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Human Rights Party Asks Full-Time Mayor For City

Human Rights Party Asks Full-Time Mayor For City image
Parent Issue
Day
28
Month
February
Year
1972
Copyright
Copyright Protected
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Donated by the Ann Arbor News. © The Ann Arbor News.
OCR Text

Human Rights Party Asks Full-Time Mayor For City

The Human Rights Party of Ann Arbor has called for the city to be run by a full-time mayor rather than a city administrator.

A similar proposal was rejected at the Democratic platform convention and replaced by a compromise calling for a commission to study the situation.

The HRP proposal was part of its platform plank on city government adopted at its recent meeting. This reiterates a position taken over a year ago in the party's original

platform.

According to Doug Cornell, party coordinator, HRP’s position is that ‘‘the mayor should be a full time position so that the day-to-day affairs of the city are in the hands of an elected official. Such an official would be more responsive to the people than an appointed bureaucrat.”

The present city administrator “has never had to be responsible to the people of the

city," Cornell charged, "because the people haven't head a chance to vote for or against him."

“Furthermore,” Cornell continued, “Mayor Harris stated after the Democratic meeting that he had no intention of creating the ‘governmental reform commission,’ which shows how unresponsive he is to the wishes of his party and the people he claims to represent."

In other action at the meeting, according to an HRP press release, the party pledged its support for two groups, the striking workers at the Commission on Professional and Hospital Activities (CPHA), and also the Black Matters Committee of the political science department of the University.