Illinois News Index

Wilmette Life (Wilmette, Illinois), 13 Apr 1939, p. 18

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Presldent Harry C. Kinne to investi- gate and recommend a man for this Important position, 1I, with other members of the committee and the, board, gave the matter a great deal of attention. We.made a thoroughi su4dy of the manager plan, and were just as thorough i our:investiga-. tions of applicants. * . efore voters caut*their ballpts on th is proposition, tiiey should fUJlY inform 'themselves on the crucial points involved. In the hope of be- ing helpful to this end, I submit the following: How Aboiut a Village Manager? -The question is, not theoretical but oractical and can be reduced to an expert Village manager or busi- ness manager 'who for the board. can exercise the functions that are contemplated under a theore tically' perfect council-manager Plan. It has been argued that the duties of elected officers are defiried by statute and that they cannot give« up their prerogatives. If statutory officers entrench themselves. behind a legal shield and refuse. to coop- erate in a program which will pro- duce more efficient handling of pub- lic. business, itis time for the citi- zens to awaken and-fmake sure. that in the next election mffen %whfode co- operation is assured shall beelected to thiose offces. partmnents,. it wull, not be possible to say that we are functioing unde r the village manager formf of govern- Ment. 9. What Should Be a MauagÇir's Qualflcatiouis? He should bea mani of broad education with, a technical knowledge of public administrationû and with actual experience. with one or more muiiicipalities, in. such work. While it may be advantage- ous that a manager have tecbnical engineering training, it' is, not, a prime qualification,, s i nc e, the amount of Work to be done along management lines is too heavy to permit him to devote much time to the working out of the engineer- r. 1 govE and1 ire a, Imost for the tax dollar (or any dollar) these 480 cities have obvious-, ly- put in the City Manager governi- ment because the f.acts gained by Texperience :show that.when tpro perly operated1. the-City Manager typeý of gover nment, is, the m'ost,,efficiîent and economical type. "Thé Real Question"p The real question at issue in Wlil-, mnette.is therefore flot the type' of. government, (for oppotients of the ýCity Manager plan merely show their. ignorance of the facts) but, why does the Village *Manager plan, not operate moore eco nomically, in our village, Undoubtedly there are. several reasons, but one very large and obvious one stares, at us di- rectly; namely, tha-L-the offce of President pays a salary of -$1,000 ,per yer p 4lus5 $600D., per ,ye.r-for, stenographie work. Our trustees al- so receive .a very minor amount (very small, is it true) but the prac- tice of paying any money for the office of president and those of trustees is wrong if the Village Ma»- ager Plan is operating pro perly. Comparisons a r e not popular (mainly because they give a feeling of inferiority or something equally odious) but let us examine our sis- ion1. experience would concern of every taxpayE lage of Wilmette, and atively large portion of L0 cost, of years, and wiuuin the past one or two months Lake Forest has put ned As in, this type of government. Let us ea Vil. look at Wnnetka, since this village fem is. is more comparable in size of popu- r in the lation than the others to Wilrnette. since a Points to Wluuetka village Recently the writer went to the, .uch as Winnetka Village hall to get a few ting, hi- facts concernlng their .government. ýn from, In the hall there were two char ts are ac- 1 P counted 5 Novernber 8. i. and close at laek of c No ong think. of

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