LETTER: It's Time to Change Enfield's Form of Government

Congratulations to Enfield's newly elected Town Council. I know many of our councilmen personally and I know them to be good, honest, and dedicated people.

Enfield is governed by an eleven member Town Council and a Town Manager who is appointed by the Council. With all due respect to the current Town Manager, we do not need a Town Manager. Enfield needs a mayor who is elected by the people.

Some might say that we already have an elected mayor. Our mayor, contrary to what many believe, is not elected by the voters. The mayor is actually the chairperson chosen by as few as six people on the Town Council. In a strong mayor-council form of government, the voters choose the mayor. That sounds pretty democratic to me and this is what Enfield needs to move forward.

In a democracy the people vote for their representatives. In Enfield, the day to day activities are run by a town manager who is not in any way accountable to the voters. He simply keeps his job by satisfying a majority of the Town Council. Since there are eleven votes on the Council, that makes him accountable to only six people (we have an eleven member Town Council). Though the Republicans are currently the majority party on the Council, that majority can always change during the next election cycles. Politics therefore is clearly not an issue here, but good government is.

Looking at what happened to the Director of the Senior Center we get a solid picture of how the system works. I have heard that people complained to members of the Council that what happened to the Director was wrong. These councilmen, like Pontius Pilate, washed their hands to this dirty affair and said they could not get involved in personnel matters, and that it was up to the Town Manager and his staff. Folks, the Town Manager is not elected and there is no accountability to the people of Enfield. This is but one example of how the town manager form of government works (or doesn't). That is not how democracy is suppose to work.

That brings me full circle to my original premise. In a democracy those voted into office are accountable to the voters. In our case, it seems like six councilmen (a majority) can abrogate their position by allowing the Town Manager and his subordinates to make the unpopular decisions. This is unsatisfactory. The forty six thousand people of Enfield deserve better. Enfield voters deserve the right to determine who runs the daily activities of the town.

The Council should convene a charter revision commission with the goal of creating a strong mayor form of government. Let the people vote for the man or woman that they wish to run the town. It doesn't matter if the mayor is a Democrat or a Republican. The important issue is that the mayor will be directly responsible to the voters of Enfield. I want to be able to vote for a mayor who I can hold accountable at election time. This is what democracy is all about. This is what Enfield needs.

Bill Kiner
Enfield

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