Hearing on Sylva city manager to be tonight

By Lynn Hotaling

A hearing to take public input on the advisability of hiring a town manager will be held at 6 p.m. at City Hall with the Sylva Town Board's regular meeting set to follow at 7 p.m. Board members could approve the change to a council-manager form of government during that session.

In anticipation of that approval, the town's three-member finance committee juggled line items in Sylva's proposed budget early Wednesday morning in order to include a town manager's salary in next year's budget.

Mayor Brenda Oliver said she went through the budget and made cuts and additions that allowed her to include a partial salary for a town manager. She based her calculations on a $40,000-per-year annual manager's salary beginning in September, the soonest the town could realistically employ a manager, Oliver said.

Sylva board members unanimously passed a resolution of intent to change Sylva's charter to provide for a council-manager form of government during their May meeting. The change was recommended by the town's three-member personnel committee - board members Lynda Sossamon, Maurice Moody and Audrey Tritt. Though the possibility of a city manager has been discussed by the entire board twice - in November 1999 and February 2000 - recent talk of the change has been confined to personnel committee meetings.

The town historically has had the mayor-council form of government; a study by a governmental consultant a year and a half ago recommended the change to a professional manager.

The idea of a city manager for Sylva first surfaced in a November 1999 report prepared by municipal evaluator John Maxwell of Municipal Advisors Inc. of Virginia Beach, Va., and was one of the main recommendations of that report. Maxwell favored the change, he said, because Sylva's current organization does not clearly delineate with whom administrative responsibility and decision-making authority rests.

Shortly after the study was presented, board member Moody said he thought a town manager was a good idea but didn't think Sylva could afford to spend between $60,000 and $80,000 on one. Last month, Moody said he had now decided the town can't afford not to hire a professional manager.

Maxwell's report also indicated the town could clear up any ambiguity about administrative responsibility by strengthening the role of the mayor or the town clerk. Sylva presently has no provisions in its charter regarding the administrative authority of either.

The town's Code of Ordinances specifies a purely parliamentary role for the mayor, listing calling meetings, presiding over meetings and maintaining order at such meetings as the mayor's sole duties.

Under the Code of Ordinances, the clerk is charged only with establishing bookkeeping procedures and negotiating with Jackson County and other municipalities for financial support for the Sylva Fire Department.

The idea of making the mayor the town's chief administrator was discussed, and board member Sossamon initially seemed to favor a shift in that direction. Tritt said that option had been discussed in committee, but that the group had decided not to pursue it. While Mayor Oliver currently is available to take a more active role in city government, that might not be the case with subsequent mayors, Tritt said.

The third option presented by Maxwell, that of formalizing the role of the town clerk as town administrator, has received little discussion by Sylva's board despite the fact that town leaders for a number of years have allowed the clerk to function almost like a manager in that the person in the job has had supervisory authority and responsibility for implementing decisions made by the board.

Tommy Thompson, who has served as clerk for almost 13 years, receives an annual salary of $40,295.

"We discussed (expanding the role of the clerk). The consensus was that if there's going to be a change, we should go ahead and change all the way to the council-manager system," Moody said. "If we're going to change, we should change completely. An administrator is kind of a hybrid."

Members of the town personnel committee, when asked how the decision to hire a manager would affect Thompson, indicated last month that they didn't think it would, and that he could certainly apply for the position.

"We decided we need a manager, but we'll still have a clerk," said Sossamon. "It's not like (Thompson's) position is going away."

Tonight's public hearing is required before the board can take final action.

"I would hope there would be a good bit of discussion," Moody said. "I like to have input."

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