A Mayor for Dublin – the detail matters…

And rightly so. As Dr. Quinlivan points out:

In 2006, I remember interviewing the Mayor of Schenectady (New York), Brian Stratton, who made a very persuasive case to me for directly elected mayors. He said that when he was elected mayor he inherited a fiscal train wreck but was able to turn things around because he had immense executive powers. What he failed to mention though was that the fiscal train wreck had been caused by the previous directly elected mayor who had bankrupted the city with a massive deficit and a rock-bottom credit rating.

Many directly elected mayors in America have veto power over the council and are all powerful. When I asked the mayor of Albany, Gerald Jennings, about his relationship with his council, he laughed and said, ‘I’m not obliged to go to council meetings, thank God.’

Do we need an executive Mayor? Hmm.