The mayor of Plattsburgh is calling on the city to once again consider changing its form of government. Democrat Chris Rosenquest says he wants a new commission to explore changing from a “strong mayor” model to a “council-manager” form. Under the current setup, the mayor is the city’s chief executive and presides over the common council. A council-manager arrangement would include elected councilors and a mayor plus a hired city manager.
In a statement, Rosenquest says the current format leads to the potential for inconsistency every time a new mayor is elected. A 2016 referendum to change the form of government failed with just 40 percent of voters supporting the initiative. The five-member commission named by Rosenquest is made up of locals with a range of backgrounds. It will research the issue, hold public outreach sessions, and produce a final report. If the referendum is approved by the common council, it would be placed on the November 2024 ballot to be implemented in 2025.
Rosenquest spoke with WAMC’s Ian Pickus.
There have been some past efforts in Plattsburgh along these lines. Why is this important to you now?
I'll tell you, one of the biggest things that I heard during my election campaign was the city needs to be run like a business and I do have a business background. I'm an entrepreneur, I've managed businesses, I've run businesses, I currently own a businesses. Myself, my family owns a small business. And I understand the need to operate this organization, the city of Plattsburgh, in a way that's consistent, meets the targets of our citizens, delivers the services, as expected, and maintains the fiscal and the financial responsibility that we have as elected officials.
The concern that I've heard, and that I see as well, as the mayor, is that every single election, you can get somebody with strong business, negotiation, financial, and the political side. We can get somebody who comes in and has strong experience and all of those, or you can get somebody who doesn't. And that that becomes problematic, especially when you have major initiatives that get started. Some of these depends on the winds of change, and certain attitudes of people coming in office that those initiatives can be tucked away, where, where those initiatives are a demand on the community.
And so the question that I have, that a lot of us have, is, would the city be better managed under some type of city manager or some type of manager/council form of government rather than re-electing a mayor every four years that may or may not have the expertise coming in? And it's a good question. And this is something that was asked almost 10 years ago during the charter commission review. At that time, a referendum was put on the agenda for consideration from the voting public. And it only garnered 40% support at the time. And there's a lot of anecdotal responses and information and stories as to why that failed. But I think I think at this point, it is fair to come back and ask that question. We've done a lot of community engagement. So we'll leverage community engagement and community debate, review other forms of government that are similar to ours, and similar to what's being asked, and then come up with a list of pros and cons and put it back to the public maybe. And that's what this commission is for. This commission is being tasked to do that work, to figure out, is this something that the community actually wants? Or is it just more just more kind of like an information bubble that's coming up at this point.
So to be clear, you think it's a good idea?
I would support it. As a member of NYCOM, I’m the second vice president, we've seen this form of government, we've seen a strong mayor form of government, we've seen the council/manager or more of an administrator/legislator council form of government as well. Both seem to work well. Again, it just depends on who gets elected and how that consistency is maintained between administrations.
I would support it. If this commission comes forward and says, Look, you know, of all the outreach that we've done, and all of the communication that we've made and the research, and the city of Plattsburgh does lend itself to changing or moving into that type of form of government, I would 100% support it.
Not a lot of mayors try to limit their own powers. Wouldn't this change the role of the office you hold significantly?
It would, it would be a significant change to the mayor's office. Correct. But again my job as the mayor is to make sure that this organization is run effectively, it's run with the skill set that's required to run a $67 million organization. I know a lot of people say, Well, that just makes the mayor a figurehead or it makes the mayor ceremonial. It doesn't have to. It really does depend on what the demands of the mayor's office would look like after a change like this happens. There still lot of involvement that the mayor would have in terms of representing the city on the state level and regional level, and that's something that still requires a good skill set, and still requires some in depth knowledge of how to navigate those circles and how to build that network for the City of Plattsburgh.
What difference do you think the average resident would see if the form of government changes this way?
