"How many people are trained to be mayors? Zip. You learn that on
the job, and I'm not too sure Glendale should suffer the pain of
training a mayor when we have a highly skilled manager."
Jim Starbird, Glendale's city manager and perhaps the man who will
be most affected by a change, welcomed the debate.
"As I told the committee, this is absolutely a discussion they
should have," said Starbird, who worked in a council-city manager
government with an elected mayor in Monrovia from 1983 to 1991.
"Frankly, it was a very good system [in Monrovia]. That doesn't mean
it's right in every community everywhere."
At Wednesday's meeting, the committee approved recommendations to
the City Council to give the charter a minor face-lift, its first
since 1982. If approved by the council and voters, the changes will
eliminate obsolete language and clauses that courts have ruled
unconstitutional.
Sonenshein is expected to return to the committee's next meeting
Sept. 17 to discuss electing council members by district.
