Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn began the day by making a pitch for Tampa residents to reject the charter amendment that would give power to the City Council to to order internal audits.
The public didn’t follow suit, approving the measure by a 64 percent-36 percent margin.
“There’s no accountability there. It’s totally unnecessary,” Buckhorn told reporters as he went to vote at his Davis Islands precinct Tuesday morning. “Our form of government is the envy of most cities around the country. You have a mayor who’s in charge. That mayor’s accountable to the people. You don’t need a City Council that has audit authority but no ability, but no authority to implement recommendations of the audit.”
“You wonder why they even passed it. Is it political payback? Are they going after department heads? I just don’t think it’s necessary and I think our charter has stood the test of time for 40 years. And I strongly urge people to vote no on that city charter.”
The public felt otherwise.
