CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – Anyone who listens regularly knows my opinion about a city manager form of government. It’s a bad choice because the manager is not answerable to the voters. They’d be hired by the city council, and if you don’t like the way they are running the city your only recourse is to vote out your council member – one vote out of 11 to remove the manager, who is actually running the show.
And I DO think there are situations where a manager makes sense; smaller communities that can’t afford a full-time mayor and a city staff, or, situations where residents want it. Eau Claire and Marshfield both have city managers, and a local charters that were approved by their residents.
And that’s another part of this proposed change in Wausau that hasn’t really been discussed: if this change is going to be made, how exactly would it happen? Last year some people at City Hall suggested the mayor’s position could be done away with by a simple vote of the city council. When he was a city council member Doug Diny tried to insert funding for a city manager’s salary into the city budget… the position might have been created simply by funding it.
I say, absolutely, positively not.
If there’s a proposal to make city government less accountable to the voters, the voters must have a say.
The last time a city manager was debated, the issue went to a referendum. The voters said ‘no’, and the issue has been dead since then.
Has the mood of the voters changed in the last decade? Maybe. Property taxes have certainly gone up since then. City debt is higher too. The use of tax finance districts and mismanagement of the city’s vehicle fleet are not sustainable.
Could a city manager do better? That’s possible. The city manager could also do worse. This isn’t a question of city finances, it’s about accountability to Wausau residents. And those residents deserve to be heard before any change is made.
Chris Conley
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