The Waterbury Democrat., 1939-02-27

Various forms Of municipal gov ernment with emphasis on tn, weaknesses in the so-called "Weal Mayor" plan, the strong Mayor plan and the commission form ar featured in the third article Of series prepared by the Good Govern ment Association of Waterbury. m organization IS sponsoring the Cit' Manager Plan for Waterbury. Th' articles are a part of its educationa campaign.
 ARTICLE III
 Types of Government That Are
 Passing
 Why did the city-manager plan develop?
 In order to understand why this form of government came into ex- istence it is necessary to know something of the other forms 1t is displacing 50 rapidly.
 We find that in the colonial days, and until about 1920, prac- ticaliy all the cities had forms of government that bore Q strong re- semblance to the manager plan. The voters elected only councils and these councils appointed ex- ecutives and administrators. The abandonment of these methods was not the free choice of the cities. A legal theory grew up that the state government was supreme and had the power to change city governments at will. The success of the federal constitution led to the patterning of all lesser politi- cal units on that model. It was not realized that the problem of gov- erning a city which is one cohesive and economic whole is not the same problem as governing many diversified and soverign states in e federal government. So there arose the first common form Of city government of modern times:
 The Weak Mayor Plan
 Under 1t there was elected a coun. Gil elected by wards, usually quite Q large council. Then there was an elected mayor, 6 treasurer, Q city attorney, and other officers. Sometimes separate boards were elected for good measure to do this, that, or the other-they us- uaily did the other.
 4 few cities of this type still ex- ist though one very bad feature, a two house local legislature, has gone. It is the least efficient meth cd of municipal government and usually is completely controlled by politicians. Log-rolling between wards is rife and 1t is impossible to know whom to hold responsible. It is harder for e citizen to keep track of every elected ofiicer than for c boy to watch a three ring circus. The mayor and other ex- ecutives have political debts to pay after election and use their ap- pointive power to pay them. For. tunately this form of government has almost disappeared for 1t is truly Q thing of rags and tatters. This form has been largely super. seded by the form known as:
 The Strong Mayor Plan
 The mayor is the dominant fig ure. He has practically all the appointive power and confirma- ton of his appointments is not re- quired. He has the veto power and usually prepares the budget,
 The plan is very much more sat- isfactory than the weak-mayor plan and if e capable man can be induced to run and can then be elected the plan succeeds fairly well. The difficulty is in persuad- ing men of real executive ability to run. Such men are not as 6 rule good "campaigners." Besides, they know they have Q short term and cannot be sure they will have time to work out . policy thoroughly. Rarely does even a good executive, if he gets into the office, find himself perfectly free to make ap- pointinents solely on the grounds Of efficiency - politics hampers him.
 The few really first-class men who nave overcome all the hand leaps are so few and far between that we can safely say that when t does work well 1t is an accident and not because the plan can us- uaiiy be depended on to work out well.
 If the mayor and the council find themselves as 1oggerheads c situation arises known as the deadlock. This furnishes the op- for the political machine to offer . ticket at the next eIec- tion, all the members of which promise to work in harmony. Har- mony is achieved but at the cost of efficiency, for the cry of party responsibility" of the campaign turns out to be . brittle promise. It was the experience of one city with this plan and its tiselessness tn c crisis that gave birth to . strange form of government which Is called:
 The Commission Pian
 This was put into operation as sn emergency measure in Gal- weston, Texas, in 1900. which stif- fered from . tidal wave. It is of interest that, strictly speaking. there is nothing in this form of