The Galveston County Daily News

An island political group is pushing a plan to convert the city to a strong mayor system of government.

Having an elected leader managing the day-to-day operations of the city would make the entire operation more accountable to the voters, proponents say.

But political experts say the vast majority of Texas cities have a council-manager government for good reason.

Hiring a professional administrator limits political infighting, makes it easier to attract qualified city staffers and assures a continuity of management that improves long-term planning and financial performance, they say.

Overwhelmingly Popular

Texas has about 350 home rule cities, and only 10 have a strong mayor form of government, Terrell Blodgett, a professor at the University of Texas LBJ School of Public Affairs, said.

Under a strong mayor government, the mayor serves as the city’s chief administrator, taking policy direction from the other council members. Under the council-manager system, a manager hired by the council operates the city, and the mayor serves as an at-large council member and figurehead.

The council-manager government is most popular in Texas because when cities started to incorporate in the early 20th century, people noticed a difference in services when a professional administrator called the shots, Blodgett said.

“People feel they’ve gotten more for their dollar, and they like the separation of the policymakers from the administrators,” he said.

While mayors can change at every election, professional administrators generally stick around longer, providing the continuity of leadership that makes long-term planning easier, Blodgett said.

But David Stanowski, who recently founded the Galveston Open Government Project, said planning and continuity should come from the voters.

Stanowski said he wants Galveston to abandon the council-manager government because it leaves the most important decisions up to bureaucrats, who are not accountable to residents. It’s too hard to get a majority of council members to agree to fire the city manager, Stanowski said.

Steve LeBlanc has held Galveston’s top management job for the last 12 years.

Limited Candidate Pool

Texas City has a strong mayor form of government, and League City has a hybrid system that has features of the strong mayor form of government. Politicians in both cities have considered switching to a council-manager system.

Operating with a strong mayor is the closest government will ever come to private enterprise, former Texas City mayor Chuck Doyle, who served from 1990 to 2000, said. As an entrepreneur and proponent of free enterprise, Doyle appreciated the strong mayor system, and the city prospered under his leadership.

But Doyle, whose family owns a majority share in Texas First Bank, worried the city would suffer in the wrong hands. He tried twice, unsuccessfully, to get voters to adopt the council-manager system.

“The reality of the thing is that there are few people who have jobs that would allow them to spend the time they need to spend as a CEO of a city, even a small city,” he said.

While the right person can do well as an elected executive, an unqualified mayor can do a lot of harm, Doyle said.

Power Struggle

League City has struggled for years with its form of government. To take the day-to-day pressure off the mayor, the council agreed several years ago to hire an administrator to share managerial duties.

But the power-sharing agreement quickly became a power struggle, Councilman Neil Baron said.

Baron is leading efforts to adopt the full council-manager structure in May.

“In a city our size and with our growth rate, the day-to-day operations are better managed by professionals with the experience to do so, governed by a policy-setting body,” he said. “That creates a better separation of power and helps diminish the use of individual issues for political gain, as opposed to increasing it.”

League City is too small to have a qualified pool of candidates who could run the city well without administrative help, he said.

But most professional administrators aren’t willing to work under a strong-mayor system, he said.

And if a strong mayor city does get a good elected leader, he or she eventually would leave office due to term limits, Baron said.

“When change is needed, the council-manager form of government allows it, but it doesn’t force it,” he said.