MADISON CITY, Ala. (WHNT) – Madison City community groups are stepping up efforts to get their voices heard about the city’s upcoming vote to decide whether to hire a city manager.
The city manager would handle Madison’s daily operations and carry out the vision of the mayor and the city council.
The city has been hearing a lot from the community organization Don’t Mess with Madison, which has rallied against the efforts of a new city government format. The organization has made its voices heard while holding street-side rallies protesting the upcoming special election.
However, the group Madison Forward has stepped up its efforts to support the proposed system change. The group was selected to be on the committee to look closer into the benefits that a city government change will bring.
It’s up to the residents in the City of Madison will vote to decide whether the city will transition from a mayor-council form of governance to a council-manager format.
Madison Forward co-chairman James Ross says it’s time that citizens of Madison look into the positive that the changeover will bring, and his organization will push that positive agenda going forward.
“When you bring in a city manager you allow continuity, allow for the ability for the city to be run more like a business without political influence,” Ross told News 19. “It allows the voters to elect a mayor who then becomes president of the city council, but at the same time our belief is that the mayor is more powerful with this new process moving in with a city manager.”
A city manager would then be put in charge of handling its daily operations and carrying out the vision of the mayor and the city council.
Several more groups plan to host more meetings before the election on May 9th from 7 a.m. – 7 p.m.
