Tasco. But lips are tight. It's too early to make enemies, and with four seats suddenly wide open, we might see not a trickle of new blood in Council but something more like a pipe bursting. If there's one way for newbies to get traction fast, it's helping elect a president.

(isaiah.thompson@citypaper.net)