Key Facts about the Managerial Form of Municipal Government

• Today, 63% of U.S. cities with populations the size of Freeport operate under a Managerial Form of Municipal Government.

• While more U.S. cities the size of Freeport have adopted a Managerial Form of Municipal Government, the number of Mayor Council cities have decreased in direct proportion.

• A Managerial Form of Municipal Government transfers the power of administering the daily operations of our city government to a qualified, educated, experienced professional City Manager.

• We will still have an elected Mayor and City Council, and their new role will be focused on policy and planning, as the administrative responsibilities shift to the shoulders of the professional City Manager.

• Under the new Managerial Form of Municipal Government, we could see a direct savings of $30,000.
  
  $170,000 (Current Mayor’s Salary @ $80,000 plus Finance Director’s Salary @ $90,000) minus $140,000 ($125,000 for City Manager plus $15,000 for part-time Mayor) equals $30,000 of direct savings. Currently we have an elected City Treasurer and another financial person in city government. The role of Finance Director has been as a chief advisor to the Mayor on matters of Finance and Administration, and this role could easily be assumed by the Professional City Manager.

Criteria for Evaluating the Effectiveness of City Government

We thank Dick Drogosz for this one. Dick was instrumental in the formation of Vision 2020. Since his retirement from Honeywell, Dick has given his time and energy to the future of Freeport. Our city shall long remember his accomplishments.

Here are Dick's criteria with responses showing the benefits of a Managerial Form of Municipal Government.

a. Frees up Mayor and Council to focus on future planning vs. managing day-to-day activities.

All daily administration of the city government is the responsibility of the City Manager. The Mayor and City Council are responsible for policy & legislation, future planning, and directing the City Manager’s performance.

b. Provides the capability for an accountable, cost-effective and efficient government.

The professional experienced City Manager runs the government like a business. The Manager is accountable to the Mayor and City Council for accomplishing established goals and objectives for city operations.

c. Helps Freeport become more responsive and easy to do business with.

A professional experienced city manager knows where the resources are and is better equipped to respond to opportunities from a business perspective without respect to his/her public image.

d. Allows time for Mayor to play a stronger role in Economic Development towards retaining existing and attracting new business.

Because the Mayor is free from the daily administration of city government, he/she has more time available to sit down with present and future employers. The Mayor and City Manager then act as a team to help current and future businesses grow and prosper.

e. Provides for continuity of leadership over time.

Every four to eight years, Freeport moves through a learning curve while each new Mayor and Councilperson tries to figure out how to operate the government. A qualified experienced professional City Manager is business focused rather than politically driven and bridges gaps from election to election.

What's the Difference?

The first question we received when we began our initiative to change Freeport to a (City) Management Form of Government was, “Why does this form of government differ from what we have now?” That question was raised by Journal-Standard columnist, Cara Spoto in our initial interview on the subject. It was also the first question raised by Craig Jostens when we met with him and Mayor Gaulrapp later on.

The essential difference is this. In a managerial form of municipal government, the city manager has complete control over the administration of the government. This includes hiring and firing of personal, preparation of budgets and financial accountability, collective bargaining, literally everything associated with operating the municipality.

The city manager is hired by and is accountable to the mayor and city council. The hiring process and relationship operates in much the same way as in our school district where the professional superintendent is selected from a list of qualified applicants. Applicants for the position of city manager are career veterans. They have resumes which document their education and experience in the profession of city administration.

The mayor and city council remain the elected representatives of our citizens. They are responsible for the city manager’s performance as well as legislation and policy making. They are also responsible for gathering inputs from their constituents and the city manager to plan for the future of our city.

What we have now under Mayor Gaulrapp’s administration is something that resembles a managerial government but differs in these fundamental ways.

First, The Mayor’s Finance Director, Craig Joestens, does not have complete control over the administration of the city government. Mayor Gaulrapp is still in charge of the day-to-day operations, and he and the city council are still actively making decisions which effect directly the operation of the government.

Secondly, Mr. Joestens was not selected from a list of qualified applicants for the position he holds. We understand that he was appointed by Mayor Gaulrapp, and his position as Financial Director was created by the Mayor with, we assume, the approval of the council.

Finally, the position of Financial Director does not fundamentally alter the structure of city government. Mr. Jostens serves at the pleasure of the Mayor, and he does not operate independently of Mayor Gaulrapp’s political agenda as would a city manager.

Many of our citizens may believe that this present arrangement is working and doing good for our city. Considering the challenges of these economic times, our question to the Mayor, Mr. Joestens, and the City Council is this: Why can’t we do better?

We also question why Mayor Gaulrapp did not take the “next step” and indeed change the fundamental structure of the government to a managerial form when he clearly has the power to do so?

Why didn’t the Mayor seek the vote of the city council to change the form of government?

Why didn’t the Mayor form a search committee and solicit resumes from qualified applicants in the city manager profession?

Why did he not move to transfer complete administrative control of the government to a professional city manager?

We can only assume that Mayor Gaulrapp did not want to surrender his authority over the city’s operations. We also agree that he did not want to surrender his income which would have been reduced substantially by council resolution if the government changed from a “Mayoral” to a “Managerial” form.

