Wednesday open thread: Is it time for Asheville to have a strong-mayor form of government?

Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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Lost in the hoopla yesterday over the announcement that Asheville Mayor Terry Bellamy was going to be among a group of mayors to meet with President Obama later this week was this tidbit:

She will also travel to Sarasota, Florida, on Sunday, February 22 through Monday, February 23, to visit with the Sarasota City Council and Referendum Committee to discuss their potential move to an elected mayor seat.

That bit of info raises a number of questions: Is Bellamy traveling on her own, or is this a taxpayer-funded trip? Is this a fact-finding mission? What exactly is going on here?

Aside from that, the visit also raises a question that’s been floating around Asheville political circles for awhile now: should Asheville government move to a strong-mayor form of government? In other words: should the job of mayor in Asheville be a full-time job? 

Those who’ve served before will tell you that being mayor in Asheville is a full-time job. But with all the time demands and headaches, the mayor in Asheville theoretically has no more power than any of her fellow council members. City employees report to the city manager, and it still takes four votes to get anything done.

Bellamy, simply through the force of her personality, has remade the job of mayor in Asheville over the last three-plus years. She firmly controls meetings; she has a strong voice in setting the council’s agenda; and she has come close to violating the basic rule that council members not directly manage city employees. (Some say she has, in fact, violated that rule.)

So, is it time to give the mayor of Asheville more power?