Reasons to Vote YES on Proposition 1, Elected Mayor
- Citizen Control—Currently, the city manager and mayor are not elected by the citizens but are appointed by the city council and 5 of 7 are friends that live in one neighborhood at Angle Lake. An elected mayor would report to the citizens.
- Checks and Balances—The "Angle Lake" council currently has both the legislative and executive powers. For years there has been limited debate and virtually no citizen input prior to legislation being passed. An elected mayor would manage the executive branch and the council the legislative branch.
- Prioritized Budget—With little debate the budget gets passed and millions have been proven to be wasted each year. The "Angle Lake" council and city manager have virtually no business experience to manage a $60 million budget.
- Open Government—Many key decisions that affect the future of our city are made in secret executive sessions and approved by the "Angle Lake" council. Many of these decisions have resulted in litigation costing the city millions.
- Local Representation—Our current city manger lives in Tacoma (recently fired by the council on 10/26/09. (See Highline Times) An elected mayor would live in SeaTac and have friends and family in our neighborhoods and therefore have firsthand knowledge of the issues specific to our city and be affected by legislation, taxes, and fee increases.
- Less Regulations—Currently, the non-resident staff managed by the non-resident city manager continually propose more regulations and the "Angle Lake" council rubber stamps them with little debate or citizen input.
- Lower Taxes and Fees—Currently, the non-resident staff managed by the non-resident city manager continually propose higher taxes and fees and the "Angle Lake" council rubber stamps them with little debate or citizen input.
- Maintain Property Rights—Currently, the non-resident staff managed by the non-resident city manager continually propose to transfer property rights to the city and the "Angle Lake" council rubber stamps them with little debate or citizen input.
Counters to Claims made by the Opposition
- Increase Costs—The opposition claims an Elected Mayor would cost more. An elected mayor with a hired city administrator would cost less than the current city manager and assistant city manager. With checks and balances and a prioritized budget we would save millions each year.
- Professional Management—The opposition claims an Elected Mayor would lack "professional management" skills. An elected mayor would hire a professional city administrator to assist with management.
- Eliminate the Council—The opposition claims the City Council would be eliminated if we have an Elected Mayor. The council will remain and will control the legislative branch of government. The mayor will control the executive branch.
- Disrupt Services—The opposition claims that city services would be disrupted if we change to an Elected Mayor form of government. The vast majority of the city staff will remain employed and the directors of each department will carry out their tasks as normal. City services will continue uninterrupted.
Vote YES for Proposition 1
Why is having an Elected Mayor so important?
The opponents of Proposition #1 would like you to think it is a choice between an Elected Mayor and Professional Management. This is a red herring—in both cases there is professional management. However, once we have an Elected Mayor, we will have a full-time representative of the citizens overseeing the actions of these professionals.
Today, we have a Council/Manager form of government. This means the City Council hires a "professional manager" to run the city. The City Council members, who only spend part-time on City business, are the elected representatives of the citizens and are responsible for overseeing the City Manager to make sure the City is managed properly. Because they only spend part-time, they must rely on the City Manager to report on his own performance. There is a natural tendency for a City Manager to "filter" vital information from the City Council if it could reflect badly on himself.
With a Mayor/Council form of government the Elected Mayor hires a "professional" City Administrator, but also oversees the City operations full-time. Nothing can be hidden, because he or she is involved on a daily basis. Without this type of oversight SeaTac has experienced multiple problems over the last few years.
The campaign for Proposition #1 has exposed these problems and forced them to be addressed; resulting in firing of the City Manager. (See the Highline Times: SeaTac City Manager abruptly fired.) The opponents of Proposition #1 would like you to believe this proves that the City Council (in a Council/Manager form of government) can take action when necessary to address problems. Instead, it proves that problems must go on much longer, before the City Council will take the required action. The illegal use of Public Facilities to support a Levy occurred in 2005. The violation of state contracting law and overspending of the Fire Station was discovered by the State Auditor this year, when auditing the City for the year 2007. These sorts of issues could not have been hidden from a full-time Elected Mayor. Not only would an Elected Mayor have direct knowledge and prevent such problems, he or she could have acted on it immediately—before damage was done to our City. If it were not for the exposure created by Proposition #1 these problems would not have come to light even now.
Our City is bleeding money. Without a full-time representative of the citizens there is very little oversight of City operations and how funds are spent. We are wasting MILLIONS every year. See the Proof Page for more explanation and evidence. Please see the State Auditor's report on that page showing how a failure to employ proper oversight has already cost the City MILLIONS of dollars. This is directly attributable to a lack of oversight (checks and balances), which would have been present if we had separate Executive (Elected Mayor) and Legislative (Elected Council) branches of city government.
The Proof Page also shows that cities with hired City Managers average EIGHT MILLION DOLLARS more each year in spending than cities with Elected Mayors. The following chart is based on the data detailed on the Proof Page. The red line shows spending in cities with hired City Managers and the green line shows spending in cities with Elected Mayors. It reveals a pattern that spending in cities with hired managers grows rapidly as the population increases.
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