MADISON — The city manager government is more efficient and less likely to be corrupt than a council-mayor type of government, according to Jason Grant of the International City/County Management Association.
Grant was the featured speaker Wednesday night at the “Forms of Government: Council-Manager or Mayor-Council Discussion” hosted by the Madison Public Library. The ICMA is a Washington-based organization that conducts research on local government practices.
The information session was held as the city gears up to vote on a possible change of governance in less than three weeks.
“ICMA is committed to making sure we have good governance at the local level,” said Grant. “So, being able to come to Madison and speak to people about what are the distinctions between the forms of the governments, what are some potential benefits, what are some potential concerns in each form so they can make well informed decisions, that’s why we’re here today.”
The presentation, lasting more than an hour and a half, outlined the differences between the two forms of governments and the role of a city manager in a place such as Madison where residents have many questions.
“I think the biggest thing is trying to understand what it might mean, there’s a lot of confusion,” said Grant. “Hopefully today there’s some clarity.”
Grant said the ICMA values independent, third-party research that’s peer-reviewed.
“If you look at the research, it supports that council-manager form of government performs better than mayor-council forms of government,” he said.
According to Grant, city manager-led governments are proven to be more efficient, more likely to offer comprehensive, effective financial incentives, maintain balanced budgets, and engage in less corruption than mayor-council form of governments. Citing a study published in the Public Administration Review, Grant said local governments led by city managers are 57% less likely to have corruption.
The roles of the mayor and city manager were also discussed at the presentation.
According to the ICMA, under a council-manager form of government, the mayor is the public face of the community who presides at meetings, assigns agenda items to committees, facilitates communication and understanding between elected and appointed officials, and assists the governing body in setting goals and advocating policy decisions.
The city manager is an at-will employee who can be fired by a majority of the elected officials and focuses on service delivery, policy implementation, and performance management.
The ICMA also cites the IBM Global Business Services report “Smarter, Faster, Cheaper” that found that cities that operate under the council-manager form of government are nearly 10 percent more efficient than those that operate under the mayor-council form.
To illustrate his point, Grant asked the crowd if they had a multi million dollar company would you elect someone to run it or find the most qualified, trained candidate to hire.
The meeting was attended by supporters and opponents of a council-manager government. Acknowledging a few of the vocal skeptics in attendance, Grant said he’s still happy to have the opportunity to share information in Madison.
“They can look to the research or they can not look to the research, but at ICMA we value the research that people do to help inform our decisions,” he said.
Madison voters will head to the polls May 9 to cast their vote on the issue. If approved, the new form of government would be in place by 2025.
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