The city of Mattoon is asking its residents to take to the polls today to vote on a referendum that would change the city’s government from a city commissioner form to a city manager form in May upon the election of the mayor and council.

“Currently, Mattoon is the largest city in Illinois still working in a commission form of government,” said Rick Hall, Mattoon commissioner for public property. “I think that puts us behind in what we are doing and where we are going.”

The city government of Mattoon currently operates with a commission-type council, which includes a mayor and four departmental commissioners.

Each commissioner is an elected official who has the responsibilities of a city department such as public property or public health and safety.

“The problems with this form is that a specific elected official may not be trained well in the area they become commissioner of,” Hall said.

Under a city-manager form, the commissioners would be eliminated and the manager would serve as an appointed official hired by the city council that would see to the day-to-day technical issues of the city under the guidance of the council.

Hall and Commissioner David Schilling both believe that under a manager form, the council can contribute and direct the manager through legislation without being bogged down by the day-to-day tasks.

“It is in the best interest of the city to have a city manager who will be able to look at the whole picture,” Schilling said. “Commissioners often get caught up in their own department without thinking of the whole picture. It could be problematic when things go to council.”

Hall said there are two more reasons Mattoon should support the change.

“One, it allows for staggered elections, so the rotation of the mayor and council members will be more conducive to the continuity of policy,” he said. “Two, it should not come as any additional net cost the tax payers, and in the long run might save us money by streamlining the organization of the departments.”

Schilling said he could remember a specific instance in which the commission form of government may have hurt the people of Mattoon.

In 1992, the commissioner of the fire department insisted on having a 15 percent spike on the retirement pension for the firefighters of Mattoon.

“Instead of them getting $50,000 for their pension, they received $57,500 each,” Schilling said. “It was basically a gift to the firefighters that may have hurt the taxpayers. And if we had had a manager, I think he would have been able to say that isn’t a good idea and it would not have happened.”

Schilling said Charleston was looked at for research when considering the referendum. Charleston has worked under the city manager form from a commission form for over a decade. The city had a slow start in the form, hiring and firing seven city managers. One manager was also hired twice.

Mayor John Inyart said he believes this has ultimately been the best transition for Charleston. “It was the right thing for Charleston,” he said. “It did take us a few years to completely adjust to the change, but I cannot imagine going back now.” Inyart said he has not been approached directly by Mattoon’s city officials.

Schilling is a member of the committee group that brought the proposition of a referendum for the managerial form of government to the council. One of the Committee for a Better Government’s leaders, Paul Saegassor, insists that it has been well received by residents of Mattoon.

“People generally have liked the idea of the city manager form when presented with the literature,” he said. “They get to vote on whether that position stays there, which they do not have with implementation of the city administrator.”

Just more than seven years ago, Mattoon went to a hybrid form of the city manager and commission form by hiring a city administrator who would oversee the departments as whole but under the direction of the council.

The difference, however, is that the council has the authority to eliminate the position in a three of five vote, whereas the city manager position cannot be eliminated if the people vote for it today.

The Mattoon Fire Department Union Local 691 president Bart Owen said he believes the current system is working and has come out as a spokesperson for the union’s opposition to the referendum.

Owen feels that the current form works well with the unions and has generally upheld the people of Mattoon’s wishes.

“We think that the way we work now as a commission is what the people want,” he said. “The people elect those officials to run the city. We don’t want to see one person controlling the government.”

If the referendum is passed, it will be up to the newly elected city council in May to hire a city manager. Currently, neither commissioner Hall or Schilling said there were any prospects for the position.

City Administrator Alan Gilmore, who will lose his position in May if the referendum passes, said he does not know whether he will apply for the position compared so closely to his own.

“I want to keep my options open, see the results of the spring election and then I will make a decision,” he said. “But I will say this, before the city administrator position was created, I saw Mattoon as a place with little to no growth and nothing going on.”

Krystal Moya can be reached at 581-7942 or at [email protected].