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Good questions. My experience does provide a few suggestions.
1.) Not all Solicitors feel beholden to the Council they serve. The reason, in most Charters anyway, that the Solicitor picks up this task is a both a practical and a fiscal one. The other possibilities are to give this to a "board", also appointed by somebody, or an outside legal authority, very expensive. Government, at its very base, is a product of relationships and trust. (Based on case history, by the way, I agree with the Solicitor regarding this decision.)
2.) Yes there is. This gets us back to relationships and trust. If a particular government, regardless of what branch, loses trust, everything looks like a Conflict of Interest. Currently, the actions, or inactions in my view, of the Manager have begun to taint the "dotted line" relationships around him. However, there is no real better choice for handling the situation.
3.) Rather than try to prove the impossible, allow me to answer a question with a question: Could you create a fiscally responsible system to have charter violations checked out another way without a COI somewhere else? The answer is no. Lots of folks like to make fun of how easy the practice of government is supposed to be. In reality, these folks usually find out it's a little more complicated than that.
4.) From experience, it's the filing fee plus around $3000. By the way, if you've heard the following rant before, you can skip to the next question: If we had true Democratic and Republican City Chairs doing their jobs, much of this could be avoided. One only goes to Superior Court, or even files with the Solicitor's Office, if normal political channels fall apart. Here in Newport, thanks to inactivity and ineptitude, these channels do not exist. Mr. Faeber should have had access to a political patron who would have setup a meeting. At this meeting, all sides could put cards on the table and Mr. Faeber would have found it was much ado about nothing. However, without the "relationship" to setup the meeting, Mr. Faeber's "trust" investment was neglected. Hence, we ended up where we were.
5.) This is a great idea which I like a lot. Save it for the next time we do Charter review (should be more often than it is) so that the public can be properly educated, and motivated, regarding why we need this change.
Thanks for making us all think
Bobby
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