( Ed.note. One of the great public referendums of Evansville History was the public referendum on the issue of whether Evansville should have a City Administrator. The following sketch was written on 10-13-2005. Today more than ever, Evansville needs to act to fulfill the public will that a City Administrator be hired. Our city staff work hard, but it is not realistic to expect that they can fill this huge gap. It is time to act.)
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Years ago before Evansville hired its city administrator, there was a great debate in the J.C. McKenna Middle school auditorium. A consultant had written a comprehensive report on Evansville government, and one of the recommendations was that we hire a city manager. There was a lot of disagreement on the issue. It was a very vigorous debate that evening. A first affirmative and first negative plus some limited rebuttal. Then some questions and answers from the audience. Some hard feelings and old laundry were aired.
Then Evansville voted on Friday. Voted overwhelmingly for a city manager. Today it is hard to imagine functioning without one. One might disagree about individual policies but it is hard to imagine not having a person to go to that can present the policy of the council to the public and can interact with the public as the city manager can.
Click on the post for the story of Monroe. It does highlight again for all that the city manager does not make policy but only implements the policy of the council. This is often overlooked by locals. They tend to blame the manager for policy. Think again. If you have a complaint, call your alderman. The alderman can make a motion to the council for change, not the city manager. The manager could make a recommendation, but not a motion.
Click on the post for the Monroe story. Best Wishes Monroe on your move to City administrator.
Thursday, August 31, 2006
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Good distinction to make, Bill. The debate between the two was a long drawn out one for the Council back in the day. It became clear at that time that residents would absolutely oppose the Manager model as it "took away" their electoral influence on the CEO of the City.
ReplyDeleteThe "town hall" style meeting at JC McKenna was definately one of the more tense meetings I had been involved with. Yet I definately walked away feeling like every concern and opinion had been heard. It was a process that could have easily self-distructed but ended very well for the City.