City Council President Clement Campana, D-At Large, said tonight that he will not call any more special meetings this year.

The council would have had to call a special meeting prior to Dec. 15 to override a veto by Mayor Harry Tutunjian which knocked down an amendment they approved on Nov. 25 to move more than $500,000 from various budget lines into a contingency account in an attempt to save taxpayer money and provide fiscal oversight.

“There will be no special meeting called,” said Campana. “On be half of the citizens of the city, there needs to be oversight and we will meet in January to discuss how we’re going to provide it.”

Tutunjian and City Comptroller Deborah Witkowski previously stated that the council did not follow budget procedures when they introduced the amendment at the last minute and that the way they had moved funds would have led the budget to become unbalanced and unstructured.

More about that is available here.

After learning about Campana's decision, Tutunjian said he was pleased about the budget but concerned about what the council would do in 2009 and who was really in charge of the legislative body.

“I need to be able to talk to someone that can speak clearly for the majority of the City Council and I haven’t found that person yet,” said Tutunjian. “My confidence is shaken when I see a press release from the council president that says he’s going to do something one day and does the opposite the next day.”

A press release had been issued to some of the local media outlets with Campana's name on it Monday saying that the council would be overriding the mayor's veto Thursday at 7 p.m.