Tuesday night, Macon city council members did not pass an ordinance that would require council to approve furloughs or reductions in force that may come from the mayor's office.
Nine council members voted against the ordinance with six voting for it.
It needed eight votes to pass.
Councilman Rick Hutto sponsored the ordinance after the city attorney said they may want to clarify language in the code and personnel administrative guidelines.
The proposed ordinance would require that any reduction in force or furlough be approved by council.
Hutto says the decision council made Tuesday shows that that several members of council do not want to take any blame when the difficulty comes.
Hutto believes furloughs may come up again during budget talks for the next fiscal year, and council should have a say.
But some on council who voted against the ordinance say the right to furlough belongs to the mayor.
Erick Erickson, who voted against the ordinance says, "I think the mayor needs to have the power because routinely when council is presented with the right choice and the easy choice, it takes the easy choice."
The mayor's office opposed the legislation from the beginning.
Mayor Robert Reichert says council's decision shows their confidence in his administrative powers.
Reichert says, "I take this as an affirmation by the majority of council that they do think that the executive power is vested in the mayor's office and the decisions that need to be made on a day to day basis are here, not to be decided by committee votes."
He says he believes changing the code would have created more confusion in who has the power, instead of less.
Reichert says personnel guidelines require that the mayor makes the determination and advises council, if it comes to that. He says what they're looking for is balance.
He says that balance remains with city council's decision to vote down the ordinance.
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