TOWN CLERK OR CITY MANAGER

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 1, 1 July 1926, Page 5

TOWN CLERK OR CITY MANAGER

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—ln a recent issue of your paper, the Mayor is stated to have said, in reference to the recent city appointments, "that when these gentlemen take up their duties, the affairs of the city.will be put on a proper, sound, business footing." This statement, I take it, represents the views o£ the council, and is an acknowledgment that the Mayor and City Councillors are unable, or at least, have failed to properly manage the city affairs. The Northland tunnel muddle is quite sufficient proof of the correctness of the admission. Had the then Mayor and council done their duty in the first place, there would have been no engineering muddle in the second. -

if the statement means anything it means that the new officers will have powers given them that previous City Engineers and Town Clerks , have not had. Hitherto no Town Clerk has ever had the right to advise the council in the management of city affairs, and would have been told to mind his own business had he so presumed. If the Town Clerk's duties are to organise, supervise, and harmonise the various activities of city public affairs, why not call him the "city manager," instead o£ stultifying his authority by calling him Town Clerk? The very substantial increase in the salary attached to the position certainly points to the position being that of city manager. If on the other hand the new Town Clerk will have to fulfil the same duties as previous Town Clerks, what possible justification have the Mayor and*, councillors for going past our present actingTown Clerk, who has »t ably and conscientiously carried on the work of Town Clerk for so long, under quite exceptional difficulties? Unless the council has some explanation that has so far not appeared, the impression must, and- does persist, that the acting-Town Clerk has not been fairly treated. Do the Mayor and councillors intend in the future to confine themselves to matters of policy and leave the execution to the city experts?— l am, etc., ANXIOUS CITIZEN.