Suburbs

Lakeland Commissioner Connie McCarter asked for a discussion on the city’s agenda Thursday night regarding a potential bombshell. Not just your basic approval of the minutes or covering the cost of new public-works equipment.

The item, No. 11 on the regular agenda, stated: “Discussion and Possible Action – changing Lakeland’s form of government.”

That’s the kind of thing that will get your attention and make you want to know more.

Alas, McCarter wasn’t willing to share the details of what she wanted to change when reporter Michael Waddell contacted her Wednesday to ask what the heck was going on with this idea.

McCarter told Waddell she didn’t want to share the details until she presented them to the entire Board of Commissioners at Thursday’s meeting.

And that does seem to be a noble stance. Not wanting to throw out such a proposed shift in public before discussing it with your colleagues.

Still, a discussion about changing government deserves a few more specifics about what she was pondering. Maybe just some paperwork accompanying the agenda packet that could explain what McCarter had in mind.

Lakeland basically has a body of five commissioners running the government. The mayor, in this case Josh Roman, oversees the meetings and has the title. But he has an equal vote to the other four members.

Anyway, the mysterious agenda item and the lack of comments from McCarter about what she wanted to change could lead to a lot of speculation.

Did she want to change the way commissioners are elected?

Did she want to shift to the commissioners serving specific districts across the city?

Germantown is looking at a full-time mayor. Did she want Lakeland to follow that direction?

Was there consideration of scrapping government altogether and letting the city run amok?

Yeah, that last one is a little bit far-fetched, but McCarter and her father — the late Jim Bomprezzi, who served as the city’s mayor — have always been sort of mavericks in Lakeland. I mean, if there is a single vote against a spending item, McCarter’s name is usually connected to it.

With McCarter not sharing specifics, Roman, like others, was left to speculate on what was coming. Was it something in line with former Mayor Mike Cunningham’s approach to district representation rather than commissioners serving at-large?

Was there a thought of going to a Mayor and Board of Aldermen-approach used by most of the other suburbs in Shelby County?

When it finally came up Thursday night, when McCarter finally presented her idea, when the Board of Commissioners finally heard her ideas, it amounted to a bit of a combination: a suggestion that the city move to a Board of Mayor and Aldermen and to have the aldermen elected in districts.

Most of the commissioners were a bit hesitant to embrace the idea. Commissioner Jim Atkinson, a former Lakeland city manager, saw the district idea as one that could lead to political conflicts. Commissioners trading off votes for improvements to their areas or fighting for their particular district rather than what is best for the entire city.

Eventually, the board decide to do some initial study of the idea coupled with results from earlier looks at such ideas. - Suburbs editor Clay Bailey

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