1. What is the difference between a City Manager and a City Administrator?
A municipality’s charter describes the duties of the city manager or city administrator and,
consequently, the differences between these two positions can vary from one city to the
next. Generally speaking, however, a City Administrator is a mayoral assistant whose duties
are defined from time to time by the Mayor and Board. Under a city administrator for of
government, the mayor usually retains the duties of CEO for the city and the mayor
oversees the work of the city administrator. In contrast, the mayor’s role in a city manager
form of government is largely a ceremonial one – with the city manager answering directly
to the city council.
# city manager
# city administrator
# weak mayor
# strong mayor
Taken from:
PDF]General Information Concerning City Managers and ... - MTA
www.mtas.tennessee.edu/.../General+Information+Concerning+City+Man...
60 comments:
The Illinois City Managers Association has information that is specific to Illinois. But what you said is largely correct.
http://www.ilcma.org/
My opinion - we need to change the government - not simply hire a manger.
I doubt that the city council will do this. It matters who on the council supports this and who does not.
4:05 PM
Sapienza, Waldorf, Lukosus, Potthoff
Who supports this idea. On the radio web site it indicated that Waldorf said we can have more sewer projects and Ferrari said we can hire more workers instead of the city manager. It looks like Pothoff was the only one that supported the idea. Its dead in the water---we need more workers not some clown running the city business.
We only need 6 alderman, one for each Ward, and two area wide. We should put this on the ballot during the next presidential election. It will pass.
We already have "some clown" running city business. If we switch to the Council-Manager form of government we will have a professional running the city. A professional with credentials.
If we simply hire an administrator - you are correct. We will have a clown that is directed by clowns.
This is just Harl's pathetic attempt to get revenge on Dave Bartley because of the bad blood between them resulting from the FBI investigation. Pathetic!
@6:46
I feel your idea is worth discussion. How do yo like this for a idea: Each ward which has only one candidate will lose the priviledge of having a ward candidate and that candidate will be placed in the pool of at large candidates. Therefore if you have three wards with competition and one ward with only one candidate the candidate will still have the ability to run but only as a at large candidate which means that there would be a ward vote in 3 wards and a increase of at large candidates by one to add onto the number of open at large candidates.
If Peru had 4 wards with 1 alderman per ward with 2 at large, it could become a race of 3wards which have 2 candidates and 3 at large seats selected from the number of at large candidates.
Anon 8:11 Do you really believe that Peru has a elected official so vindictive that he would set the mission of his office aside in a attempt to obtain revenge? I sinceely hope not and if Peru does that official should be publicly identified and not reelected.
a mission statement should be clearly defined in the city code of ethics.
Anon 6:46 Peru hasn't had 6 qualified alderman at once in my entire life time. Presently they may have no more than one - Alderman Perez.
ooops, I was wrong. I went back and reviewed the municipal code again. Adoption of the Council-Manager format does require a ballot initiative. But, there are two ways for this to get on the ballot. The council can put it there or the people can petition.
If Harl is trying to get rid of Bartley by hiring an Administrator, is that even possible or legal since Bartley's position is elected by the people?
6:48pm....Potthoff has enough experience to know that its time to get a city manager. I agree with that. It won't happen. These guys like to think they have all the answers to run a city.
You people have to understand that the reason Harl is pushing for this is so that if they approve hiring an "City Administrator" who will authority to do only what Harl wants him/her to do, then Harl maintains political influence and control. Then, Harl will claim there is no need to switch to Council/Manager form of government because the "City Administrator" is doing the same things a "City Manager" would be doing. However, the difference is that a "City Manager" working within Council/Manager from of government would have the sole authority over the day to day operations of Peru, including personnel, appointing department heads, city finances, economic development, short-term and long-term city planning, fair and competitive bidding for city contracts, collective bargaining with all city unions, as well as negotiating any agreements with all exisiting and prospective businesses in Peru. Harl and most of the aldermen are scared to death of having that power taken out of their incompetent hands and turned over to a professional city manager who will be immune to the political shenanigans and insider deals that are so ingrained in the day to operations of the city of Peru. A "City Administrator" will be just one more overcompensated political hack who will fall in line with the "Peru way of doing business" at a cost of $175,000 per year of taxpayer money. Do not buy into this scam by Harl to prevent the Council/Manager idea. Potthoff and Perez need to realize why a "City Administrator" will not improve anything in Peru except Harl's grasp on the power he so craves. Council/Manager via referendum is the only way Peru can be pulled out of this purely political spiral of corruption, graft, and cronyism that permeates this city. We must tell these aldermen to kill the idea of a "City Administrator" in its crib.
