Havre manager proposal fails

Havre will continue to operate under a mayor-council form of government after voters soundly rejected Tuesday a proposal that would have changed the city’s structure.

Voters rejected the Havre Local Government Review Study Commission proposal 2,302-1,435.

“I don’t know, it’s hard to say why it failed,” Commission Chair Brewer last night.

Brewer and fellow committee members Lowell Swenson and Perry Atchinson were chosen by Havre voters in 2014 to determine if Havre should change its current form of government, and if so what form a revamped city government would take.

The commission recommended Havre adopt a form of government with self-governing powers, a commission composed of seven members, with one elected from each ward and the remaining two and the mayor elected at-large and a paid city manager.

The mayor would have become a title position and a voting member of the proposed commission.  

Brewer said the public meetings were poorly attended, and that may have been sign of the initiative’s eventual outcome.

He said the proposal is the best way to manage a city of Havre’s size, with someone who has an education in management at the local government level.

“The city of Havre is a big business, and you certainly wouldn’t have a CEO that just graduated from high school run 3M or Burlington-Northern Railroad,” Brewer said. “You are going to want someone who has an education, someone who knows how to run the city.”