By Chad Bordelon
Have a professional city manager instead!
Chad Bordelon loves Mandeville–he’s developed three successful businesses here over the past three decades. “We raised our five children in Mandeville, and I will retire here. We have the greatest city in the state; but we also have challenges.”
“Flooding from our beautiful lake threatens many of our neighborhoods. Traffic is a constantly evolving issue. Enforcement of city codes and maintenance of our landscaping have been lagging. But, in my view, those aren’t the top threats to the success of Mandeville,” advises Bordelon. “Our local politics have really been hurting us!”
Bordelon explains: “Our city council and the mayor simply have not been getting along or cooperating. It’s unprofessional and embarrassing. Several developers have commented on how much easier it is to work with Covington or Slidell. The Mandeville process for applying codes or processing applications has been inconsistent and unpredictable. Moreover, when we’ve had difficulties in planning and zoning, the mayor and the council have been seeking separate consultants and attorneys. That’s wasteful. Especially when the city loses lawsuits that cost us hundreds of thousands of tax dollars.
Bordelon’s Top 3 Reasons to Hire a City Manager
1. Mandeville is a big business. With more than 130 employees and a $40 million annual budget, we need an experienced city CEO, not a popularity contest mayor. City Managers at other cities are trained and seasoned business experts. Mandeville is ready for an upgrade at City Hall.
2. Our mayor lacks accountability. We’ve heard that some people think of the mayor as a “check and balance” partner to the city council. That has simply not been the case over the past 8 years as infighting grinds the administration to a crawl. A city manager will be accountable to the city business plan. The city council will review their performance and address any problem or fire the manager if they aren’t doing a good job. Waiting four years to oust a bad mayor is not good accountability–it hasn’t been working.
3. We will save money. Most U.S. cities have already dumped the mayor format and now use city managers. In doing so, a recent IBM study notes the city manager cities operate at least 10% more efficiently than mayor-run cities. That excludes the favoritism shown to cronies and friendly vendors. The city manager format was invented to reduce the avenues of corruption and keep city business operating efficiently.
For more information on the proposed change in Mandeville go to www.MandevilleCityManager.com
For more information on the national association which supports thousands of city managers throughout the U.S. go to www.icma.org
