City council has authorized the formation of an “Ad Hoc Charter Advisory Committee”.
Our mayor told us that he would bring the issue of the type of government (city manager or strong mayor) to the voters at the next election where city charter amendments can be made.
Looking at the video of the city council meeting the other day it appears that our city manager and at least two of our representatives want to limit the issues that the charter committee considers.
They spoke of making changes that cause inefficiencies in city government. There are evidently parts of the charter that contain language that was more appropriate when we had a strong mayor form of government but are now inconsistent with the city manager form of government.
If they are successful in limiting the ideas that the committee can consider then we probably will not be given an opportunity to vote on the form of government that we have. The possibility of returning to two year terms for the representative instead of the new four year terms probably won’t be considered either.
The city manager should stay out of this issue. He has a conflict of interest.
The mayor should see to it that we get what he promised.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
Which two representatives?
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Niland and Noe
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No surprise.
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I would like to see a referendum on CM versus strong mayor form of government. That could be one sentence. If CM were rejected then the process to revise the charter could begin. No reason to conflate the two.
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I shudder at the thought of Lessor as a “strong mayor.” Gonzales knows more about managing a city than any future “strong mayor” will have. It’s a big job that takes experience, experience that elected officials don’t have.
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Under the strong mayor system we had a chief administrative officer who was the one that had the experience and the knowledge of the organization.
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Yes, Jonathon Rogers hired Ken Beasley and things went well under his leadership. Beasley quit and things went downhill from there. There were several political appointments, none of whom knew beans about running a city.
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I still say we do not need a City Manager, but we would want a stronger Mayor than the present one, or his immediate predecessor (you know, the one who gave away the candy store).
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