You know, initially, I don't see much change in terms of how it how it impacts the day to day residents and the visitor who comes to the city of Plattsburgh. If anything, it's creating more stability in terms of the initiatives that we put forward. We have a lot of plans on the table right now, a lot of plans that we're implementing, and with a manager, those plans can be consistent regardless of who's sitting in the mayor seat. So that's one thing that we've heard is a benefit, a pro to this form of government. But again, anything, residents would be able to see plans created and plans fulfilled under that kind of government, rather than plans created under my administration, and perhaps the next person coming in decides that they don't like those plans and those plans change, regardless of how they were created.
Because reading the statement you have pointed to the possibility for a lot of disruption between individual mayors who then come into the role that you've described — was that your experience when you came into office, that you felt you had to reorganize a lot of things that would have been better handled by a council- appointed city manager?
100%. And again, I'm coming from a strong business background and nobody has all the tools, nobody has all the answers. Me included, right? So when I came in, there was a lot of disorganization, there had been departments that were dissolved and workload that was kind of just, like, tossed out there and whoever grabbed it, grabbed it, or was assigned to a particular department where it didn't make sense to do that. Not only that, but I also came in with a significant amount of political experience and political network, not only regionally but out of Albany that I was able to leverage to help the city of Plattsburgh get back onto the right track when it comes to organizing financials, organizing planning, representing the city in terms of the grants and finding monies at the state. So yeah, I think that it would be beneficial to have somebody that has that kind of experience that can come in and manage long-term, rather than the abrupt changes that often happen when it comes to changes in form of government or changes in mayors every election cycle.
So let's talk about the particulars. You have outlined this commission that's going to be studying the potential for this change and what it might look like; holding outreach sessions and making a report. What's the process from here? And then what's the timeline for getting the recommendations back?
Yeah, considering that a significant amount of work has been put into this conversation, a lot of research was done in 2016, as well as there are organizations available that represent city managers and administrators, they can also help provide information to make some determination on if and when this moves forward. We will convene the commission early in January, provide them information that our office has regarding the work that that 2016 Group completed. We'll put them in touch with the New York Conference of Mayors, we will put them in touch with that other group of that consortium of city managers and administrators. And we'll put out a reasonable timeline. I don't know how long it will take. But we will want to get a lot of public outreach. I certainly don't see it taking months on end. I don't see it taking six months. I think maybe it might take three months of concerted effort combined with the amount of outreach that needs to happen when it comes to educating and networking with those other professionals that have the experience of this form of government.
Just one more thing, Mayor. We've covered past charter reform efforts. We've also covered the hiring of people in a role like this, town or city manager. That's an additional position at an additional expense. How would the salary breakdown work? And would the mayor continue at the current salary rate with a new position and the manager?
Again, it's unknown. If the mayor's position or if the mayor's duties are significantly decreased, it's unlikely that that this office will be paid the same or the role of this office will be paid the same, it wouldn't make sense. Again, the way we operate currently, we operate under what's considered a strong mayor form of government where the mayor currently is the CEO, the chief executive of this $67 million dollar organization. And they're paid, you know, what they're paid. And I think it's commensurate with the position. Some would argue that it's not enough, some would argue that it's too much. And that's neither here nor there. But there would likely be a change in the duties and responsibilities which would also lend itself to changing the remuneration structure for this position for the mayor’s seat.
As far as the pay and benefits or whatever pay and package for a manager, that again would need to be dictated by market forces. I've often said and people often hear me say that the city of Plattsburgh is not immune to workforce competition, we do need to be a competitive and attractive employer: not only pay but culture, benefits, as well as opportunity for advancement and improvement, personal and professional development. So these are all factors that will go into whatever pay package is created for this position. Obviously, the position duty statement and the experience and the requirements for being successful will have to be defined. At some point it will likely have to require a some type of advanced degree in business or public administration. But again, this is all unknown, just because you know, as the commission starts to get going, and as they get educated more on what the changes may look like, I think that pay package for both the mayor and the manager, as well as whatever requirements in terms of job experience and education, will be developed along the way.
