REORGANIZING CITY HALL

How Council’s Proposal Would Change Government Operations

The Ithaca Common Council unanimously approved a proposal last November that would change the structure of Ithaca’s city government from a Mayor-Council government to a Council-Manager government. Residents will have the nal say in whether or not the change will be made through a referendum that will take place this November. If approved, the position of City Manager will be created to relieve the Mayor of administrative and oversight responsibilities. e current Mayor-Council government has a Mayor, currently Acting Mayor Laura Lewis, who is elected separately from the Council, in an at-large election by the entire City. e job of the Mayor has historically been part-time. However, over time the responsibilities of the Mayor have grown with the city and the consensus belief is that the position now calls for fulltime attention.

Under the current structure members of the Common Council are elected and as a group holds legislative powers. In Ithaca there are ten Alderpersons on the Council, who represent individual wards, and the Mayor votes on resolutions in case of a tie. Additionally, the Mayor is tasked with managing more than 400 employees across 11 departments, while simultaneously overseeing 18 city facilities that cover a wide range of activity and infrastructure and preparing and administering a $79 million budget. ese responsibilities simply don’t align with the Mayor’s $58,000 salary.

Former Mayor Svante Myrick told e Ithaca Times, “…we're in a place right now, where the Mayor’s salary has just not kept up with the demands of the job.” He continued saying, “…when I le I was something like [the] 200th lowest paid employee, and it’s tough to convince people who would be quali ed to do the job to run when they've got some loans and mortgages and child [care] responsibilities.” e Mayor, Executive Assistant, and the Chief of Sta currently cost the city about $225,000 annually. If a City Manager position is created, it is believed the Mayor's salary as well as responsibilities will both decrease. In addition, the responsibilities carried out by the current Chief of Sta position that former mayor Svante Myrick got approval for will be carried out by the City Manager position.

Acting Mayor Lewis told e Ithaca Times, “we currently have a paid Chief of Sta position. If the City Manager position passes in the November referendum, there will not be a Chief of Sta , there will be a City Manager…right now we have a budget line for Chief of Sta , which we would not have [if we have a] City Manager.” e current Chief of Sta makes about $120,000 per year—the City Manager will probably make slightly more. e plan is that the shi in government structure would not have a budgetary impact.

When asked how much the city manager would be paid, Lewis said that she was unable to comment on the di erential, even if there is one between salary for Chief of Sta and salary for City Manager. According to Lewis, “the two positions would be redundant in some ways, and the City Manager would have far greater authority.”

When asked the same question, former Mayor Svante Myrick said creating the City Manager will cost the city “some more money for sure” but that he couldn’t give an exact number.

Myrick introduced the idea of creating a city manager position in January 2021, roughly one year before stepping down from his position as the longest serving Mayor in Ithaca history to accept a position as Executive Director at People for the American Way. PFAW is a progressive think tank whose website says that it’s “founded to ght right-wing extremism and build a democratic society that implements the ideals of freedom, equality, opportunity and justice for all.” e group is organized as a 501(c)(4) organization and is only required to disclose their donors publicly under certain

By Matt Dougherty

If the referendum on changing to a CouncilManager form of government passes in November there will be more changing at City Hall than just its neighbor on Green Street. (Photo: Ash Bailot)

circumstances. In March 2022, PFAW was advertising Ithaca-speci c job openings online looking to hire lobbyists for public relations and community outreach for the 2022 City Manager referendum and police reimagining plan. e organization's involvement in lobbying in favor of the reimagining plan has led to Tompkins County opening up an ethics investigation into the former Mayor at the request of Alderperson Cynthia Brock.

Advocates of the shi in city government organization believe that creating the City Manager position would allow for more e ciency in city government because it would put a professionally trained administrator in charge of administrative duties. It would also provide more consistency to the city government rather than being subject to shi s due to changes in the mayor position. ese advocates believe that such e ciency and consistency will, for example, be important in following through on the police reimagining plan.

However, some residents have expressed concern about the fact that the City Manager would not be an elected position and would instead be appointed by the mayor and common council.

Alderperson Phoebe Brown, who represents Ithaca’s 2nd Ward on the Common Council, told e Ithaca Times that she thinks the City Manager should “have to be elected by the people. I think anything we do should be involved with the people.”