10:55 - you are very close - minus the political rhetoric. The Council members and Mayor have political agendas but they are not evil incarnate. It is best to discuss this topic without using the venom. The Council and Mayor would still have authority over the City Manager in the Council-Manager form of government. However, you are correct in that an actual City Manager has legal power. Everyone should read up on this - there is simply to much information to pass in a blog post. The Illinois City and County Management Association has very good information.
I support shifting to the Council-Manager form of government.
9:00 pm. You are very naive if you think the mayor is not vindictive. He is out for blood and revenge. He's already made a fool of himself with Perez and the winter fun day. Let's see how foolish he looks with this administrator deal. Stay tuned!
Anon 10:55 AM Thank you for such a well written comment. What you state is so accurate and true. Following Mayor Harl's history I would say his choice for the city administrator has already been made and since there is a substanial pay increase there has been a acceptance.
Presently the only roadblock to these administrative personnel is a few aldermen. Sapienza and Lukosus appear to be in pocket votes leaving only another 3 votes to seperate Peru from having a city administrator or not having a city administrator. Of course 2 more votes would create a tie and than we'd have a tie breaking vote by Mayor Harl. This shows how important the upcoming aldermen races are.
1:27 Which is precisely why Harl is pushing this now. He knows what he's got with his yes men now, but who knows what he'll have after the election.
Exactly 2:12, you took the words right out of my mouth. Thank you
You had a mayor that could manage a city but he was not elected.
Despite the backlash this will get from the haters, good managers of local government are worth every penny. Ask any city, county or school board that has had a very good or very bad person in the CEO position and they will tell you how big difference is between good and bad. Local governments are like businesses in many ways and every good businesses has an undisputed leader running the show. Can a very effective mayor do that? In some cases yes and it worked for Peru for many years but most mayors do not have the time to run daily operations. Don't discount this. I agree with Brian F that this is a move in the right direction.
The question would be who would be his candidate for City Administrator, Bernabie ?????
It did work for Peru in the years past and it works in Ottawa.
I've noticed something. Every once in the while on this blog there are intelligent posts as there are in this string, but I have noticed that they are almost always the ones that don't make nasty comments about people. I don't care if you don't like the mayor or an alderman but why can't you talk about their actions and state why you disagree? Name calling and ridiculous conspiracies make the person making the comment look like the fool.
Stick with good dialogue and debate rather than trashing people. Your point will be that much more valid and it will raise the level of discussion. Also anyone that says "all of the aldermen" are crooks or that "only Rodney Perez" is qualified or cares about the city is also killing the dialogue. Rodney himself could not possibly think that about the individuals who are there. Yes once in a while he is the contrarian and speaks up but he also votes with the rest of them 90 plus percent of the time.
So why say things like that? Just make your case with sound, intelligent arguments and see where this can go!
Anon 6:43 PM
If you have something to say, say it. This is what the blog is all about. I have followed the blog since its begining and one thing I don't care for are comments such as yours which take the comments of others and twists them into what you want said.
In all the years I have participated in the blog I've never read a comment that says "all of the aldermen" are crooks.
How many council meetings have you been at? How many times have you witnessed a aldermen making faces at another aldermen or acting discourteous to another aldermen, or a aldermen insulting a woman at the meeting or aldermen looking at one another and laughing at someone who cares enough to attend the meeting without pay. I have been at a council meeting where I saw a very intellegent politically active person stand up during the meeting and say "this is the dumbest group of men ever assembed together at one time in this town, I can't believe it" with this he walked out of the meeting and has only returned once in years and I believe that was for the no bid TEST contract.
If you want nice stay home and make Xmas cookies or play spin the bottle. As for myself I've got enough experience and savy to know that to make a case with sound, intelligent arguments that the majority of city administrators and councilmen will never understand them.
At one time many of us were practioners of nieceity, nieceity and believed in all that was promised i.e. change, transparency, intelligent decision making, management of the city with strong, solid business methods, long and short range planning, correct finacial procedures and use of the general fund etc. As long as any of these people who made these promises are still holding public office dialogue is not to be considered but lies will be confronted. Your softhearted methods have been tryed and tested and as results show we know where they can go.
If you think what you are seeing now is harsh, hang on, elections are on the way. After the last 4th ward aldermen race, one in which was a most underhanded and possibly dirtiest campaign in the history of Peru conducted by the present CEO all gloves will be off and people will realize what is really happening in Peru politics.
A plea has been repeatidly made to consider a government structure change to enable Peru to have a city manager, instead a watered down version of a wondering city administrator to handle the flavor of the day activities is offered. A city administrator will only be a tool of the whims of the Mayor and council whereas a city manager would mange the city. Presently their is no one involved in Peru politics who qualifies as a city manager whereas just about anyone in Peru qualifies as a city administrator as impotent as the position will be.
