The letter-to-the-editor headed “City Council prez removes Morales for conflict of interest” states that Joe Morales, formerly chair of the Public Safety Committee of City Council, is now chair of the Community Development & Planning Committee. This is the Council committee that had been headed by Patricia Coller.
What President Louise Williams did was simply to have Morales and Coller switch chairmanships of their respective committees. Other than that, nothing was changed. This is because the chair of the Community Development & Planning Committee also sits on the Public Safety Committee. Mr. Morales, now head of Community Development & Planning, is still on the Public Safety Committee – he simply isn’t the chairman!
If President Williams had, instead, given Morales the chairmanship of any of the remaining four Council Committees – Personnel, Public Works, Finance, Economic Development – he wouldn’t have a seat (and a vote) on the Public Safety Committee. Didn’t President Williams realize this?
This switching of chairmanships in City Council will have little or no effect in reducing the potential for a conflict of interest on the part of Morales, who is the salaried executive director of the Lancaster Community Safety Coalition, that controls the surveillance camera program in Lancaster City. This is because Morales remains a voting member of the Public Safety Committee. If each member gets one vote, regardless of whether the member is the chairperson or not, the switching of the chairmanships will have no effect on any vote taken by the Public Safety Committee.
Either this is a public relations move on the part of President Williams as a means of deflecting criticism of the city’s camera program, or else the chairmanships were switched because City Council is considering enacting legislation regulating the operations of the LCSC. If this is the case, the purpose would be to avoid criticism concerning Morales’ conflict of interest as chair of a committee that would discuss and vote on legislation concerning LCSC, that he heads.
Because of the way the switch was done, Morales will still be voting on any such legislation. Unless President Williams gives Morales the chairmanship of a different committee of City Council, the conflict of interest remains.
Lancaster City Council has NO oversight or influence whatsoever over the LCSC, or the surveillance cameras. What under the best circumstances would be a conflict of interest really does not matter here, because the LCSC is accountable to no one.