Marshfield Common Council Discusses Forms of Government

Wednesday, July 14th, 2021 -- 9:00 AM

(WDLB) Marshfield aldermen heard a presentation last night stemming from questions that came up during the investigative hearings which led to the removal of the Mayor from office in late March: does the city have the right form of government in place? And if not, is now the time to make a change, with the Mayor's office sitting empty?

According to WDLB, the Common Council heard from the foremost experts on the subject, Executive Director Jerry Deschane and Deputy Executive Director Curt Witynski from the League of Wisconsin Municipalities. When it comes to choosing a form of government, Deschane told the Council there is no right or wrong answer.

"This is huge.  This is a conversation that if you choose to make a change will ripple for generations.  But the reality is there isn't a best form of government for all cities and villages in Wisconsin.  The question is, what is best for you?

Witynski did note that Marshfield currently has the most popular form of government used by Wisconsin cities, a part-time Mayor and a full-time City Administrator governed by an elected Council.

"Obviously most communities have that.  There's 190 cities in the State of Wisconsin and 180 of those cities have a council/mayor form of government.  We have over 125 probably of that type of form of government."

Back in April when the Council was deciding whether to appoint an interim Mayor, hold a special election or leave the office vacant until the next regular general election in 2022, Alderman Rebecca Spiros said she was interested in hearing more about doing away with the positions of Mayor and City Administrator, and switching to a City Manager, which Witynski said would be hired by the Common Council. 

"The City Council could adopt it by charter ordinance and that would necessitate a 3/4 vote of the council and then there would be a time period, I think it's 90 days, maybe it's 60, where citizens could petition the Council to hold a referendum on that question, should we create this form of government?"

"And then if that petition is filed and there is a referendum then, whatever the referendum result is, then that would create or not create the city management form of government."

"The Council could also not wait for a petition and just submit that question to the voters and have a referendum on it on their own. Or citizens could petition the Council to form city managment form of government and that would be presented to the voters for a referendum."

Witynski noted that only 10 Wisconsin cities currently use the Council-Manager form of government. Deschane said advocates for that style of government will tell you city operations are more insulated from political pressures. But he also said what Marshfield has now gives the Council the most freedom to define what level of autonomy the Administrator has.  

"You seldom see a city in Wisconsin adopt a manager form of government. They don't do that anymore. It's like how they don't create more cities in Wisconsin either. They create more villages every year.  Every year there's a couple more villages."

"In a like matter, we've never seen, or I've not seen, a city go to the manager form of government, but we've seen cities or villages bring in administrators for the first time frequently. Or dialing up or dialing back the responsibility and autonomy of the administrator."

"And what it really comes down to, at least in my opinion, is that the Council doesn't feel like they're looking control.  That they can make the decision about the autonomy in the appointed official."

13 Wisconsin cities, including Wisconsin Rapids, Wausau and Stevens Point, have a full-time Mayor with no Manager or Administrator. Marshfield Aldermen only heard the League's presentation, and did not have a discussion on the matter, or take any votes.

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