Letter: Please explain conflict in weak-mayor system

To the Editor:

I have been reading the vast criticism of Mayor Dennis Egan’s acceptance of the position of executive director of the Minnesota Industrial Sand Council with a bit of interest. Perhaps someone can enlighten the citizens of Red Wing on where the problem lies. A weak-mayor form of government is described in the following definition from Wikipedia.org (Google weak mayor system):

“In a ‘weak’ mayor-council system, the mayor has no formal authority outside of the council; he/she cannot appoint and/or remove officials, and lacks veto power over council votes. As such, the mayor's influence is solely based on his/her personality in order to accomplish desired goals.”

Simply speaking, I believe Red Wing has this type of a weak-mayor form of government. Also, refer to the Red Wing Charter on the city of Red Wing website for further definition of Red Wing’s powers and limitations and for stated differences in the above definition.

The Red Wing City Council can overturn about everything the mayor would propose if they do not approve of it. They can override any veto.

If the mayor disqualifies himself from the controversy, where is the problem/conflict?

Michael Halvorson

Red Wing

Tags: opinion, letters