FONT SIZE
Email this
Print this
POST A COMMENT
Council Quiz
At last night’s City Council meeting, which of the following was done about the Mayor’s $99,600 salary:
a) it was cut in half, to $49,800, to fund a City Administrator
b) it was doubled, to $198,200, with the Mayor given “double duties”
c) it was “zero-ed out,” and the Mayor position was eliminated
d) nothing was done
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, September 28th, 2010 at 8:02 am and is filed under North Coast News.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.
5 Responses to “Council Quiz”
Topics
The answer is ‘none of the above.’ Public discussion on some very important issues was started. The good news, is that the Mayor and the council have begun the discussion with plenty of time for all opinions to be heard. Ocean Shores voted to change their form of government from the Mayor / City Manager form to what is called “the Strong Mayor form,” currently in effect. Under the previous form, the city was run by conscensus of the city council (with a figure head mayor) advising the City Manager. Under the current form, the publically elected Mayor is the Chief administrative officer versus a City Manager. This gives the Mayor, within certain tolerances, more autonomy on a daily basis. The suggested changes, in practical terms, makes it more likely that a working person could apply and be elected Mayor, without having to spend 8 plus hours per day at city hall.
Examples include our neighbors. Aberdeen and Hoquiam are examples of strong Mayor forms of government, with eleced Mayors. Hoquiam uses a city administrator and Aberdeen does not.
The discussion that was started last night, is whether the city wants to hire a city administrator, who could help manage the city on a day to day basis, yet receive all direction from the Mayor. The Mayor’s salary could be cut, commiserate with the salary of the city administrator (Salary’s to be determined,) and the requirement for the Mayor to be on site could shorten. One benifit, is continuation of city management in the case of turn over in the Mayor’s office which can happen at least once every four years. Another is that most city administrators have documented professional management skills and have been educated or are experienced in this role. Alternatively, many Mayors are often elected based on political skills.
Neither of these proposed changes can happen for many months. The current budget does not support the city administrator position, and the Mayor’s salary, by statute, cannot be changed until Jan 1, 2012.
A meeting discussion with no objective, the answer has to be “D” nothing as usual. Perhaps the objective was to to spend more money on another unproductive meeting with an expensive lawyer present. Could there be too much money in City Hall’s meeting budget that must be spent by year’s end.
NOTHING would most likely be correct. The city decided to destroy our privacy and security hedge yesterday. Did I say destroy? More like TOTALLY ELIMINATED it, without so much as a prior conversation! They arbitrarily changed the look of our entire place, and NOT enhancing it. We requested someone come out and look, but so far NOTHING. What the city did to our home yesterday was TOTALLY UNREASONABLE AND INCONSIDERATE. If I have ever even thought about giving our city government the benefit of the doubt, I CERTAINLY NEVER WILL AGAIN. I want to deduct the damage they did from my LID. Their behavior yesterday was certainly NOT A SPECIAL BENEFIT to us or our neighborhood.
I agree, par for the course, “D”
I will not see the council meeting until it is on TV tonight, but judging from their previous performances, I would state unequivocally, D.