Should the mayor be a full or part-time position?

There were a few articles in the Courier this weekend discussing whether the mayor should be a full or part-time position in Cedar Falls (links below). It’s an important topic, and I’ve had a few people ask what my thoughts are on it. Here’s my take:

I’m honestly not opposed to the mayor becoming a part-time position. Many of our peer communities operate under a Council-Manager form of government where a professionally trained City Manager runs the day-to-day operations of the City and reports to a part-time Mayor and City Council who set the vision, direction, and policy for the community. Even in Cedar Falls we’ve already shifted toward a version of this. We have a full-time City Administrator who has a significant amount of responsibility over the day-to-day operations of the City, but they still report to a full-time Mayor and serve at the pleasure of the City Council (meaning for the most part they can be fired at any time with a majority vote of the Council).

That said, I don’t think we are ready to make that transition yet. Changing our model of governance isn’t a decision that should be made lightly, and I believe right now we need a mayor who is ready and willing to work hand-in-hand with residents, staff, and City Council to rebuild a shared, long-term vision for Cedar Falls. We have several significant economic and community development issues that we need to start addressing (like affordable housing, renewing conversations on the new hospital, and revitalization of the College Hill and College Square Mall areas), and it will require a significant amount of work and leadership to follow through on these. And as a candidate for mayor I plan to commit 100% of my time toward seeing that work through.

And if we can get Cedar Falls back on track with a long-term plan and leadership who is working together toward that plan, that would put us in a much better position to review the current Mayor-Council setup. And whether or not we should transition to a Council-Manager form of government with a part-time mayor like many other communities our size.

WCF Courier - GUEST COLUMN: Cedar Falls mayor backs switch to part-time mayor

WCF Courier - Part-time Cedar Falls mayor proposal panned by current, former elected officials