Former Greensboro mayor Jim Melvin thinks a full-time mayor is a bad idea:
Another strong argument against a full-time mayor is that the weak-mayor form of government — which means the mayor does not have veto power over the council and has to work with the other members of council to develop a program — is very positive because it should build teamwork. At the present time, the council is responsible for hiring only one person, the city manager. If the council and the mayor start having strong influence over hiring many of the employees, then you get political influence, which hurts the efficiency of the city.
While I see Melvin’s point about the hiring of employees, that still doesn’t change the fact that, in my opinion, there’s still strong political influence over many city operations, one of which, unfortunately, is the police force. The aftermath of the Wray situation will only make such political influence stronger.
