Needless fighting

The civil service discussion going on in Lima City Council - it's not always been civil or a discussion - looks as if it does belong with the Charter Review Committee. That said, we suggest looking at things for a moment from the perspective of Councilman Tommy Pitts.

Start the year with Council President John Nixon yanking you from chairing the Safety Services Committee and placing you instead at the helm of the Human Resources Committee. All committees are important, of course, but the HR Committee traditionally has been much lower profile than Safety Services. Add to that Nixon's placing on the committee with you the two fellow councilors with whom you most often find yourself in the minority. You might start to suspect someone was trying to shove you aside.

Then, to your HR Committee comes a discussion on city hiring policy. Suddenly, Mayor David Berger is making phone calls to other councilors to try to get the discussion in your committee cut off and have the issue left to the Charter Review Committee.

That is where the discussion seems to belong for now, and we're glad Pitts' committee decided to let it go. All eight ward representatives on City Council had a chance to nominate people. Still, it's not hard to see why Pitts might think backroom deals are working against his playing an active role in shaping city policy.

This sours the political process for a lot of people. Seemingly gone is the open discussion people should expect in government decisions. Instead, people get the perception that some politicians are more concerned with making sure the process ends in their favor - no matter whom they exclude from that process.

City Council on Monday voted 4-4 on a motion to remove civil service changes from the HR Committee after Berger asked members to decide whether they wanted that committee or the recently established Charter Review Committee to handle the changes. Council President John Nixon was absent. Councilmen Derry Glenn, Ray Magnus - those two also are on the HR Committee - and Sam McLean voted against the motion. Councilors David Adams, Kyle Lewis, Tom Tebben and Paige Townsend voted for it.

It doesn't take much imagination to guess what would have happened once Nixon returned, particularly if those on Pitts' committee hadn't decided Tuesday to leave the matter for now to the Charter Review Committee. That's what should have happened, but we're still bound to get more arguments that needn't have happened.

In fairness, Pitts hadn't offered much in the way of communicating what his committee was doing. Tuesday was the second time he held a meeting recently without letting anyone know what it was about - which didn't give those who should have been there the chance to prepare.

Berger is right about the charter. Duplicate meetings on the same subject are counterproductive and could run counter to each other.