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Council 2012; In with the new

CITY COUNCIL'S NEXT president, Darrell Clarke, circulated a memo to members yesterday, detailing proposed amendments to Council rules, including a change in how certain committee leaders traditionally are assigned.

CITY COUNCIL'S NEXT president, Darrell Clarke, circulated a memo to members yesterday, detailing proposed amendments to Council rules, including a change in how certain committee leaders traditionally are assigned.

During Monday's inauguration, Council's next majority leader, Curtis Jones Jr., will introduce the proposals and Council will temporarily adopt them until permanent rules are adopted.

Councilman Bill Greenlee's new position, deputy majority whip, will be added to the rules. Also, Clarke has established a committee called Global Opportunities and Creative/ Innovative Economy, which deals with foreign governments and international relations. Sources say incoming Republican member David Oh would likelybe chairman.

Under the changes, the president would no longer be the ex-officio chair of the rules committee and the majority leader would no longer be ex-officio chair of the finance committee. This move was made to allow Councilman Bill Green to chair the finance committee, a post that traditionally has been chaired by the majority leader and, sources say, to permit Greenlee to chair the rules committee, a powerful post usually taken by the Council president.

As vice chair of that committee, Councilman Jim Kenney chaired it de facto for the last 20 years.

"The rules committee has a lot of clout," Kenney said.

"It's a catch-all [for legislation]. You can put anything there."

The finance committee deals with public funds, taxes, revenue sharing and the operating and capital budgets.

A source said Jones will likely chair the committee on public safety.

Clarke said he proposed the changes because all members should have the opportunity to chair a committee regardless of whether they hold a leadership position.

"I think the rules should reflect that individual's ability to run that committee," Clarke said, adding that members submitted a list of committees they wanted to chair.