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City manager is best route for future
Published Wednesday, October 21, 2009
When Greg Iles was pointing fingers, ruffling feathers and shining a 150-watt floodlight on the obvious last week, he alluded that Natchez government should go back to the drawing board entirely.
It’s not the current mayor, the current aldermen, the recent mayors or the recent aldermen that are the problem, Iles all but said. It’s the system by which Natchez has been governed for decades.
The City of Natchez has a weak mayor, strong board of aldermen government. The mayor runs the day-to-day operations of the city, but has no vote when it comes to approving a budget, hiring department heads or approving ordinance changes. He’s only called into action if the six aldermen are split on and issue; then he’s the tiebreaker.
The aldermen call all the shots. Yet they don’t have office hours, or offices for that matter. They aren’t required to have any previous governmental experience or education. And they don’t have to handle anything relating to city government outside two monthly meetings, if they don’t so desire.
But four other forms of government exist in Mississippi, and the experts believe one is better than the others.
A “council/manager” form of government is led largely by an appointed city manager who, by Mississippi code, must be chosen by “experience and administrative qualifications.”
The city manager, appointed by a majority vote of the council, serves as the CEO of the city and manages the budget, hires and fires and supervises all departments.
The council — which includes an elected mayor — must approve the manager’s budget but cannot have a hand in employee hiring or firing.
The council does hire, review and if needed fire the city manager, the city attorney and municipal judge. The council sets its own salary and that of the mayor and manager.
The mayor is a figurehead, who acts as the president of the council and directs meetings, but carries no more weight than a councilman.
This city manager form of government is wildly popular across the country — used by nearly half of the U.S. cities, according to the Stennis Institute of Government — and is endorsed by the International City/County Management Association but has never quite caught on in Mississippi.
Only D’Iberville, Gautier, Grenada, Moorhead, Pascagoula and Picayune operate a city manager form of government.
Iles brought it up last Tuesday night at the Natchez-Adams County Chamber of Commerce Gala, but he wasn’t the first.
Iles even pointed to a 1964 writing of Orrick Metcalfe — the president of Britton & Koontz Bank, owner of a Chevy dealership and aldermen in his day — who called for the city manager model.
Re-writing the way the entire government runs is no easy task. The folks in the positions to do it would likely be taking away their own jobs and power by doing so and legislative approval would be necessary.
But the men and women behind the charge would be creating a legacy, writing history and changing Natchez for the better for years to come.
What better task for an unpopular board and mayor to tackle when city morale is low, budgets are broken and the future seems glum?
Julie Cooper is the managing editor of The Natchez Democrat. She can be reached at 601-445-3551 or julie.cooper@natchezdemocrat.com.
Comments
Posted by unclered (anonymous) on October 21, 2009 at 5:55 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I agree completely that Natchez needs a city manager, and the city manager should be David Gardner.
Posted by unclered (anonymous) on October 21, 2009 at 5:57 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I disagree with the statement that the current mayor and BOA are not the problem. They are absolutely the problem.
Posted by easterner (anonymous) on October 21, 2009 at 7:38 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Oh, yeah! A city manager, administrator, solves all the problems! Just look how well Mccomb is doing under the strong board, weak mayor system. They have had a city manager for years. It is not the type of government system that is the problem. It is the people that make up the system.
Posted by grungebob (anonymous) on October 21, 2009 at 8:18 a.m. (Suggest removal)
A city manager seems a bit redundant, but it ain't gonna happen anyway in the Mathis Era.
Posted by niderbip (anonymous) on October 21, 2009 at 8:39 a.m. (Suggest removal)
D Gardner already is the CM; they should pay him more.
Posted by mrmojorisin (anonymous) on October 21, 2009 at 8:42 a.m. (Suggest removal)
I tend to agree with "easterner"..........it doesn't really matter which type of government process you have, it IS the people elected to serve within its restraints.
The United States government has become one of a strong BOA - the Legislature - and a weak Mayor - the President. And don't start making racist comments about it being Obama's fault...it IS anyone and everyone's fault but his.....
But our legislature is what owns and operates our country, with few minor exceptions. they write the laws, set the policy, buy us and sell us on a daily basis, and sell them selves to the highest bidder. Our execturive and judicial branches are beholding to them..........not us. When's the last time you voted and you really thought your vote counted?
We elect our representatives, and by and large, they represent themselves, and what is best for their re-election, their pocketbook, and it's "I, Me, Mine" all the way.
A strong mayor can herd his board of aldermen wherever he wants them to go...Butch Brown--- a strong president can herd our legislature in the same way....George W Bush----for just as Brown pushed and shoved to get his way, to operate right out there on the fringe of what was almost illegal...so was Bush able to manipulate us into following his agenda, even into the depths of war and depression.
No, it's the people elected, not the form of government that precludes success or failure.
I'm telling ya'll I loved the city manager/city council way they ran things in Iowa. 9 council members with 2 year terms, and though they could serve more than one term, not two in a row.... with a council president elected by the council every year, and a city manager hired by the council. One meeting a month, held at the high school gym where a couple of thousand people turned out, to address the next month's business. At the end of the meeting, sometimes as much as 4 hours later, each council memeber received a check for $100, including the council president.
Now, West Des Moines only has a population of 55 thousand, but it ran very well, was very prosperous, and devoid of all the political BS we seem innundated in here........because it is run like a business with a board of directors, a CEO, all directly responsible to their stockholders...the citizens!
--mojo
Posted by Bobaloo (anonymous) on October 21, 2009 at 11:55 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Wouldn't this require a city charter change?
Posted by southernwoman (anonymous) on October 21, 2009 at 3:14 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Government responsible to the citizens - imagine that.
Posted by Doc_Fungo (anonymous) on October 21, 2009 at 3:17 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Joe Remondet in 2012!!!
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