Been there, done that: W-B tried 5 managers

The Luzerne County municipality began a city manager form of government in 1969 but voted to ditch it in late 1974. Voters switched to a strong-mayor system after the city quickly went through five managers.

Scranton voters might be asked to change to a city manager system in May or November. Under that system, the mayor is a council member with no executive power. Instead, City Council makes policy and hires a manager to handle daily business.

Wilkes-Barre soon got tired of managers, said City Clerk/Administrator Bill Brace, who joined the city in 1970.

Luzerne County Clerk of Courts Bob Reilly agrees. He served on the Charter Study Committee that recommended ditching managers for a strong mayor. He later became a councilman before entering county politics.

"There were a lot of citizens' complaints that nobody could get anything done and they were unresponsive," Mr. Reilly said.

He and Mr. Brace recall the managers as unpopular and ineffective.

The first was a city employee chosen as acting manager when council couldn't agree on a candidate, they said. One was fired after taking a city car on vacation, Mr. Reilly said. Another annoyed people by returning to his hometown every weekend, a slap in the face that also left Wilkes-Barre in limbo if problems arose, they said.

Neither could remember the issues that angered residents back then but said the main frustration was that managers didn't answer directly to the people. Voters felt their complaints had little weight, they said.

The Charter Study Commission report issued in 1974 included a long list of problems, including:

Elected officials had a "general lack of understanding of their proper role."

Citizens "do not appear to understand" council-manager government.

There was "a considerable lack of communication" between managers and council members, as well as poor communication between the city and its citizens.

Accountability was "difficult to pinpoint."

There was poor long-range planning and a budget process hampered by a "lack of effective cooperation" between council and manager.

Politics surely played a role in the decline of the city manager, they said. But both men, politicians themselves, said that is a natural part of running a city.

"I don't think that Northeastern Pennsylvania is at that stage of its life that politics is out of government and I don't know of any area that is," Mr. Reilly said.

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