Annapolis Capital Punishment

Local activists Bill Kardash and Doug Smith complete their FAQ's about the city manager issue in this third and final installment. CP again thanks Doug and Bill for their efforts on this important charter amendment.

12. Is the problem that the voting public cannot be trusted with choosing a manager?
The voting public elects the mayor. The voting public has no way of knowing if a candidate is a skilled manager. The political process sorts out 1 republican candidate and 1 democratic candidate. So we hire a good political leader that we like. With the current system, we basically cross our fingers and hope the mayor can also manage.

The current system also requires the mayor to hire the city administrator. When the mayor is doing the hiring, you can be pretty sure the mayor will hire someone who will support his/ her political agenda - which may or may not yield the best management talent for the city.

13. Is the problem that the Mayor has too much control?
Yes. The mayor does have too much control. This can easily lead to hiring or firing people based on politics – a bad performer can stay on the job if that person is loyal and supports the mayor. A good person can be fired for speaking the truth or presenting a view that is opposed by the mayor.

14. Is it that the Mayor has too little control?
In the current system, the mayor has 100% of the power. This is not good government. There is no check and balance. Bad decisions can be made, poor contracts can be executed that are not in the best interests of the city.

15. Is it that the Council is not effectively engaged?
The council has very little control or oversight. Remember the mayor is full time, and aldermen are part time, with no staff. The council has no control of consultants that are hired. The council members are not trained in public finance, or administration. For an $81 M budget, and 530 employees, this is a very large operation, requiring professional, non-political management.

To tackle the budget, council members are completely without the necessary skills. And since the mayor controls the department heads, it is extremely difficult for the council to get sufficient information to make informed decisions, so they do the best they can, and usually get backed into a corner or time pressure forces them to vote for things they don't understand.

16. Is the problem the lack of accountability?
Currently, the mayor is accountable and if you don't like the job being done, you have to wait 4 years to make a change. With a city manager, everyone will know when things are going well, and when things are not going well, you fire the city manager – without waiting until next election cycle. By the way, the average tenure for city manager is 7 1/2 years. Good city managers stay on the job and continue to do good work.


17. Is the problem that no one on the Council understands how to run a City?
City council is not supposed to run the city. Operations should be done by a competent city manager.

18. Is it that no one on any future Council will ever understand?
We should try to elect the best council members - their job should be to set the broad vision - such as vision for city dock, a long term traffic plan, along term parking strategy, a capital program to fix the water works, etc. They don't have to understand the details, they set the direction and the city manager should figure out how to get it done.

19. Is it a lack of institutional (municipal) governance knowledge?
Council members and mayors will come and go, the city manager will have extensive operating background, having solved similar problems for other cities. City manager, if competent, will stay on from one mayor to the next – this gives us continuity.

20. Is the problem poor legal knowledge?
I’m sure the city has very competent attorneys, as long as the law department works directly and only for the mayor, the city attorney will always try to do what the mayor wants. A better system puts the law department under the city manager - in that way all city officials can get good legal advice. The law department should be able to give objective advice, without worrying about losing their jobs.

CP will continue to monitor and write about this issue which may come to a vote early in the new year.

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