After the Charter Revision Commission shot down the idea of letting councilors giving themselves raises, a foot soldier sent me a copy of the Model City Charter (DOC – Pages 26 and 70).
The lead city attorney used this document to argue for commissioner Zylstra’s intent telling members that it was recommended in this model document.
Well guess what else the model legislation supports? They support a council and mayor have either a city manager or CAO (Chief Administrative Officer).
Basically this position runs the administrative side of the government, the council handles policy and all administrative appointments with the advice and consent of the mostly ceremonial mayor.
Most people don’t know it, but I would argue that the mayor’s COS (Chief of Staff) is currently managing the city without the knowledge or consent of the public.
If you actually implement this form of government, that person would be supervised by the council.
I found it ironic that the CRC would argue against a city manager or CAO during that proposal portion of the CRC process yet use this same document to argue for pay raises. Of course it got shot down just like the rest of the proposals, but after I started reading this document I wondered why the CRC wasn’t just referring to this document more often?
Unfortunately, I could not find any recommendations on what kind of accelerant to use when burning our current city charter.
Of course, add another layer and preserve the city charter.
“Whatever happened to the Chief Culture Officer?”….. “AND, what about an Administrator of Cultural Affairs?”…. “Talk about killing two birds with one stone”… ( …. “What a minute, I’m a bird” …. 🙁 )
I am perplexed about a city manager position, I see both pros and cons about the position, I did not support John’s recommendation this past year, cause I did not think it was time, nor the right approach. But, knowing the history of the town going back to 1840, we have always had a governing board that includes a Mayor and 4 to 8 member council (or commission). And it would have been a big pill to swallow for the most vested property holders of the community – landowners.
You have to remember, we have always been a very successful, well-balanced company town, one to which was led by that strong sense of business. This goes back to our origins, and we have never broken away from it, even today.
Before you change our city government, one has to fully understand ALL of our history, and why we chose the foundation we did all those years ago.
THis City has been governed by a Minnesota Charter, a IA Charter, and a Charter under the Dakota Territorial Government…and the Commission format. splitting up Mayor and Council is a huge leap, let alone using a City Manager albiet.
We NEED a city manager government. And try not to be Fargo look at the article from the forum about city government journalists and kfgo meet the media podcast