hizzoner in an extremely wordy bunch of nonsense styled as a press release (see link) attempts to explain away his boneheaded decision to allow the 'baggy pants' ordinance to become law.
the thing is though is that da mayor only succeeds in making himself look like an even bigger ass.[G]iven the desires of the City Council, and including the unanimity by which this Ordinance was passed, the Administration has decided not to exercise the right of veto. A veto would be meaningless since the Council has voiced its unanimous decision to move forward on this matter after being reminded of the issues surrounding the law’s application. On the other hand, the matter deserves a special message from the Administration because there are concerns about the over breadth and vagueness of this Ordinance and perhaps its execution without Court sanction to avoid legal challenges which might result in liability to the City.
in other words the mayor is saying that even though he believes this ordinance is unconstitutional and unenforceable but since the city council unanimously passed this ordinance to veto it would be pointless.
above that the mayor wrote:Because the council’s decision was unanimous and because this ordinance does not involve construing the Alexandria Home Rule Charter, as to organization or structure, in a manner inconsistent with the Charter, I will not veto the ordinance but also will not execute it, allowing it to become law by default...
this isnt an accurate statement either because sec 1-04 of the alexandria city charter states that: [T]he city shall have and is hereby granted the right and authority to exercise any power and perform any function necessary, requisite or proper for the management of its affairs, not denied by this charter, or by general law, or inconsistent with the constitution. emphasis ours.
on 04 december 2006 jacques roy took an oath of office [video] in which he solemnly swore to support the constitution and laws of the united states...however the mayor is not honoring his oath. anyone with two brain cells to rub together knows that the legal thing for the mayor to have done would have been to veto the ordinance and if the city council overrode his veto, so what? then the blame would be solely on their heads. now the mayor is culpable and whats worse mayor roy is willing to play silly word games and politics with our civil liberties and freedoms.
