Day-to-day duties of an elected mayor | Federal Way letters

Published 7:16 pm Thursday, July 8, 2010

I followed with interest and dismay the campaign and subsequent vote to change our form of city government from city council/city manager to strong mayor/city council.

I voted against that change. However, it is a done deal, so now I find myself in need of more information before I can decide how to vote for mayor. Our city managers were professionals, educated and trained for the job, hired by and responsible to our city council who, in turn, have been responsible to the citizens of Federal Way. The candidates for mayor, while they are competent in many areas and experienced on the city council, may not be as qualified to manage the planning, oversight, supervision and day-to-day affairs of our city as were those professional managers. I would like to know:

• What was the formal job description of our former city manager?

• Under the new system, what will be the role of the city council?

• What, if any, is the job description for mayor?

• How do the candidates understand the role of mayor?

• Do they anticipate they will need to hire a trained professional to assist them?

Probably all this information is available somewhere, but I haven’t seen it. I hope you will ferret it out for me, and perhaps even publish it for all to read. So far, what I read in their statements are their visions for our city…good stuff, but day to day, how will they function to fulfill those?

Jan Olson, Federal Way