A copy of that resolution is available for the review of your readers.

On Tuesday evening, the City Council will give confirmation to the Mayor’s salary for the coming four years. We are informed that once the Council sets his salary, it cannot be changed even if the referendum to change our city government to a “Managerial Form of Municipal Government” passes.

We understand that the City Council has the legal authority to confirm the Mayor’s salary. We hope, however, that the City Council will move to postpone this decision until after the voters decide at the polls in November whether to change Freeport to a “Managerial Form of Municipal Government.”

Professionals Pay Performance Dividends

In his paper titled The Mayor-Manager Conundrum that Wasn't, Executive Director Robert J. O’Neill, Jr. of the International City/County Management Association talks about the "performance dividend of professional management." He concludes by saying that...

“More than half of the 40 cities that received a triple-A bond rating, as of December 2003 from both Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s, operate under the council-manager form of government.

It is also the structure used by six of the 10 communities recognized in 2004 by the National Civic League with the coveted All-America City Award, which encourages civic excellence by honoring those communities in which “citizens, government, business, and nonprofit organizations demonstrate successful resolution of critical community issues.

Recently the Center for Digital Government and the National League of Cities surveyed local governments and ranked the top 10 cities in four population categories for making the best use of technology to improve operations and better serve their constituents. Eighty-three percent of the highest ranked cities use the council-manager form.”

If you would like a copy of Mr. O'Neill's paper, please send us an email or reply to this post.

Professional Manager Reports to Elected Officials

In the council-manager form of government, the council is the governing body of the city elected by the public, and the manager is hired by council to carry out the policies it establishes. The council usually consists of five to nine members including a mayor (or council president) who is either selected by the council or elected by the people as defined in the city charter. The size of the council is generally smaller than that of a mayor-council municipality, and council elections are usually nonpartisan.
The council provides legislative direction while the manager is responsible for day-to-day administrative operation of the city based on the council’s recommendations. The mayor and council as a collegial body are responsible for setting policy, approving the budget, and determining the tax rate. The manager serves as the council’s chief advisor. Managers also serve at the pleasure of the council and are responsible for preparing the budget, directing day-to-day operations, and hiring and firing personnel.

How a Mayor Transformed his City Government

We eagerly await a visit from Mayor Emeritus Bob Gingerich to Freeport. As the Mayor of Rochelle, Bob transformed his city government into a council-manager structure.

The particulars of that transformation and the steps that Rochelle took promise to be extremely useful to our group's understanding of what may be in store for Freeport.

If anyone out there wishes to join us for Bob's visit, please post your interest by clicking on comments below this post. We'll get you the date, time and place.

A Formal Structure for Experience, Education, and Continuity in Freeport

Freeport native Bob Franz recently retired as the city manager of Deerfield, Illinois after a long and successful career in public administration. Bob visited with our group to share his experiences and talk about his profession. We were pleased that our mayor joined us for Bob’s visit.

Steve Berley, Sterling's former city manager, also took time to drive up and visit with our group. Before moving to Sterling, Steve was the Village Manager in LaGrange and then Oak Brook, Illinois. Steve also shared his experiences and helped us better understand the various facets of a council-manager form of government.

Among the materials Steve passed out was his resume. Steve did his undergraduate work at Augustana College and received his masters degree in public administration at Northern Illinois University. Incidentally, NIU offers one of the most respected departments of public administration in the country.

Steve’s career in public administration stretched from 1965 until his recent retirement. He now serves as a consultant for the International City/County Management Association (ICMA). ICMA is dedicated to the profession. Retired managers like Steve consult with city managers on issues facing their communities as well as their personal career development.

Our group’s biggest concern with regard to the present council-mayor structure in Freeport is possessing the experience and education necessary to address the increasingly complex realm of public administration. In our view, Freeport does not have a formal structure in place to maintain the continuity of professional administrative leadership.

This leaves our city vulnerable to repeat the steep learning curves with each new administration and thus the mistakes of the past.

In today's very complex and challenging environment, our community can ill afford to be without a professional experienced and educated public administrator.

In his Publisher’s Column, Steve Trosley colored in the cons and pros of a council-manager form of government. In our opinion, Steve could easily use the same pallet and brush to illustrate mediocre performance and corruption in a mayoral administration. History is certainly full of that.

The central difference between the council-mayor form and a council-manager form is the form itself. It is the structure supported by university and professional certification, continuing education, and re-certification. That form, that structure, of credential and certification is better equipped to administer the public trust in our opinion.

After all, we do not elect our school principals and superintendents. Our school board hires experienced educated professionals to operate our schools and districts.

Why shouldn’t our city council and our mayor welcome the benefit of a professional to manage the day-to-day operation of Freeport? It would give our elected officials more time to plan for the future and consider strategies to meet future challenges with the guidance of a trained professional.

Yes, our group seeks the “professional.” But more so, we seek the “form,” the structure, wherein that professional might operate successfully for the benefit of Freeport and its citizens.

As we make our way down the path to professional administration, please join us at this site. Our next visitor is the former mayor of Rochelle, Bob Gingerich. Bob will discuss his experiences and challenges of transforming his community into a council-manager form of government.