A MAYOR-COUNCIL government system of organization of a local government that has an EXECUTIVE MAYOR who is elected by the voters, and a separately elected legislative city council. There are two forms of municipality governments. The first is a STRONG-ELECTED MAYOR given almost total administrative authority and a clear, wide range of political independence, with the power to appoint and dismiss department heads without council approval or public input. In this system, the strong-mayor prepares and administers the city budget, although that budget often must be approved by the council. Watkinsville had this type of government prior to 2019. The strong-elected Mayor will appoint a CITY ADMINISTRATOR who will supervise department heads, prepare the budget, and coordinate departments. This Administrator is sometimes called a CITY MANAGER. While the term City Manager is used in the CITY COUNCIL-MANAGER form of municipal government, the City Council-Manager in the strong-elected Mayor variant the City Manager is responsible only to the Mayor. In the second form of government, there is the WEAK-MAYOR SYSTEM, where the mayor has no formal authority outside the council; the mayor cannot directly appoint or remove officials, and lacks veto power over council votes. As such, the mayor's influence is solely based on personality in order to accomplish desired goals. This form of government was created in 2019 and 2020 by the WATKINSVILLE CITY COUNCIL without input from the 2,900 residents of Watkinsville. In November 2018, then Mayor Shearon told the City Council he couldn’t properly perform his job without an assistance. The City Council then created and passed a CITY ADMINISTRATOR position to be under the Mayor, and voted to hire Sharyn Dickerson. In November 2019, mayoral candidate Bob Smith won the election. He ran as a Republican Conservative, and transparency on all issues. Smith was known for being straight forward, honest man. The people voted him into office because he would make a strong-elected Mayor. One month later in December 2019 the City Council literally mismanaged the upgrading of the City Administrator to CITY MANAGER and placed the position under their authority. In January 1, 2020 Mayor Smith took the oath of office just as his past predecessors had done. But for no apparent reason, he met strong residence from the City Council and Business Manager. Then the City Council stripped away the strong-elector Mayor’s duties and responsibilities from under him and giving them to an unelected City Manager. Under the City Council’s strong arm tactics, Watkinsville now had a weak-Mayor system with the Business Manager under the City Council. All this done without resident input. Why? Watkinsville Mayor Bob Smith announced his resignation, effective immediately, during a March 17, 2021 council meeting. In his letter to City Council members, he wrote, “With the knowledge and support of the Mayor Pro Tem (Brian Brodrick) and the previous City Council, the unelected City Manager has taken over the responsibilities and duties that once belonged to the (elected) mayor. The Mayor has virtually no authority to meet with people desiring property changes, negotiate transactions or give any input whatso ever on the business of Watkinsville government.” Mayor Smith continued, “I ran for this office on a platform of an open and transparent government to include all residents of Watkinsville. From my experience with requesting information about payments, financial audits and reviewing city business, this city council is anything but open and transparent.” Watkinsville has now wasted $14,000, I mean voting, for a mayor without any duties and responsibilities because of the council’s strong arming our Mayor Smith to resign. Three weeks voting with maybe 300 voting.
City Councilmember Brian Brodrick, who was instrumental for stripping Mayor Smith of his power, is now sitting in the mayor’s position. The question of the day is how much power will Mayor Brodrick be given by his City Council? This doesn't pass the smell test.
Comments