The Galveston County Daily News

Revelations about problems at a water plant are strong evidence that League City should change its form of government. The city bought the plant on state Highway 3 in Webster in 2000. Five years later, the city spent $1 million trying to make the plant work. It never has.

That problem came to the attention of the city council this summer. A story in last Sunday’s edition of The Daily News told the tale of the paper trail: Staff members had known about the problems for years. Apparently, members of the city council had never been told.

Problems that could affect the water supply are a big deal to residents. It’s hard to imagine that at least some — and apparently most — of their elected representatives were not in the loop. Those kinds of problems are an indication that government isn’t working at a basic level.

What happened?

Public-works officials would discuss the problem with the city administrator, a position that has been a revolving door in League City. One public-works director worked for seven chief administrators. Many things can fall through the cracks when you have that kind of turnover at the top. But, when the cracks are big enough for water plants to fall through, it’s probably time to start over.

Under League City’s charter, it’s not entirely clear where the mayor’s authority ends and the city administrator’s begins. In the past, it’s not been clear whether the city’s top administrator has the authority to hire and fire. The ambiguity has had predictable results. A lot of good people have left.

The problems caused by the high turnover rate are not isolated to public works. They have affected the city’s performance in areas ranging from finance to emergency services.

For years, the city council in League City has promised voters they would have a chance to consider a change in the form of government. The plan would be to scrap the odd hybrid system now in place and adopt a council-manager form of government. The council would set policy and hire a professional manager to run the day-to-day operations of the city. Council members would hold the manager responsible for following policy.

The council should give voters that chance in May.