Corbett gets his way on shakeup of City Manager Prosser's duties

Mayor Ron Corbett along with four others on the nine-member City Council last night agreed to shake up the duties of the city's chief executive, City Manager Jim Prosser.

The move, which Corbett spelled out earlier in the week, is no insignificant one and it will have the city's flood-recovery director, Greg Eyerly, report directly to the council and not to Prosser.

At the same time, Corbett will have Prosser shift his focus away from flood recovery and on to job growth and economic development as Prosser continues to be responsible for the day-to-day operation of city government.

Corbett said this week that jobs and flood recovery are his two key goals, and he said the shift in Prosser's focus to jobs will improve the chances for progress on jobs while Eyerly continues to focus on flood recovery.

The mayor last night matter-of-factly got the backing for his management “realignment” from what has become something of a Corbett working majority on the council. It consists of the three new council members, Corbett, Don Karr and Chuck Swore, who said in their campaigns last fall that Prosser had too much power and the council too little. The working majority also includes council members Monica Vernon and Justin Shields, who were minority voices on the previous council when they repeatedly said the council had given up too much power to Prosser.

The council took no formal vote on the change in Prosser's and Eyerly's jobs, a matter that came at the very end of last night's five-hour and 15-minute meeting.

Corbett told the council he will work with Prosser and present a new management plan to the council at its April 6 meeting.

Corbett said Prosser was amenable to working on the plan, and Prosser said as much after last night's meeting.

In the discussion, Shields and Vernon noted that they had pushed to have Eyerly report directly to the council, not Prosser, when Eyerly assumed the newly created post of flood-recovery director last June. The two council members' idea was dismissed on a 6-3 vote. The council majority then said the city had one chief executive and didn't need two.

Last night, Vernon said the flood-recovery director ought to report to the council because it is an “external” position to the regular operation of the city and a position that deals with government entities external to city government.

Council member Don Karr complimented Prosser, noting that “Jim had to step up 100 notches” since the time of the flood more than 21 months ago. The switch in assignments will allow Prosser to return his focus to running the day-to-day operation of the city and to helping the city create jobs, Karr said.

Council member Chuck Swore agreed, saying Prosser has told him that he spends 90 percent of his time working on issues outside of regular city manager duties.

Swore and council member Tom Podzimek disagreed on whether or not the city's five-year-old City Charter allows the City Council to make a management change that has someone now reporting to the city manager report, instead, directly to the City Council.

The charter for the city's government of a part-time council and full-time city manager specifies that three employees report directly to the council, the city manager, the city attorney and the city clerk.

Swore said the charter allows the City Council to create new departments if needed while Podzimek said having Eyerly sidestep Prosser's oversight now will have Eyerly and Prosser both competing to assign staff members duties.

“I think you're breaking the law,” Podzimek said.

Council member Chuck Wieneke said his reading of the City Charter told him that the charter's intent is for the council to serve as policymakers and for the city manager to operate the government. Will Eyerly be reporting to the council as a policymaker and at the same time be running the operations of part of city government? Wieneke asked.

No actual lawyers were asked to weigh in at the meeting, though Corbett has said that City Attorney Jim Flitz, who is beholden to the council for his job, has said the charter allows the Eyerly change.

After last night's meeting, Prosser said, “I don't believe the City Charter will be an issue.”

Last fall, the City Council did hire a legislative liaison, who reports directly to the City Council. However, she does not direct other city staff, Prosser noted.

Council member Kris Gulick pointed out to the council that it has not done a good job in managing the three positions of city manager, city attorney and city clerk. The council ought to improve on that before it seeks to directly mange Eyerly, Gulick said.

After last night's meeting, Gulick said he still needed to get an answer to the question, “Why?” - Why shift Eyerly's duties away from Prosser.

In addition, a council majority last night backed Corbett's call for the creation of a new city position of flood advocate. Some on the council said they wanted to see a job description first.

At least 90 minutes at the start of the council meeting was devoted to disgruntled flood victims who came to the microphone and criticized the city and others on buyouts and demolitions of flood-damaged houses.

That was reason enough, Vernon said, for a flood advocate.