The recent city election has given us another chance to try to make our city manager form of government work.
I hope it does.
In my view the city manager is supposed to take direction from city council, not give direction to city council. Council should decide what they want and then direct the city manager to implement. The city manager should be on a leash. Agenda items giving the city manager “authority to sign all documents necessary to …” are a horrible mistake.
The last eight years we have had a council that allowed such language in agenda items. The mess that we have seen is largely because of inattention and fear of the city manager. Some may claim that council does not have time to approve each contract. Council should as past councils have. Otherwise the city manager will have too much power and will be able to subvert the will of council while treating the public and those that do business with the city poorly.
What has been missing is a strong mayor. I don’t mean the strong mayor form of government. I mean a mayor with a strong personality and strong management skills. Our current city charter does not allow the mayor to vote except in case of a tie. My recollection is that under the old strong mayor charter the mayor was in the same situation.
What the mayor has is the bully pulpit. The mayor operates city council meetings and can call attention to items. The mayor can explain agenda items and their consequences to city council members. The last several years the explaining has come from city staff. Their presentations have been supportive of what the city manager wanted. Many half-truths have been told. I believe that many lies have been told.
I hope that the new mayor takes control. Council members should vote their consciences. The mayor should help them to understand the issues. This will take a lot of time on the part of the mayor. It is the way successful mayors operated in the past.
We need a competent, independent city council, not one that fears the power of the city manager.
The incoming mayor has said that he will put the city manager form of government on the ballot. He will have to wait two years to do that. In the meantime we have an opportunity to try again. It should help clarify our choice in two years.
Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.
Cato
elpasospeak 
What you need to understand is when Cook became Mayor in 2005 he had no earthly idea how to run a meeting, keep control, and build a consensus with council. Had Joe Wardy won it would have been an entirely different experience with manager-council form of government. You also had Ann, Steve, Susie and Beto that had no earthly idea how to act as city representatives.
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