Should the city council remove city commisners and boards.

This issue is coming about because the comments of one of the planning commissioners. Henry Banks made some comments after a council agenda meeting. Two councilors had basic questions and then Mr. Banks wrote an email to them both saying that the were racist. He also made some other comments.

Now in general I don't believe that the city council should be voting on removing board members from there positions. The board and commission post are appointed by the Mayor and then approved by the city council. In most cases there is no problem with an appointment.

Now as I said in most cases I think the council should restrain from voting on removing board and commission members. I don't think it sets a good standard because like in many cases I think your are opening the door for many questions to your self. I am not saying this would happen but it could. A councilor could have an issues with a board of commission member and they could ask to remove this person from the board.

This case however is different the issue at hand has to deal directly with two city councilors. It also could have long standing effects on the council members. I think that was the point by Mr. Banks. This case also could have an effect on the entire city council and board and commissioner members. You would hope that people would allow time to cool off before opening up an issue that could cause a problem for the city on more then one level.

At this point I am 50/50 on if the council should vote on this or not.

Henry Banks says sorry.

By now many of you know about the email that Henry Banks send to two Duluth City Councilors. Councilor Fedora and Krause received an email from Mr. Banks after being asked questions. The questions were being asked because Mr. Banks was looking to be confirmed to a committee.

Councilor Krause had asked a question about being on two city boards, well Councillor Fedora had questions about a pass application. This promoted Mr. Banks to send the email to the two councilors.

What are your thoughts on this issue? If you want to get more details you can read the paper today http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_action=doc&p_docid=11FA280E915F6EF8&p_docnum=1.

I do have some thoughts but don't want to be the first to comment because I don't want to dictate the way of the conversation. It is open to you start.

Here are some general questions you can think about. Does racism happen in Duluth? Does racism happen to all people? Should Mr. Banks step down from his current board? Should Fedora and Krause let it go?

You can also vote on the poll on this issue.