Shift Proposed To Town Manager Form Of Government

With election season stirring up the mud in Hamden and forcing politicians to present their views of Hamden’s future, a new idea has begun to float into public discourse: a town manager.

At a meeting with residents of Hamden’s high-tax Neighborhood 40 last week, Republican Mayoral Candidate Jay Kaye said that he is advocating that the town do away with its mayor-council system and instead adopt a structure where the council hires a town manager.

And at a Monday evening debate between Republican Marjorie Bonadies and Democrat Sarah Gagne (pictured), both of whom are running for Hamden’s Ninth District Legislative Council seat, a resident asked whether the candidates would support having a town manager. Both said they are open to exploring it.

Hamden currently has a mayor-council form of government. An elected mayor crafts the town’s budget, manages the administration and town departments, and has veto power over the council’s decisions. Under a town manager-council system, the council would hire a town manager to manage the town’s administration and departments. The manager would also craft the budget.

“Based on the feedback that I’ve gotten from residents, they are very interested in it, and that in turn has me very interested in it,” Kaye said of the system

Having a town manager, he said, allows for continuity during political transitions, ​“helps foster ethics,” helps ​“diffuse special interests, and helps to ​“eliminate partisan politics when administrative decisions are being made.”

Kaye said that he’s interested in the model laid out by the International City/County Management Association (ICMA). Under that model, the town would still have a mayor, either elected or appointed by the council, but the mayor would essentially be a member of the council. He or she would still act as the figurehead of the town, representing the town at events and in discussions with the state, but would not manage the town’s departments or write the budget. The mayor may or may not have veto power over the decisions of the council.

According to ICMA, most managers are professionals with a master’s degree in public administration, business, or public policy, with an average of 20 years of experience in local government management.

Kaye said that a town manager could make the hard decisions that are best for the town because he or she would not have to worry about getting reelected.

“They’re not worried about elections,” he said. ​“They’re worried about the taxpayer and they’re worried about the town.”

A charter revision is the only way to change the structure of Hamden’s government. Hamden’s charter is due for a revision starting in April of 2020, when the council must appoint a charter revision committee.

The last charter revision took place in 2011. According to Legislative Council District 8 Rep. Jim Pascarella, the revision committee considered switching to a town manager system, but decided that it would not be the best system for Hamden. This time, that might change.

Hamden has had a mayor-council system since 1966, when John DeNicola became its first mayor. Before that, it had had a first selectman and a Representative Town Meeting government since 1953. Prior to 1953, the town was governed by town meeting.

Bipartisan Support

Though Kaye, a Republican, brought the idea of a town manager into this year’s mayoral race, he was not the first person to bring the topic into Hamden’s political discourse recently.

Democratic State Rep. Joshua Elliott, who represents part of Hamden, said he has been talking about having a town manager for over a year.

Having someone in charge in a professional, unelected capacity who has studied town government and who has extensive experience managing it, he said, could help Hamden solve its major financial woes. About a year ago, Elliott talked to officials in Windham about their recent switch to a town manager-run government. Though the transition was rocky, Elliott said, they ​“could not be happier with the situation now.”

Being mayor is ​“almost two separate jobs,” Elliott said. There’s actually running the town’s government, and then there’s being the face of the town for citizens, businesses, and the state. Having someone who could focus fully on both of those parts of town leadership, he said, would be more effective.

Elliott is a progressive Democrat who has aligned himself with the left-leaning politicians in the town. He argued that the fiscal conservatism that a town manager might bring to government could benefit the town. The mayor, he said, could still have a broad policy agenda, and the manager would pull the financial reins and try to accomplish it with minimal spending.

“I think having some of that push and pull is actually a good thing for government,” he said.

Most of the politicians who spoke with the Independent said they think the charter revision committee should look into a manager-council system.

“Every conceivable option should be put on the table,” said Pascarella. ​“I would say [a town manager] absolutely should be looked into.”

Council President Mick McGarry said that he thinks it could be a good path for Hamden, but that the town would need to work out the details.

“A town manager has expertise to run a company and knows how to budget, and they’re going to cut where they have to cut,” said Republican Town Committee Chair Frank LaDore. ​“They’re going to get rid of a lot of the fat of the town, in my opinion.”

Lauren Garrett, who recently lost the Democratic Primary for mayor to incumbent Mayor Curt Leng, said that right now, a town manager would be a good idea for Hamden.

“I think that we need to take politics out of running the town, and it has been exceedingly political recently,” she told the Independent. ​“I kind of wish that I wasn’t coming to this conclusion because I find that town managers can be very conservative and that’s not always the best answer, but we need to be more conservative with our revenue projections, and I think that would be the result of a town manager.”

A town manager, she added, would allow the town to have a budget ​“that is going to fund the town every single year rather than keeping taxes low in election years and raising them in non-election years.”

Hamden politics have been plagued in the last year by a divide between Leng and many members of the council, including Garrett. The council’s actions of late, said Kaye, are ​“sort of based on conflict with the mayor.” Since the council would hire the town manager, the council and the person running the town would be on the same page, he said.

That coordination between the council and the manager, however, could pose a problem. If the language in the charter is not careful, said District 9 Rep. Brad Macdowall, the position could just become another political appointment.

“It’s elected officials who are choosing [the manager], so it’s kind of one more step away from democracy,” he said. If the position is another political appointment, then the manager would experience the same political pressures that the mayor currently does, but with less direct accountability to voters, he explained. The hiring process would also be less transparent than the election of a mayor. Nonetheless, he said, the town should seriously consider the change.

Leng, too, said that a town manager would prevent transparency and accountability.

“We need more accountability, not less,” he wrote in a text to the Independent. ​“Hamden’s Mayor is the direct representative of the people and directly responsible to all our citizens. Voters get to select the individual they want in their Mayor… People want someone who both understands their community and who chose to live here and invest in Hamden. Being Mayor is a 24-hour job and a Town Manager who calls it a night and drives back to their home in West Hartford just won’t cut it.”

Smaller Towns Have Them

Twenty-nine towns in Connecticut currently have a town manager and a council, or, in the case of Manchester, a general manager and a board of directors.

Of those 29, only West Hartford has a larger population than Hamden. Meriden is the next largest town with a town manager, with about 59,500 people. 20 of the 29 towns have populations under 30,000.

Most of the towns in Connecticut that have town managers appear to be in better financial shape than Hamden.

Hamden’s mill rate is significantly higher than that of any of the mill rates of towns that have town managers. West Hartford has the highest mill rate of any town with a manager, at 41.8. Only four of the 29 towns have mill rates over 40. Hamden’s mill rate is 48.86

Property values in Hamden appear to be lower, overall, than those in most of the towns with managers. Only five of the 29 towns have median home listing prices lower than Hamden’s $207,950, according to Zillow. (It is also in the bottom for median sale price and median home value among towns with managers, though there is less data available for those metrics).

If Hamden opts for a town manager, the transition might not be easy. It would involve getting rid of the mayor, for one thing. For Kaye, that’s not a problem.

If he gets his way, he said, ​“basically I would be out of a job. But I’m not running for a job.”

Watch the full Bonadies-Gagne debate below.