OUR VIEW: Time has come for a strong mayor (vote in poll)
We have outgrown symbolic leadership
Colorado Springs city government could use a bit of an overhaul, and that’s not to say we need all new politicians and personnel. Our problems are structural, and its time to adjust the structure.
It’s time for Colorado Springs to move from a council-manager form of government to a mayor-council, aka “strong-mayor” structure. It would not be a move in the direction of more government. It would likely move us in the direction of a leaner, more efficient city bureaucracy that’s more responsive to the electorate.
Colorado Springs has its share of problems, like all large cities. But not all cities struggle with the level of conflict between City Hall and the citizenry that has come to characterize the Springs in recent years. We need some conflict in governance in a free society that values a deliberative process, regulated by a series of checks and balances. But the level of cynicism in Colorado Springs has become unhealthy. City government belongs to the residents of Colorado Springs, and its mission is to serve them. City government is not the enemy of residents, and residents are not the enemy of City Hall.
Our culture of mistrust has resulted from a palpable lack of strong leadership, which results from a government structure we long ago outgrew. Today, the city official with the most authority is the city manager — an employee of a part-time council consisting of nine part-time volunteers who are paid a symbolic stipend. A non-elected employee of volunteers should not lead a city of nearly a half-million residents. Our popularly elected mayor earns $6,200 a year, has limited authority, and cannot possibly treat the position as a full-time job.
Colorado Springs is one of only 18 of the country’s 50 largest cities that still has a council-manager form of government. While this works OK for much smaller cities, in large cities it has created a sense of disconnect between local government and the governed. In recent years, three of the country’s 50 largest cities have adopted a strong-mayor form of government.
A strong-mayor government empowers voters to elect the full-time chief executive of the city. That person, unlike most city managers, is always someone who has lived as a full-time resident of the community before taking office. The full-time mayor, unlike a city manager, answers to the electorate.
A full-time strong mayor is expected to lead, unlike a city manager, who is expected to take orders from a council of volunteers with conflicting agendas.
(Please vote in poll to the right, in red type. Must vote to see results. Thanks!)
Most people remember a golden era in Colorado Springs. Those were the days of the late Mayor Robert Isaac, who was elected to serve as a part-time, barely-paid mayor from 1979 through 1997. Mayor Bob, love him or not, was a leader. Though technically a volunteer, Isaac filled the role of a strong mayor in a council-manager city. Mayor Bob was a phenomenon that’s not likely to happen again, unless we institutionalize the strong-mayor form of government and make the position attractive to our city’s best and brightest leaders.
Organizers of a grass-roots campaign to institutionalize a strong-mayor system want a charter amendment on the ballot in November. The Gazette fully supports this effort.
Moving to an effective strong-mayor system will involve a lot of details in the charter that will determine the scope of the mayor’s authority and the systematic checks that will regulate that power. For example: Should our mayor appoint department heads or nominate them for approval by the council? Will the mayor have line-item-veto authority? Who will determine the mayor’s pay?
Only the people of Colorado Springs should determine the structure of a strong-mayor ballot proposal. The Gazette will sponsor a series of town hall meetings in the interest of helping the community develop a charter-amendment proposal that will serve our city best. We will facilitate dialogue from all parties on our editorial pages and in our Sunday Community Forum. Everyone who wants to be heard will have a chance to be heard.
Please get involved in this effort. Colorado Springs is one of the best places in the world in which to live and do business.
If we properly adjust a form of government we have outgrown, there’s no limit to the potential of this great place. — Wayne Laugesen, editorial page editor, for the editorial board
