My reason for this post is an article posted yesterday on the Suburban Journals website titled "Who runs our towns? Questions about how governments are managed" discussing city managers. While I think the article gives good points to both sides of the issue and I would encourage everyone to read it in full it was a quote near the bottom of the article by Robert A. Cropf, chairman of the St. Louis University Public Policy Studies Department that made me pause for a second.
"It guarantees a professional runs city government," he said.
Cropf said having a trained pro insulates residents and businesses from poor decisions by elected officials with no experience. A management background and a institutional knowledge goes a long way, he said.
"The mayor could be the insurance salesman down the block but not know anything about running a city. You need a professional to step in there and run the day-to-day operations of a city," Cropf said.
If your a supporter of the mayor don't take this the wrong way. I think overall our elected officials do a great job here in Columbia. I thought the quote by Cropf had to be mentioned as Columbia's elected officials have a history of wanting or not wanting a city administrator/manager and our mayor is in fact in the insurance industry. The comment by Cropf was simply just to ironic to not point out here.
