Elections
La Crosse city council gets another chance to consider city administrator idea
The consideration of hiring a city administrator position moved ahead with a recommendation Tuesday from one committee.
Four on Judiciary and Administration Committee voted for the position, one voted against and one abstained. The committee is also one member short because the city council voted not to appoint a replacement for District 5, leaving that post vacant until after the April elections.
The city administrator position now heads to the full city council next week Thursday.
The position, which would cost about $185,000 a year, would manage everyday business at City Hall, taking some duties from the mayor.
During public comments, Paul Borsheim compared the job of mayor to being the general manager of a football team, with an administrator more like the head coach.
Backers of the plan say most large cities in Wisconsin have a city administrator or manager already.
Former city council member Bill Harnden told the committee that 9,000 people voted on the administrator idea on a referendum (the actual number is 9,871). He thinks the public should vote on the idea again.
In 2012, the position was voted down by about 60%, or 2,000 votes. La Crosse’s population that year was just under 52,000.
Another past member of the council, Jai Johnson, argued voters don’t generally know much about how city government operates. She thinks it’s “impossible” for a mayor to do a good job of both managing city business and being its public relations person.
So far, city leaders have not voted to have another referendum. The committee opposed a plan to send the manager proposal to the full council without a recommendation one way or the other.
Roy
October 2, 2024 at 11:41 am
Isn’t it ironic that after 12 years since the people voted the city administrator idea DOWN, overwhelmingly, elected council members now feel that the performance of the current mayor is such that the mayor’s duties need to be transferred to someone else.
I’m sure that if the council felt that things were running smoothly, as they were with past mayors, there would be no need to even consider hiring a new employee at about 200 grand a year.
So often with government, poor performance is rewarded with more spending.
Libertarian Guy
October 3, 2024 at 10:46 pm
“Backers of the plan say that most large cities in Wisconsin have have a city administrator or manager.” Sooo… this means exactly what? Monkey see monkey do? Just because one city is doing it our city should do it? So if one city jumps in a lake, we should jump in the lake too? I often hear this with regard to taxes. I have heard members of our city Council claim taxes are lower than other cities; so we should raise ours. maybe those other cities should lower their taxes and maybe those other cities should be eliminate their city, administrator or manager to be more like lacrosse. So, backers of this plan, the city residents do not want a city administrator. Do the will of the people and vote NO. If you’re not convinced what the people want, put it up for referendum.