Tuskegee looks at changing how the city is governed
Residents in Tuskegee could possibly get to vote on whether to change who hires and fires city employees. The proposal was discussed at Tuesday night’s city council meeting. Right now the City of Tuskegee has a less traditional type of governing body. Employees are hired and fired by a city manager instead of by the mayor. But now, a petition is circulating that would change that.
A representative from the League of Municipalities was at Tuesday night’s meeting to answer questions about the possible change, and he said the three districts in the city would not need to be re-drawn, so there would still only be three city council members . If 171 eligible voters sign a petition by July 31, then Tuskegee residents will get to vote in October to decide whether they want to replace the current manager-council form of government with a mayor-council form of government.
Mayor Tony Haygood says, “In rural, smaller cities people like to be close to their elected officials, and that’s a different step away when you have a management-council type of government. So, many of our citizens have asked us to change back to the mayor-council type of government. Citizens get to communicate directly with their city council members and the mayor, and make requests of them. Then the mayor can communicate directly with employees, and city council members can communicate directly with employees. Under the manager-council form of government, the mayor cannot direct an employee and neither can any of the council members. If there is something in their district that needs to be addressed, they have to go through the (city) manager to get it done, and that just adds another step and sometimes just complicates things.”
Other Alabama cities like Auburn, Mountain Brook, and Vestavia Hills have city managers just like Tuskegee currently does, but Mayor Haygood says those cities have a larger tax base and they’re bigger cities, which makes a difference. If the petition gets 171 signatures, voters in Tuskegee will be able to vote on the change on October 15. If passed, the change would not go into effect until August of 2025.
Tuskegee residents who are registered voters can sign the petition at two locations before July 31. Either at the District 2 office located at 605 East Martin Luther King Highway, or at city hall in the finance department. Two town hall meetings are tentatively planned for September before the potential vote would be held on October 15.
