TACOMA, Wash. — No matter where Patrick Fischer has gone, he’s always called Tacoma home. So, when an opportunity to improve the city arrived, he was quick to step up.
“It’s one of those things where, I guess you don’t have a right to complain about something if you’re not willing to step up and try to fix it,” he said.
Fischer joined a committee to look at Tacoma’s City charter and make recommendations on what changes should be made, changes that will be felt by every Tacoma resident for the next decade.
“The charter is essentially the constitution for the city,” explained Steve Wamback, who served as the Charter Review Committee’s chairperson. “It’s the fundamental document that sets up how the city government is organized, and it’s second only to the state constitution and the laws of the state of Washington.”
Tacoma adopted its current charter back in 1953.
In 2004, a requirement was added that the charter must be reviewed every 10 years.
Fischer met with 14 other Tacomans in January and spent the next four months combing through the document.
“It is very intense!” Fischer recalled. “It was a lot of work to sit down and absorb this stuff, especially if it’s something you don’t deal with on a daily basis.”
Fischer said one of his main concerns is how the city is being governed.
Currently, Tacoma has a council-city manager government, where the city manager is appointed by the city council. The city manager has executive powers, but doesn’t have a term limit, and critics say the position isn’t accountable to voters. The proposed recommendations would shift those executive powers back to the mayor’s office.
“I think we should have an elected official running this city, not a private person,” he said.
Other recommendations include establishing an office that oversees the police department, and requiring the next elected council to serve on a full-time basis.
Earlier this month, the committee submitted its 24 recommendations to the council.
Fischer hopes this will help give Tacomans a better idea on how his hometown runs.
“I have had so many conversations with people who just don’t understand what the process is,” he said. “They don’t understand what the issues are, and it’s because there’s no transparency in city government.”
The council is expected to announce which recommendations would go on the November ballot sometime around the Fourth of July. However, Wamback said if the council passes on a recommendation, voters themselves can propose to include it on the ballot as an initiative.