Letter: Council trying to take away voters’ rights to choose mayor
To the Editor-
I read that the [City] Council is bringing up a city administrator again and trying to take away voters’ rights in choosing who we want to lead the city by electing a full-time mayor. I thought this was settled when the $200,000 cost came up and no one could show how money would be saved by changing our form of government.
No one has shown how the city could be more efficient or save money with an administrator. Alderperson Guthrie suggested the mayor be stripped of all authority and become strictly ceremonial.
Discussion is healthy, and when Alderperson [Marc] Christiansen brought up the topic months ago, I listened. Washburn saved money, he said. He failed to mention that they combined jobs, reducing staff in a city of 2,000 people.
Combining jobs and eliminating positions saved a small town a few bucks, but how would that work here? Are we currently overstaffed? Are there people at city hall with nothing to do? I doubt it. Hiring someone at $200,000, we’ll have to save at least that much for it to make sense. No one can demonstrate how that would happen. Not one. Call your alderperson and ask how that would work.
Most of the department heads were against the idea as well. Watch the meetings.
Knowing that staff doesn’t support it and they can’t seem to show any savings, what drives this continued discussion?
The clerk, treasurer, and city attorney are elected positions, just like the mayor. Most Wisconsin cities have those positions hired so you can require a degree or some training in that field, but not one alderperson has even suggested hiring for any of those jobs, even though each is set to be elected in April. Why do you think that is?
It seems the real motivation is, that they have limited control over our current mayor and would rather select their own person, circumventing the democratic process.
Keep the power in the hands of voting taxpayers. They think we are not smart enough to elect good people to lead our city. They are wrong.
Mark Hemmrich
Stevens Point