Corbett's job duties at CRST Inc. change; should part-time mayor be full-time?

It turns out a person, in at least one instance, can't be a vice president and a mayor at the same time.

Mayor Ron Corbett reports that his full-time assignment at trucking firm CRST Inc. has changed in a move that he says will give him more time to attend to his new, part-time job as mayor.

Corbett, who has been CRST vice president of human resources, this week assumed the job of CRST manager for special projects.

Corbett says he approached John Smith, CRST Inc. president/CEO, some weeks ago to talk about how his new, part-time City Hall duties were meshing with his full-time CRST Inc. duties.

Softening that blow is his part-time mayoral salary of $32,266.80 a year.

Corbett's CRST job change, no doubt, will be a topic of conversation in 2011 when the City Charter requires the council to convene a Charter Review Commission in 2011 to review the charter, which was approved by voters in 2005.

One of the central debate points among members of the Home Rule Charter Commission, which developed the City Charter during months of meetings, was whether the city should have a full-time mayor in a “strong-mayor” government with a city manager or a part-time one in a “weak-mayor” government with a city manager.

The Home Rule Charter Commission opted for a part-time mayor. At the time, then-Mayor Paul Pate and former Mayor Lee Clancey both argued for a full-time mayor.