Tonight newspaper has a article on the previous ownership of the downtown smoke shop located on Route 6. It will be easy to find as the windows still have the yellow signage identifing it as the smoke shop even though it closed in 2013 and we are in 2015. WOW
What were the dirty tricks played in the last election? 8:42? The Mayor?
"Rauner on Thursday also ordered the state to help local governments comply with a law requiring them to post information about employees, their salaries, and contracts on a state website."
I wonder what kind of "help" the state will give Boss Harl.
9:07 AM, it can't be proven but everyone suspects that Boss Harl funded the election last election for the man that he appointed and is now the junior 4th ward alderman serving his first elected term.
10:10 Maybe not a dirty trick. Only upset folks that he didn't help his former campaign manager Weberski that time around. Makes sense that he supported Lukosus after he did appoint him. Time to get over it.
842 You have at least 1 on the council that could qualify as a manager. And the Chief of Police could qualify based on experience.
I doubt that either of them would have any interest.
No, neither could qualify as a city manager as neither have the educational background to be certified. As for experience what makes you believe that one of the councilman or the present C,PPd etc., etc., etc, etc., (sorry I am not going to take the time to accumulate all of his titles) could qualify based on experience. Neither have ever been a city manager nor show any necessary background to be one. Why would you hire somone who is unqualified when there are those qualified out there. Just because Peru has made a habit of hiring or promoting the unqualified does not make it the proper way to go.
Steator, Illinois recently had a very good city manager who retired on January 1, 2015 and had him already replaced by a city manager with world wide city managership experience before he retired.
Peru definetly has the wrong people looking who have the wrong intentions to fill important city positions. Hasn't anyone noticed that all hirees since Sean Mikos left a year ago have been from this area. Wonder why, local ties mean no more FBI.
10:49 AM, Your comment reveals a typical Peru political logic to support an aldermanic candidate for any reason other than the obvious, like who would make a better quality, independent thinking, elected official. Your flawed way of thinking is just another reason why Peru suffers with incompetent government officials election after election.
11:02 AM Are you sure about that? I think they would both be interested for the amount of money the mayor is talking about. I'm not sure either one is really qualified (I assume we are thinking of the same two people).
Anon 1102 No, you do not have at least 1 on the council nor the Chief of Police who could qualify based on experience to be a city manager.
The position of city manager can be forgotten in the City of Peru as long as you have the present Mayor and council. A city manager would not be on the same page as this group nor to be effective would not allow himself to be bullied. Consider these two reasons and you will realize why our city is having such a hard time in hiring highly qualifed people. If you have doubts why is a multi million dollar department such as the electrical division not have a electrical engineer on staff?
Have no doubt that one of them would have any interest as long as it pays $.01 more than his present salary. By now you should know that with some people it is all about the money.
All we have to do to get the change of government on the ballot is to collect signatures. I think it is 10% of the number of votes for Mayor in the last election. Very low bar. I think that is less than 500.
Anon 12:10 You are so correct why should anyone say any more.
Saddest part of it all is that the Mayor thinks along the lines of 10:49.
The practice of hiring, appointing, someone because they do not want to advance or ever replace you or are incapable stops all progress.
Don Bakers major fault was that he never prepared anyone to replace him. The preseent Mayors major faults are ........, ......, ......, ........, ......, ........!
12:28. Add to your comment why don't we have a qualified Supt of Public Works overseeing a huge budget and knows about the functioning of WaterSewer, Street, Fleet maintenance, etc etc etc.
Is anyone else running into this problem? I have tried to contact someone at city hall using the "ask the city" heading and keep getting a "fatal error" result. I have tried calling and am getting no return response. Is city hall becoming untouchable? Also, where is the video from Monday's council meeting? Did it get lost like all of the other meetings that had interesting information on them?
1:23 pm. I think the time has come to switch to a city manager form of government. I will be researching this and will make sure it is on the next available ballot. Just watch me!!!
4:24 please. Call whatever department during normal business hours or drive your car to the clerk's office and as your question. Whatever crisis you have that needs an intervention I am pretty sure there are other ways to contact people besides the "ask the city" glitch on the website. It's not a conspiracy that they are trying to be "untouchable."
8:43, maybe so. But it does show that our IT Services contractor is amateurish and we would get much more for our money if the web page AND video system was hosted by someone outside the inner circle of crony Illinois Valley government contractors.
My point exactly 8:14. We keep paying for inadequate service.
Come on people I don't have to tell you that Peru works on a disciplined pick and choose method which controls what will be processed and what will not be shown. You know that. You will never see the film from nights that certain people have a bad hair day. The business that supplies Peru with video equipment would never be in business as long as it has been if it was this inefficient.
A city manager would do a cost analysis of hiring a person with IT services in comparison to outsourcing. The expense of outsourcing for what is being recieved is very expensive, of course it is evident that everything in Peru is more expensive than it is in other area cities. Just take a look at amount of hirees, qualifications and salaries.
