Stronger veto power would have killed water recycling
Something to think about: The Charter Review Committee, a panel appointed by Mayor Jerry Sanders to revise certain parts of the city charter (the city government’s constitution), has recommended that the City Council put on the June 2008 ballot a measure that would give the mayor real veto power.
There are eight members of the City Council, so it takes five votes (one more than 50 percent) to pass a law. Under current rules, the mayor can veto a law passed by the council, but the same five council members who passed the law in the first place can override the mayor’s veto. So, unless the mayor changes the mind of at least one council member, the veto is symbolic.
The Charter Review Committee wants to require the council to come up with six votes (a whopping 75 percent) in order to override a veto.
In late October, the City Council voted in favor of a pilot project to recycle sewage water and pump it into San Vicente Reservoir for future use as potable water. The council managed to muster the minimum five votes for passage. As he vowed to do, Mayor Sanders vetoed the law. This week, the same five council members who passed the law—Scott Peters, Donna Frye, Toni Atkins, Ben Hueso and Jim Madaffer—voted to override the veto. Council members Tony Young, Brian Maienschein and Kevin Faulconer supported the veto.
Under the regime favored by the Charter Review Committee, the mayor would have won, and the city of San Diego wouldn’t have been on the vanguard of forward-thinking water recycling. Just FYI.
