Madison overwhelmingly rejects city manager proposal

Tiffany Knox with the group Don’t Mess with Madison said residents made the right choice.

“Thank you to all of the supporters and donors to Don’t Mess with Madison who made this campaign possible,” she said. “We are pleased to know that Madison residents value their voice in their local government and hope to see increased awareness and civic engagement in the future as a result of this election.”

In January, a petition calling for a special election was submitted to the probate judges of both Madison and Limestone counties. After the signatures were certified, Mayor Paul Finley set the special election date.

“The voters made a clear decision,” said a statement from Jim Ross and Terry Johnson, co-chairs of Madison Forward. “Based on the results, it is apparent that they are extremely happy with our mayor and City Council, which is a good place for our city to be.

“We met some wonderful residents on this journey and we appreciate everyone who came out to vote.”

Update: 9:55 p.m.

Madison Mayor Paul Finley offered remarks at city hall after the election results came in on Tuesday night. 

“Well, obviously the city seems pretty happy with how it’s running right now. Which we’re thrilled with. We have a great team that’s in place, working hard.  

“Right now, nothing changes, we move to redistricting and will redistrict for 7 districts.”  

Finley also applauded the 18% turnout for Tuesday’s special election. 

“That’s a pretty significant amount of people,” he said. “It is. And I think that’s the beauty of what happened. There’s a lot of people that now paid a lot more attention about their government. How do they like it? What’s happening? We heard a lot of opinions which in turn we’re transitioning into actual results for our citizens. We feel like we’ve been doing a great job and we’re just going to keep working hard to keep doing that.

“Great turnout, though, for a special election.” 

Finley said he doubts there will be another effort to change Madison to a city manager style of government, pointing out this special election effort cost the city $70,000. 

“The total cost of this election for the city of Madison was about $70,000,” he said. “That’s what we budgeted for this special election and we were required to do it in this time frame because of how state laws are set up.  

“I can’t see it happening again any time soon.” 

Finley closed his remarks with a statement to the voters.

“It’s a pretty strong mandate to say keep it the way it is. It’s also a mandate to listen,” he said. “I love being able to tell more people what we’re doing. I’m very proud of our team and proud of what we’ve accomplished.  

“Managing this growth is not the easiest thing, but there’s a team of people working together to accomplish it and we’re really proud of that.”