This blog is maintained for the sole purpose of allowing the people of Peru and those interested in the cities of the Illinois Valley to express their views.
“It doesn’t take a majority to win, just a tireless minority that will keep starting brush fires in the mind and hearts of their fellow men.” Samuel Adams
Lois: Craig Sterrett's follow up editorial is an interesting read and a good perspective on city managers. I think it should also be posted because it hits home.
The Tribs article and Craig Sterrett's follow up were nothing more than chicken scratchin' in the hen house. Peru more than any city needs a city manager. It presently lacks any long term and/or short term plans for the future. It needs to be put back on the tracks of success and this wandering, aimless direction turned around. It is time for the voters to determine that the kindest thing to be said about the current administration is "these boys just didn't come to play".
I'm hesitant to endorse getting a City Manager position. My old college textbook on local politics says "Managers: Authority Without Accountability?" It claims that managers can work in small homogenous communities, but in communities with many various interests, they must "manufacture consensus by suppressing disagreement and discord." You cannot fire them, or the city will be blacklisted and not easily replace them. They command the bureaucracy virtually unhindered by the council. The way they control the council most effectively is by providing and controlling information to the council.
City Managers are human, most will not be evil, but being human, they will contain biases of some kind. These biases will come out in their setting of the agenda. So receiving a manager is not so much the "will of the people," as it is a spin of the roulette wheel.
Rather than taking the word of someone who wrote a book, it is better to look at cities that have implemented the city manager or administrator and see how it works for them. Does their city have stability and is the city functioning in a way that is beneficial to most residents. Princeton has been what I would call consistent in the way things work in their city. Although their main street may not be as vibrant as it was 30 years ago, it still is working and they appear to be working through many of their problems. I think their parks are the envy of many and they have great volunteers, a very good FD and EMT service. It will require more research to look into other small towns and their government structure.
6:03 PM Probably a mayor to conduct the council meetings and be the ribbon cutter and stuff like that but the manager would be working at all the tasks that keep a city running correctly. You would not need a treasurer because the manager would be the treasurer, doing the hiring and firing, grant writing and all needed to keep us running smoothly on a FULL TIME BASIS.
The comment that the city manager cannot be fired is ludicrous. They serve at will of the council, and without that mandate they are gone.
They function best when taking over bloated governments, because they are not worried about anything other than efficiently delivering services and enhancing quality of life. They implement the details of a strategy developed by the elected leaders.
The best thing about a city manager system for Peru would be the budget reduction over a four year period. After that, it is harder to predict growth rates and such. But the patronage and waste will never end without one, and the Police and Fire will never run professionally until patronage is taken out of the departments.
Well said and we can only hope that there are many more like you who will take it upon themselves to vote in our election in a couple of months. This election is going to be one of the most important ever taking place in Peru. We have options of returning to the past, staying where we are now or going ahead into the future with new leaders.
If Peru ever does hire a city manager, it must be somebody from out of town or we will have the same problems we now have. SPW and mayor don't want to supervise because they are friends with the workers and Harl wants their vote, so he won't do anything to upset them, not even installing time clocks.
I wonder how much the manager job is going to pay. We already pay the public works super and the police chief about the same as the City of Springfield, IL pays.
12 comments:
Is our new video equipment broken? One time the video is posted the next day and more often not posted at all.
Lois: Craig Sterrett's follow up editorial is an interesting read and a good perspective on city managers. I think it should also be posted because it hits home.
The Tribs article and Craig Sterrett's follow up were nothing more than chicken scratchin' in the hen house. Peru more than any city needs a city manager. It presently lacks any long term and/or short term plans for the future. It needs to be put back on the tracks of success and this wandering, aimless direction turned around. It is time for the voters to determine that the kindest thing to be said about the current administration is "these boys just didn't come to play".
I'm hesitant to endorse getting a City Manager position. My old college textbook on local politics says "Managers: Authority Without Accountability?" It claims that managers can work in small homogenous communities, but in communities with many various interests, they must "manufacture consensus by suppressing disagreement and discord." You cannot fire them, or the city will be blacklisted and not easily replace them. They command the bureaucracy virtually unhindered by the council. The way they control the council most effectively is by providing and controlling information to the council.
City Managers are human, most will not be evil, but being human, they will contain biases of some kind. These biases will come out in their setting of the agenda. So receiving a manager is not so much the "will of the people," as it is a spin of the roulette wheel.
1:14 PM
Rather than taking the word of someone who wrote a book, it is better to look at cities that have implemented the city manager or administrator and see how it works for them. Does their city have stability and is the city functioning in a way that is beneficial to most residents. Princeton has been what I would call consistent in the way things work in their city. Although their main street may not be as vibrant as it was 30 years ago, it still is working and they appear to be working through many of their problems. I think their parks are the envy of many and they have great volunteers, a very good FD and EMT service. It will require more research to look into other small towns and their government structure.
If there is a position of city manager, is it necessary for the city to have a mayor?
6:03 PM
Probably a mayor to conduct the council meetings and be the ribbon cutter and stuff like that but the manager would be working at all the tasks that keep a city running correctly. You would not need a treasurer because the manager would be the treasurer, doing the hiring and firing, grant writing and all needed to keep us running smoothly on a FULL TIME BASIS.
The comment that the city manager cannot be fired is ludicrous. They serve at will of the council, and without that mandate they are gone.
They function best when taking over bloated governments, because they are not worried about anything other than efficiently delivering services and enhancing quality of life.
They implement the details of a strategy developed by the elected leaders.
The best thing about a city manager system for Peru would be the budget reduction over a four year period.
After that, it is harder to predict growth rates and such. But the patronage and waste will never end without one, and the Police and Fire will never run professionally until patronage is taken out of the departments.
7:51 PM
Well said and we can only hope that there are many more like you who will take it upon themselves to vote in our election in a couple of months. This election is going to be one of the most important ever taking place in Peru. We have options of returning to the past, staying where we are now or going ahead into the future with new leaders.
city manager isn't necessary if we have competent people in office, which, through irony, is who WE the people elect.
If Peru ever does hire a city manager, it must be somebody from out of town or we will have the same problems we now have. SPW and mayor don't want to supervise because they are friends with the workers and Harl wants their vote, so he won't do anything to upset them, not even installing time clocks.
I wonder how much the manager job is going to pay. We already pay the public works super and the police chief about the same as the City of Springfield, IL pays.
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