Recently I had come out in support of a council-manager form of government for Edmonds. I was willing to put off Council consideration of council-manager form of government because of the need for stability for rest of the year. That premise has been blown out of the water by the mayor’s action.
Therefore now is the perfect time to put before the voters the question of council-manager. I have asked the Edmonds Council President to please put on our agenda for a public hearing a council-manager form of government with the next few weeks. After the hearing I will be asking the council to put it on the ballot on the next available election.
If the people of Edmonds support having a professional manger administering our city the change would take place as soon as August of this year. In the mean time I would hope the Council would encourage Mr. Stephen Clifton to expand his job with the city to that of overall City Administrative Manager. Upon a successful election I would then support making Mr. Clifton the City of Edmonds City Manager.
Councilman Michael Plunkett
Running a city on political whims is simply unsustainable. A steady grasp of the facts helps undergird a city’s development and fosters a long-term process of continually improvement. I am supportive of a City-Manager form of government. It’s time for Edmonds to get off the roller coaster of short-term opportunities and/or crises and start acting like the gem that we are.
@Neil;
I agree with all of your reasoning except your conclusion regarding political whims, at this point. I’m going to read up on this some more, but, if the Council chooses a City Manager, and can dismiss that person at any time, that seems to me to be MORE political, and less effective in the long term. The Manager would, de facto, be serving the Council, vice the people. Without the luxury of 4 yrs between elections.
Again, that’s just looking at the issue from the surface. If there are some constraints in place that require the Council to meet some sort of criteria in order to dismiss the City Manager, then that would “put some brakes” on any political whim actions. Once a person is in place, the form of government really shouldn’t matter – an effective manager is an effective manager.