REORGANIZING CITY HALL How Council’s Proposal Would Change Government Operations
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By M att Dougherty
he Ithaca Common Council unanimously approved a proposal last November that would change the structure of Ithaca’s city government from a Mayor-Council government to a Council-Manager government. Residents will have the final say in whether or not the change will be made through a referendum that will take place this November. If approved, the position of City Manager will be created to relieve the Mayor of administrative and oversight responsibilities. The current Mayor-Council government has a Mayor, currently Acting Mayor Laura Lewis, who is elected separately from the Council, in an at-large election by the entire City. The job of the Mayor has historically been part-time. However, over time the responsibilities of the Mayor have grown with the city and the consensus belief is that the position now calls for fulltime attention. Under the current structure members of the Common Council are elected and as a group holds legislative powers. In Ithaca there are ten Alderpersons on the Council, who represent individual wards, and the Mayor votes on resolutions in case of a tie. Additionally, the Mayor is tasked with managing more than 400 employees across 11 departments, while simultaneously overseeing 18 city facilities that cover a wide range of activity and infrastructure and preparing and administering a $79 million budget. These responsibilities simply don’t align with the Mayor’s $58,000 salary. 12 T
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Former Mayor Svante Myrick told The Ithaca Times, “…we're in a place right now, where the Mayor’s salary has just not kept up with the demands of the job.” He continued saying, “…when I left I was something like [the] 200th lowest paid employee, and it’s tough to convince people who would be qualified to do the job to run when they've got some loans and mortgages and child [care] responsibilities.” The Mayor, Executive Assistant, and the Chief of Staff currently cost the city about $225,000 annually. If a City Manager position is created, it is believed the Mayor's salary as well as responsibilities will both decrease. In addition, the responsibilities carried out by the current Chief of Staff position that former mayor Svante Myrick got approval for will be carried out by the City Manager position. Acting Mayor Lewis told The Ithaca Times, “we currently have a paid Chief of Staff position. If the City Manager position passes in the November referendum, there will not be a Chief of Staff, there will be a City Manager…right now we have a budget line for Chief of Staff, which we would not have [if we have a] City Manager.” The current Chief of Staff makes about $120,000 per year—the City Manager will probably make slightly more. The plan is that the shift in government structure would not have a budgetary impact. When asked how much the city manager would be paid, Lewis said that she was unable to comment on the differential, even if there is one between salary for Chief of Staff and salary for City Manager. According to Lewis, “the two positions would
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If the r efer endum on cha nging to a Cou ncilM a n ag e r f o r m o f g ov e r n m e n t pa s s e s i n N ov e m b e r t h e r e w i l l b e m o r e c h a n g i n g at C i t y H a l l t h a n j u s t i t s n e i g h b o r o n G r e e n S t r e e t. ( P h o t o : A s h B a i l o t) be redundant in some ways, and the City Manager would have far greater authority.” When asked the same question, former Mayor Svante Myrick said creating the City Manager will cost the city “some more money for sure” but that he couldn’t give an exact number. Myrick introduced the idea of creating a city manager position in January 2021, roughly one year before stepping down from his position as the longest serving
Mayor in Ithaca history to accept a position as Executive Director at People for the American Way. PFAW is a progressive think tank whose website says that it’s “founded to fight right-wing extremism and build a democratic society that implements the ideals of freedom, equality, opportunity and justice for all.” The group is organized as a 501(c)(4) organization and is only required to disclose their donors publicly under certain
