Just weeks from Buffalo's mayoral election, the Common Council is continuing its examination of a city manager form of governance that would significantly change the role of the mayor, transferring many of those duties to the new manager.
A city manager would be selected by the nine-member Council in conjunction with the community to "carry out the will of the Council members," University Council member Rasheed N.C. Wyatt told The Buffalo News.
The city manager model would not eliminate the mayor. Instead, the mayor would become part of the Council as an equal voice. Authority would rest in the mayor and the Council as a collective body, said Jason Grant, director of advocacy for the International City/County Management Association.
“They are all the elected representatives of the people, so collectively there is not a separation of administration versus legislative. In terms of the elected body, they oversee, they hire a professional manager who has the knowledge, skills, ability to carry out the interest of the Council, which reflects the interest of the people,” said Grant.
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"When the administration and the legislative are separate elected bodies, each have their own constituent base so there’s not a requirement to share all information from the administrative side to the legislative side,” he said. “When you combine those, now the mayor is part of Council, and that is one elected body where they all have an equal voice, and they collectively hire a person to manage the government on behalf of the people."
Grant was invited by University Council Member Rasheed Wyatt to speak at the Council’s recent Legislation Committee meeting “to dispel some of the myths of what a city manager is and what a city manager is not” and “to give the public factual information, not a narrative that scares them,” Wyatt said.
Other cities with managers include Sacramento, Calif.; Austin Texas; and Charlotte, N.C., Grant said. However, there is no legislation before the Council on creating such a structure in Buffalo, and any attempt to change the form of governance in the city would have to come via a citywide ballot referendum, which in practical terms is impossible to accomplish for the Nov. 2 election.
A city manager would work with, be guided by and be held accountable to the combined group of elected officials. The manager would produce strategic plans, budgets, policies and procedures and pursue the goals and outcomes set by the collective body, Grant said.
Buffalo's form of governance works well when mayors and Councils collaborate, Grant said.
“They work together. Everything moves forward. Information is shared back and forth,” he said.
But when it doesn’t work, some information may not flow to the Council.
“Not saying that’s the way it is here, but just understanding when we look at the forms of government, what are some of the potential problems that could arise in these different forms of government," Grant said. "When you look at a Council/manager model, the mayor is part of the Council. The mayor still is the figurehead of the city. The mayor still is the one who represents, at that point, the interests of the city to the public, still is the one who collaborates and makes sure that the Council works together to come to what those decisions are, still reaches out to the constituents and the people of the city ... The city manager ... gets hired by the majority of Council to run the government, to make sure that the programs and services that are offered are delivered efficiently, effectively and equitably to the people and they are beholden to the Council.”
“Whatever the decision the Council majority makes, that manager must carry out those policies and procedures. It’s very distinct in that way,” Grant said.
According to the National League of Cities, municipalities with the council-manager form of governance often have the mayor selected from among the council members on a rotating basis. Wyatt said Buffalo could pursue that option or continue to have the mayor separately elected by the public, depending on how the legislation is drafted.
If the Council elects the mayor, the mayor would replace the Council president. Wyatt said he would prefer that model.
“There has to be a consensus of who would be the best spokesperson for the city, and I think we as a Council would know who that is,” he said.
Last July, Wyatt, who has clashed with Mayor Byron W. Brown, proposed looking into a city manager form of government to replace the mayor's office.
But he has said it’s not an indictment of Brown – who is seeking a fifth term as a write-in candidate on Nov. 2 – or his challenger India B. Walton, a democratic socialist who won the Democratic Party nomination.
Rather it is an indictment of the current system of governance, which has led to "disinvestment" in poorer neighborhoods, Wyatt has said.
“This is not against anyone. I’ve been attacked by one side or the other that I’m trying to get rid of somebody or I’m trying not to get somebody in. It has nothing to do with that,” Wyatt said during the committee meeting. “Looking at this for a city that’s the third poorest – and I hate to say it over and over again – of our size, we have to look at how do we better manage our city. We have finite resources, and so I think that a city manager form is something that we should explore.
"I can’t say it’s the end all, be all, but I do know this may be something that can really help to make certain that every area is developed, every agenda addressed and getting good information for us to make good decisions.”
Jesse Myerson, spokesman for Walton’s campaign, said Walton joins Wyatt in the view that action is needed to reverse the wave of disinvestment in poorer neighborhoods.
“That’s why she is focused on winning this race,” Myerson said.
Brown administration spokesman Michael J. DeGeorge has said the mayor of Buffalo is the manager of the city.
