Is the new position of city manager just a scapegoat?

Under our new form of government, the only thing the mayor does (other than act as Portland’s cheerleader-in-chief) is hire a city manager. The city manager is the one who actually DOES THINGS that can bring change to the city. And that person was not chosen? This position seems like a scapegoat: if they don’t make Portland perfect, the mayor can just fire them and hire someone new. Am I wrong? —I voted for people who could be elected

I understand why a democracy enthusiast like you might be uncomfortable with a system that grants supreme executive power to an unelected official, Voted. That said, as you may now see, our system of electing top executives has not proven to be exactly foolproof either.

Be that as it may, a city manager’s executive power is not really superior: for all their influence over business operations and administrative procedures, city managers do not make policy.

The council manager model was developed in the 1910s in response to the machine politics of the previous decades, with ‘strong mayors’ whose autocratic rule and ‘l’etat, c’est moi’ attitude often came with a generous contribution of corruption, cronyism and mismanagement.

To prevent this, the creators of the new system decided to separate the executive branch – the power to ‘do things’ – from the legislative branch, the power to decide what to do. Legislative power rests with the council, which, as representatives of the people, sets civic priorities. City officials do not represent anyone; they exercise their limited executive power solely as agents of the municipality.

It’s true that city managers are easy to fire, but that’s not a bug, it’s a feature! If you don’t like the mayor (use your imagination), your only options are to wait for the next election or organize a cumbersome recall campaign. However, a city manager serves at the pleasure of the municipality.

Finally, the fact that they weren’t chosen is actually the best thing. Let’s face it: we’re bad at choosing leaders. The whole idea of ​​a city manager is more or less a tacit admission that we are too stupid to elect competent, effective administrators; we’ll trample a dozen budget and operations experts to find one car salesman with good hair. The city manager system takes this crucial hiring decision away from us, and good riddance. I’ve said it before: democracy is too important a matter to be left to the people.

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