With home rule come great responsibilities

I hope you read my column last month (“This is why we’re scrutinizing city’s budget,” Nov. 2). In addition to summarizing all that City Council has accomplished in the past six months, it highlighted a critical task for these coming six months: The hiring of a new city manager.

Council is nearing the completion of our search for an executive search firm to help us in this process. After considering 14 firms, councilors approved the selection of a national search firm, Slavin Management Consultants. We hope to have a contract in place soon and will get to work on establishing a time line and developing search criteria.

Council will provide opportunities for citizens to participate in this process. We will clearly communicate dates and times for community involvement.

As we all consider the qualities and traits of a city manager that will most benefit the Durango community, I thought it might be helpful to discuss Durango’s distinctive, council-manager form of home rule municipal government and take a deeper look at the role of the city manager in relation to city council.

The U.S. Constitution doesn’t guarantee local control to municipal governments. Until well into the second half of the 19th century, municipalities were generally governed according to state statutes rather than local priorities.

When some municipalities began demanding more autonomy, Iowa Judge John Forrest Dillon wrote, in an 1868 court ruling, that local governments are “mere tenants at will of their [state] legislature.”

Read the full article on The Durango Herald at: https://durangoherald.com/articles/303400-melissa-youssef-with-home-rule-come-great-responsibilities