HD Camcorder = $400
Fully tricked out IPAD Air 2 = $700.
YouTube Channel = Free
High School kid to run the equipment, edit videos, and post on YouTube = $8.25 per hour, a community service recommendation on his or her college application, and all the pizza he or she can eat. Lets be generous and call it 8 hours per week and one pizza - so $66 to the kid plus a $20 pizza (we could even splurge and get it from the local expensive place that likes to put on rock concerts.)
So for 52 weeks $5572 which includes the equipment which can be used for a few years.
How much is the contract for video services from our local Crony Business?
8:28, make up your mind, one minute everyone is on the bandwagon to out source everything, now your saying to save a bundle hire an IT person, you can't have it both ways!
$5572.00 for 52 weeks which also includes the equipment.
This is really cutting the video services expense to the bone. Not anything left for a good dinner & drinks on the house. Forget it! This idea is not meant to fly in Peru.
Yes what was spent on video services from our local vendor and how much could Peru hire a full time IT and obtain full time services?
Are the majority of business done by the city of Peru carried out by bids and a set contract orby job to job or on time and material. It is known that contracts with a price quote set are reviewed by the contractors and they always seem to come back to ask for more because of additional hardships encountered. Two things you can count on the contractor will never come back saying the job was easier than estimated and he wants to give some money back to the city. Secondly the contractor will never be refused a little more than price quoted.Who oversees these estimates and makes recommendations to add money payments on.
9:30 - Nobody said outsource everything. If you read carefully, the only cry for outsourcing is for things that aren't getting done because "we are shorthanded" and would otherwise cost way more if the city uses its own labor source. In the case of recording council meetings - the suggestion was to hire a high school kid for 8 hours a week at minimum wage and provide him with commercial equipment, which actually makes sense to me. If you read between the lines I believe this is also a jab at the administration for not recognizing that we are getting substandard service from a very expensive contractor. The notion that any marginally computer literate high school kid can do a better job - which, frankly one could - shows that the current management of the City of Peru is lacking in some areas.
10:43. I say outsource everything. There is a city in Georgia, an Atlanta suburb, that has only two city employees. The clerk that writes the checks. And a manger that keeps track of the contractors. They also have a eight member council and a Mayor. This includes fire and police which are also contracted.
We do not need city employees to do anything. We just need a good manager with a good admin clerk, and a council that understands how to hire contractors. By the way, the only thing the Mayor should be doing is greeting people. an official hand shaker.
11:59, get in the real world, this is a business, the citizens put the people in their positions, evidently your not with the majority.
The more you outsource, the more friends and family friendly contracts you will see. Just look at our mowing and electrical services. No bids again? You want more of this? We have way to many problems in this city. Too many handshakes.
7:10 PM If you are so sure this is a business why don't you make sure it is run as a business not as a Family and Friend City Hall of Nepotism. Eventually Peru is becoming a city which has several jobs with only 2 or 3 people doing them all. Now it appears we have this policeman, fireman, emergency lighting repairman joining they amidextrious policeman and they amidextrious fireman multi tasking for extra money within the city government.
As a manager I look for a person who is outstanding in his own profession or trade and find that a jack of all trades is truthfully a master of none. Most individuals who want many titles and the freedom to jump all over on jobs do so because they don't want to be caught up with their inefficiencies. When a person wants to moonlight that is his perogative but he should not be allowed to moonlight within the same government structure. There are a huge number of men and women in Peru without a job. I don't agree with my tax money only going to a few when others also have a need of a job.
Anon 7:27 Are you sure that is all they are shaking?
7:27, we need to outsource from reputable companies that are financially secure, have many clients, and are managed well. Often, this will require us to seek the services of a business that is outside of the Illinois Valley.
There are companies that exist that can come in and take over the management of the entire Water & Waste Water, and Public Works operations - with most employees being local hires. The key is the management and training of the local hires plus the ability to redeploy human assets as necessary depending on the requirements.
8:07, we outsource a lot now and you complain about it, AKA TEST and I'll. Valley Contractors, make up your mind!
Having a person with multiple jobs, and when a job isn't being done, a cop out excuse is, didn't have time, it's on the schedule, , oh, so and so was doing this and didn't have time, on and on. It's called covering your butt with excuses, hoping people don't see through it. Called playing people and the system. Or the blame game. A good supervisor is someone who has the knowledge and is qualified to do the job themselves without they themselves being possibly taught on the job.
8:07 Your brilliant! Let's outsource grass cutting, water testing, landscaping and have them hire local employees.
Thanks for landing on Earth. Those areas are outsourced with private companies. And it's working well.
City Manager or City Administrator:
Has anyone suggested getting a Mayor?
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