Yes or No? Madison city manager referendum Tuesday

MADISON — Voters will head to the polls Tuesday in Madison to cast their vote in a referendum on changing from a mayor-council form of government to a council-manager form of government. If approved, a city manager will be hired to run the day-to-day operations of Alabama’s ninth largest city.  

256 Today is sharing the perspectives of two Madison residents on both sides All Postsof the issue. Jim Ross, co-chair of Madison Forward, and Tiffany Knox, with Don’t Mess with Madison, share their three reasons why they will be voting Yes or No. 

Jim Ross is the co-chair of Madison Forward, the group responsible for gathering the required signatures calling for the May 9 special election. Ross shared his three reasons he will be voting yes. 

1. I will be voting yes because I look at the increased growth of the city of Madison and the challenges that come with that growth. I think it’s going to be very important to have a certified professional city manager that would manage the day-to-day of the city and allow the mayor and the city council to really focus on the vision strategy and goals of the city. Our current mayor and council have served us well. But we need to look forward to the future and make certain our form of government provides for a prosperous future under the growing complexity of our city. Under our current form of government, the mayor has no vote on the legislative matters before the city. Instead, the mayor is asked to run the day-to-day operations of government with a budget of nearly $80 million. 
2. By adopting the council-manager form of government, the mayor would be elected at-large to be a voting member of the City Council with the power to set the Council agenda. The mayor would be required to work with fellow Council members to establish a vision for the city and make critical decisions on the city’s future. In turn, the mayor and council would hire a city manager based on their professional experience running a city government who would serve as the chief executive officer and manage the daily operations.
3. Just as our school board appoints a superintendent to run the daily operations of our top-ranked schools, so too would our city council appoint a city manager to run the daily operations of government. The city manager would be responsible for hiring department heads based on their professional experience rather than political influence. The city manager would be hired for an indefinite term and can be fired at any time with a simple majority vote of the City Council. Independent academic research on the benefits of council-manager government over mayor-council is overwhelming. Voting “Yes” on May 9th for a council-manager form of government will increase the likelihood that our government will meet the demands of the residents of Madison.

Tiffany Knox is with the group Don’t Mess with Madison. Knox shared her three reasons she will be voting no.  

1.  To keep my right to directly vote for the person who runs the city’s day-to-day operations. A city manager would not be directly accountable to the voters.
2. To keep checks and balances, as well as a balance of power between the city’s branches of government. With the council-manager form of government, power is consolidated into the legislative body and the mayor loses the power to veto a bad idea. Checks and balances are in place to protect the interests of the citizens, and a balance of power is in place to prevent one branch of the government from becoming too powerful. The council-manager form of government effectively removes these protections.
3. Madison already has a form of government set for success, as many Alabama cities larger than Madison do not have a city manager form of government and they are managed effectively. Madison’s current successes derive from the continuity in the department heads that we already have, which has resulted in effective and efficient management. If citizens or government officials feel otherwise, there are ways within our current structure that we can reallocate and realign resources while still keeping voter involvement in the process, without drastic change in the fundamental structure of the government.

The polls open at 7 a.m. Tuesday.  The Madison city website has information available to voters on the proposed change including sample ballot language and what it would mean for residents.

If approved, the new form of government would be in place by 2025.