Havre City Council votes to put city manager question on ballot

At a special meeting Friday evening the Havre City Council unanimously voted for an ordinance, on first reading, to put a question on the 2022 general election ballot asking voters if Havre should change to a council-manager form of government.

Under this form of government most of the responsibilities of Havre’s mayor would be taken over by a city manager who is hired by the city council, a manager who would handle the day-to-day operations of city government while the council handles policy making.

The council has held a number of public meetings on the possibility of Havre moving to a council-manager form of government and has been almost universally supportive of the idea.

Montana State University Local Government Center Director Dan Clark, who spoke at one of these meetings, said that, as cities become bigger and their administration more complex, having day-to-day operations handled by a city manager, professionals who generally train specifically for city administration, can significantly increase a city’s efficiency.

Clark said the city-manager form of government isn’t always the best choice for any given city or town, but Havre is big enough that it could benefit from the change, a sentiment the council appears to share.

Under the proposed change, Havre would still have a mayor, but it would largely be a figurehead position, a person who would run city council meetings and could offer their perspective and advice, but would only vote in the event of a tie and would act primarily as an advocate for the city.

The topic has come up several times in the last few decades, usually tied together with a proposal to switch Havre to a charter government.

The combined proposals never have passed, but the charter government proposal, put on the ballot without the manager proposal included, was passed by the voters of Havre in 2020.

At Friday’s meeting, the council took a number of questions on the potential change, most of them from city resident Pam Harada, who expressed skepticism at the idea and had a number of concerns.

Among Harada’s concerns was the council’s ability to fire the manager, she said, which, based on her understanding of the ordinance, could be done without reason.

Havre Mayor Doug Kaercher said if a manager were to be hired their contract would require that some reasoning be given in the event that the council were to terminate them.

Harada also asked about the powers that would be granted to the manager in terms of hiring and firing employees.

Kaercher said while hiring of positions like police officers would need to be approved by the manager, the actual process of hiring and vetting would be handled by department heads, just like it is now.

Harada also asked how much leeway the manager would have creating human resources policy. Kaercher said they would have broad authority to draft human resources policies, but they would need to be approved by the council.

“Those are always approved by the council,” he said.

Another concern Harada raised was that a manager could obstruct city employees from speaking to council members about concerns and issues they believe need to be addressed, something she said she’d heard happened in another town.

Kaercher said employees would be free to talk to council members as well as the committees they make up, but that the manager would be the person with the authority to address many of the issues employees might bring up.

Another Havre resident who raised questions was Trygve “Spike” Magelssen, who asked how much authority the manager would have over infrastructure spending.

Kaercher said the manager would be in charge of drafting and administering the city’s budget, but the council would need to approve it and can make changes if they feel it is needed.

Magelssen also asked what kind of relationship the mayor would have with the manager.

Kaercher said because the mayor position would become a figurehead role, they would not have any direct authority over the manager, who would answer to the council.

The matter of how much the change would cost the city was also raised by Magelssen.

Because the city would be merging two positions, mayor and finance director, and their salaries, into one job, the city would likely save money, Kaercher said.

He said the cost of a city manager would be somewhere between $90,000 and $120,000 per year, and even if they hired some at the higher end, the increase wouldn’t be nearly enough to be burdensome to the city’s budget or taxpayers.

He also said the efficiency gained by hiring a manager may well make even that small increase in salary irrelevant.

Kaercher said they will hold a second reading Aug. 12 at 7 p.m. where people can ask more questions and voice their opinions before the second vote is taken.

He said the reason why they are doing this at special meetings instead of at their regular meetings is because they were caught off guard by a technical complication.

He said amending the city’s charter, which this change would do, requires that putting the question on the ballot be done by ordinance.

Normally, Kaercher said, they would put such a question on the ballot via a resolution at their normal meetings, but because ordinances have different standards regarding how many public meetings they require to pass, and when those meetings can happen, they needed to call special meetings to get it on the ballot for this year.

The next regular meeting of the Havre City Council is tonight at 7 p.m.