My Turn: Aldermen have explaining to do

The recent “resignation” of city administrator Herb Llewellyn raises more questions than it answers.

For example, did the anonymous “three aldermen” violate the spirit, and maybe the letter, of the Sunshine laws regarding their decision/threat to fire Mr. Llewellyn if he didn’t resign? If so, they acted illegally and deserve our disapproval.

Theoretically, we elect our officials to act in our interest. That interest is ill-served when decisions are made behind closed doors. The aldermen added insult to injury by passing the buck to Mayor Royce Davenport to defend what may well have been indefensible conduct on their part.

As citizens and taxpayers, we deserve to know what really happened here. I don’t question the authority of the mayor and aldermen to hire and fire the city administrator. Clearly, they have that authority.

I do question the way they went about it. What we need on their part is a daring dose of old-fashioned honesty and openness. Both would be a breath of fresh air on a controversy that won’t go away just because they wish it would.

I’d like to believe our local elected officials are honest, honorable people who have our best interests at the forefront of their thoughts and deeds. After all, they are supposed to be working for us.

However, incidents like the current controversy do not inspire confidence. Instead, they breed distrust, skepticism and even cynicism toward our public officials.

Personalities aside, the current controversy points up some glaring weaknesses in our form of local city government. First, we have a “weak mayor” form of government, which has nothing to with the personal strength or stamina of incumbents, but everything to do with their ability to govern.

Second, we have a city administrator, not a city manager. By definition, a city administrator lacks the “hire and fire” authority of a city manager. This combination of a weak mayor and a weak city administrator is a recipe for weak government. Weak governments tend to rely on intrigue and “buck passing” instead of candor and accountability in doing the public’s business.

All that said, in the end we get the government we deserve. If we allow our mayor and our aldermen to “whistle past the graveyard” on the “resignation” of Mr. Llewellyn, we are sending them the message that we tacitly approve their questionable conduct. Approval in turn gives them the green light to continue to conduct “business as usual,” secure in the knowledge we don’t know, don’t care, or both.

For what it’s worth, I believe we deserve much better conduct and performance on the part of our mayor and aldermen. I also believe it may be time to seriously reconsider our local form of government. Form really does affect function.

For example, we could elect a full-time mayor for less than what we pay the city administrator. A salary of $76,000 a year is a hefty fee for a hybrid official with the responsibility, but not enough authority to do the job.

Thomas B. Vaughn is a professor at Motlow College and co-host of the WCPI radio show “Viewpoints.”