With public concern growing over the sudden efforts of Washington Mayor Willie Burns to change the city government and establish himself as a “strong mayor” with veto power and the ability to hire and fire city workers at his will, a large crowd is expected to attend the planned city council retreat set for 9 a.m. Friday, January 29, at The Pope Center.

The retreat is open to the public.

Although the issue was not on the agenda of the regular January city council meeting January 11, District 1 council members pushed forward the mayor’s proposal to change the type of city government from the long-held mayor-council system where the mayor could only vote to break ties in the six-member council to a system where the mayor could rule at his will.

The council’s regular retreats are rarely attended by members of the public, and Burns hoped to make his move at a retreat away from public view “They were planning to pull this at the retreat instead of at the regular meeting,” said District 2 Councilman Ames Barnett. “That way they thought they could hide this from the public, so I encourage everybody to come to the retreat and make their opinions heard.”

A senior city employee revealed that many city workers are now in fear of losing their jobs due to the mayor’s power grab. “Everybody’s afraid for their jobs now, afraid they’ll be fired unless they cater to the mayor,” said the source, who asked not to be identified for that same reason.

Burns made it clear that the action at the city council meeting last Monday night was just the start of the move to alter the balance of power. “Any other changes, we’ll address at the retreat on the 29th, because they’ll need to go to the Legislature. But any changes we can make locally by home rule, like give the mayor veto power, which will make this a ‘strong mayor’ government, we can approve.”

Although Burns has long said that the city had a strong-mayor type of government until he was elected, that was contradicted by the most experienced city leaders. Four-term Councilman Pamela L.G. Eaton said last Monday night that Burns was wrong in that assertion, and said she disagreed strongly with placing all power with one person. “In all my years on the council, we have always been the policy-making body. We’ve never had a strong-mayor system, and I have to say to my fellow councilmen that you’re voting to lose your authority and giving it to one elected official.”