12.04.12
Harrisburg City Council Selects Six Nominees For Vote: UPDATED to include videos
A link to videos of the six interviews has been added to the end of this article.
With the resignation of Harrisburg City Councilor Patty Kim, who is heading to the PA House of representatives, there are temporarily six City Councilors reigning the legislative branch of the City’s government.
In a special public meeting on December 3rd, those Councilors enacted the next step of the process to choose a replacement for the vacant seat in their ranks. Prior to this evening, thirty-two City residents submitted their applications for the position. Per City rules, the seat is filled by the remaining Councilors, not by public vote.
The thirty-two applicants were publicly brought forth before City Council and asked to speak for two minutes to introduce themselves and to give any pitch they deemed worthy to persuade the Councilors to call them back for an interview. One by one the citizens came to the front of the room to give their speeches. Some came with a written monologue, some were prepared with nothing more than a way with words, some had bullet points, some had clichés, and some purely winged it. Nerves were evident with more than one as was arrogance and presumption.
However, there was also a slew of diversity of age, race, knowledge, awareness, skill, experience, length of residency in the City, where they live in the City, and culture from musicians, to businesspeople, to community organizers. There were attorneys, financiers, educators, managers, and former City employees. The rich multiplicity found in City of Harrisburg was well represented in those thirty-two candidates.
After the brief presentations, there was a secret ballot selection for each Councilor to choose one applicant that would then move on to the interview stage. Fortunately or ironically, there were no duplicates. The six interviewees were:
- Floyd Stokes
- Latasha N. Frye
- Joseph Solomon
- Michael Parker
- Bruce Weber
- Julie Bancroft
Because the nomination were done by secret ballot, it is unclear which City Councilors chose which candidates, a curious aggravation to many observers who felt that the process should be more transparent. A glance at the list indicates that certain City Councilors chose their nominees not necessarily on qualifications on resumes or proficiency during the two minute presentations, but rather on familiarity, patronage, or machinations. More than one witness of the proceedings was surprised that the above list is who made the cut considering some of the other contenders who stepped forward. There were indeed more obviously fluent applicants than a few of the ones chosen.
When asked what rubric City Council used in determining their nominees, the City Clerk replied that none was used, merely that each Councilor chose who she or he felt was best suited for the post.
One by one, the six candidates were brought back into City Council Chambers and asked a series of questions such as What is the duty of City Council? What do you know about the City’s fiscal crisis? What does the City of Harrisburg look like in 5, in 10 years? What legislation would you pass? How do you work in a team?
Not unlike their two minute presentations, each candidate demonstrated their awareness and articulation or lack there of. Two candidates stood out as straightforward and independent—Bruce Weber and Julie Bancroft. Two candidates stood out as aloof and uninformed—Latasha Frye and Michael Parker. The other two candidates were sufficient but were the nominees who seemed to be the most pre-determined with allegiance more the reason why they were there than any other factor. Certainly others in the group of thirty-two were more deserving of the interview stage. That can definitely be said of Frye’s and Parker’s positions.
On December 11th, City Council will vote to fill the position, and that night, the next Harrisburg City Councilor will be named. The tenure is for one year; however, if that individual has any desire to keep the seat, she or he will have to formally become a candidate for the primary election in May when that seat along with three others—the seats of Wanda Williams, Eugenia Smith, and Kelly Summerford—will become open. Hopefully, the rejected applicants will consider this as another opportunity to be a Harrisburg City Councilor, especially since several good ones were passed by this round.
Access Roxbury News videos of the six interviews here.
Interesting that Tara lists the two African Americans as aloof and uninformed and the white candidates, as straightforward and independent.
Being there, it was pretty obvious that there were better applicants, that could have been nominated to the final six.
You make a pretty significant implication, Robert. With no backing.
What you did is an easy thing to do—make a statement with no rational explanation for making it or substantial reasoning to support it. And a dangerous accusation at that. Unfortunately, that happens all too often here in the City of Harrisburg and is definitely one of our City's challenges.
It's a hindrance to Harrisburg that objective observations that are dissatisfying to some get attacked weakly but in a treacherous way in the hopes of sullying the reputation of the commentator rather than ponder the substance of what is being presented.
Robert, I invite you to analyze the article and respond to it as a whole. If you still think I have racist undertones, we'll go from there. But tread softly into such a serious debate unless you are utterly prepared to follow through with meaning it. And if you mean it, you'd better be able to prove it with sufficient evidence other than to pull out bits and pieces and make such an accusation.
City Council Politics – Why?
When does the nonsense end? Haven’t we had enough of the back room political deals, all designed to keep the right interests in power? When does the public interest – what is right for all of us – finally take hold?
There is no good reason for the selection of a new City Council person to be done in a shroud of secrecy, with merely the pretense of public review. The list of interested individuals was varied, with a range of qualifications. The nominations from each sitting member of Council should have been publicly voiced, with an explanation for their choice of nominee. Each of the nominees should be put forward with justification by the City Councilor who proposes them. Instead, we have secret nominations for undisclosed reasons. And, not one member of City Council has voiced objection to this charade of public appointment.
When a Governor or President makes a nomination, it is done with full accountability, like it or not. They stand up and make their choice plainly and openly. They announce the qualifications upon which they made their proposal. The public has an opportunity to consider the reasoning, side by side with the qualifications.
Harrisburg needs quality leadership. We need full disclosure and clear understanding of the decisions being made on our behalf. We do not need more party politics.
City Council, make your nominations publicly known, with your reason for the nominations. Then, Council can vote on the person who must represent ALL of us. By so doing, we will know the quality of your decision-making, and the measure of the selection you have made in place of us.