A clearer view of the mayor's job
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he knock we journalists get from some politicians is that all we do is complain while they're actually trying to get things done. The thing they always seem to leave out is that they lack the motivation to get much done if we don't first complain.
That's precisely the turn of events following dust-ups over the powers and titles of mayors in Syracuse, Bluffdale and Lehi earlier this year. Lawmakers had been fine to allow a vague statute governing the forms of municipal governments, and residents' ability to change them, to remain on the books. If not for the battles undertaken by city councils in the aforementioned communities to strip their mayors of duties and powers -- and to alter the forms of government without a direct vote of the people being governed -- and the news media's coverage of those events, the status quo would have persisted.
Now it looks like the Legislature will actually move to make long-overdue changes in local governance when it next convenes in January 2008. Working with help from special-interest groups devoted to good municipal government, the Legislature's Local Issues Task Force has been meeting to review existing law and recommend changes. It appears what they've come up with is positive, and will clarify the law so even the most casual observer would be able to understand the differences in the various forms of local government.
If the current version of the proposed legislation remains intact between now and January, cities will be able to choose from the following:
* Mayor-council: This is the "classic" form of local government, with the mayor fulfilling the executive powers -- or CEO -- and the five- or seven-member council serving as the legislative body. The mayor has veto power in this form of government. Ogden has this form of government now, as do Salt Lake City, Logan and three others.
* The six-member council form has the mayor as a nonvoting member of the governing body who chairs the council meetings, in addition to other ceremonial and administrative functions.
* The five-member council form gives the mayor a vote on the council, as well as various executive and administrative duties.
* The city manager form of government leaves the mayor with largely ceremonial tasks, including chairing meetings. But most of the decisions are made by the executive in charge -- the city manager, who answers to the council and serves at that body's pleasure.
From our reading of the proposed statute -- it still has to go through the legislative sausage-making process, so it might not look like this after the rough-and-tumble of a legislative session -- it appears to clarify many of the confusing and contradictory parts of the current law. And, most importantly, we think, it promises to allow voters in a city to cast ballots before the form of their government can be altered.
(To view the proposed legislation, go to this Web address: www.le.state.ut.us/asp/interim/Commit.asp?Year=2007&Com=TSKLIT.)
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