When asked how he would convince a concerned resident that an unelected city manager would still be accountable to the public, Myrick admitted some concern himself saying, “that's the main drawback to this system…that the [City Manager] is not as directly accountable.” He continued saying, “it's a tradeo for sure. I don't want to downplay that. Not being able to directly elect the city's chief executive is a change, but I think it's a change that's worthwhile.”

Acting Mayor Lewis responded to these concerns by saying that a City Manager would make government more e cient and that residents' in uence over the City Manager would be felt through their votes for Common Council members. “ e [City Manager] is publicly accountable because they report to the Common Council and the Common Council is elected,” Lewis explained. “If the public views the City Manager as not being e ective in their role, residents would contact the Common Council because that would be the overseeing body.” e Council would have the opportunity to hold the Manager accountable at monthly meetings. However, the proposal to create a City Manager says that the position would have a four-to- ve-year contract. While any such contract would contain grounds and procedures for termination of the City Manager prior to expiration, ring a City Manager prior to the end of their agreement would not be simple.

Supporters of the proposal say that giving up the ability for voters to elect the CEO of the city is a positive thing because an elected Mayor is not required to have relevant administrative experience, and that potentially continuous four-year turnover could lead to instability in administrative oversight and accountability.

Any manager appointed by the Common Council would have to be quali ed and have experience handling major administrative and budgetary responsibilities. While anyone can be elected Mayor, only professional managers meet the eligibility requirements for the City Manager position.

Alderperson Cynthia Brock, who represents Ithaca’s 1st Ward on the Common Council, told e Ithaca Times, “by adopting a City Manager structure, we allow our organization to have continuity in leadership over the long term, which I think would be a tremendous asset to the city of Ithaca.” She continued saying, “we would be able to bring in a trained professional administrator with experience and expertise in overseeing large, complex organizations such as ours.” e proposal passed by Common Council last November says that the City Manager would serve as the Chief Executive O cer of the City. e manager would monitor the e ectiveness and performance of City departments and make recommendations to the Common Council about changes in departments that would decrease costs or improve services. e manager would also have authority over monitoring the annual budget to ensure compliance with its provisions.

According to Acting Mayor Lewis, “the city manager would have administrative management responsibilities” e City Manager would be directly responsible in overseeing sta , to make sure that those priorities and policies are put in place. “ ey would be that day-to-day contact person interacting with department heads and overseeing capital projects. All of those administrative functions would be the responsibility of the City Manager.” said Brock. e Mayor would appoint members of boards and commissions or advisory committees and continue elected service as a member of the Common Council. As a result of becoming a voting member of the common council, the Mayor will lose veto power since allowing them to maintain it would create a vast imbalance of power among the council. e Mayor has also rarely used veto power, so the change is likely to go unnoticed.

Alderperson Brock said that “the Mayor and Common Council will continue to set priorities in terms of policies.” She explained “… we will still have the ability to approve a budget. So if the Common Council determines that we want to see more resources go towards particular departments or redesign those resources in terms of types of equipment, types of technology, and so on, we still have the power to do that.”

According to Brock “Common Council will continue to have authority over approving the budget, setting priorities, setting policy, and establishing zoning. All of those things would be retained, even with a City Manager.”

If the referendum is passed this November then the Common Council will start their search for a City Manager in 2023, creating a search committee and conducting interviews. e position won’t be lled until 2024 at the earliest.

Acting Mayor Lewis said, “A City Manager would not come on board until January 2024. So we will continue in our current con guration until then.” Lewis also said that she will be running for re-election “to complete the current mayoral four-year term” and that “if I'm elected this November, my term as Mayor would expire December 31, 2023—Which by the way is the date of expiration for all of the current ten members of the Common Council.”

The plan is that the shift in government would have no budgetary impact. These numbers are estimates by the Ithaca Times based on published data and other sources.

The Mayor’s responsibilities don’t align with the current salary or its role as CEO of a complex growing organization, according to those advocating the shift in structure. (Illustration: City of Ithaca Government Structure Working Group)

The new structure would potentially clear up some confusion over the role the current Chief of Staff plays in working with City departments.

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