Exactly half a century ago in the city of Aurora, residents had a choice of changing to a city manager style of government, a referendum question that failed in a close vote in 1976.
But timing, as they say, is everything. And a group pushing to make that transition is convinced there has never been a better opportunity than now.
In the first of three town hall meetings, members of Professional Aurora presented their case Wednesday evening at the Santori Aurora Public Library with the help of Brad Townsend, a longtime and now retired city manager who is active with the International City/County Management Association that’s supporting this effort to place a referendum question on the April 4, 2027, ballot asking voters to approve a change to a city manager form of government.
“This idea has been hibernating,” says Ald. Carl Franco, 5th Ward. “It just took a 50-year nap.”
Time – and timing – does indeed play an important role in this quest that had been sitting on the back burner for so long. What was often discussed in inner circles for decades has now become an urgent campaign. And there’s no question this quest is tied to politics here in Aurora, where there is also a referendum effort supported by ex-mayor Richard Irvin to adopt mechanisms that would allow a sitting mayor to be recalled.
There are certainly plenty of people not happy with current Mayor John Laesch, whose progressive platform has created more than its share of controversy since he took over the reins of this city. That includes Franco, who frequently spars with the mayor at City Council meetings.
But hosting Wednesday night’s town hall event was longtime civic leader and real estate developer John Savage, who has a background in city management and is convinced this effort is gaining momentum as the committee gets word out how a new system of government would make a stronger Aurora.
That includes taking politics out of city government, an increasingly important distinction after the Irvin-Laesch battle.
In a nutshell, under a city manager form of government, the council and mayor would be responsible for setting policy and the budget, and the manager they hire – and could fire at any time — would be responsible for carrying out those goals by handling the day-to-day details.
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It’s a system, proponents say, that follows the business model used by large corporations, and brings more expertise, continuity and accountability to city government, which is why more municipalities across the nation are turning to this form.
In Illinois alone, Townsend said, there are 225 municipalities that have managers or administrators, with 80% of the state’s largest cities using this form of government. With good reason, he said. Including the fact that, even though a city manager’s salary could approach $250,000, the structure reduces overall administrative costs by eliminating or consolidating other high-level positions.
Neighboring cities like Rockford, Elgin and Naperville, Townsend pointed out, would provide a template for how the system would be set up so it would not be necessary to “reinvent the wheel.” And both he and Savage are convinced that, as the second largest city in Illinois, Aurora would attract top-tier candidates.
If the proposed referendum question gets on the spring 2027 ballot and passes, they said, the City Council would set the framework for the transition and begin a national search. In all likelihood, that manager would then be in place at City Hall by late fall of next year.
There were concerns, of course, raised at the meeting, including questions around how much power a city manager would have and whether a mayor’s campaign initiatives could be compromised by a city manager’s budget.
But Townsend insists the beauty of this style of government is that more teamwork is required. For example, Franco and Ald. Dan Barreiro, 1st Ward, also a Professional Aurora member, questioned how the current City Council can meaningfully scrutinize the 2027 budget when, even after repeated requests, they won’t see it until the middle of October.
“That’s the kind of nonsense we have to get away from,” said Franco.
After the presentation, Aurora resident Mavis Bates told me she recognizes the benefits of the city manager structure, but is suspicious of the timing of this proposed referendum.
“It is supposed to take politics out” of the process, she said. “But it feels very political.”
Bates, who is also a Kane County Board member, publicly stated her opposition to the mayoral recall referendum on November’s ballot in a letter containing her signature and about a dozen more. In urging residents to vote no, the signees insist mayors elected by a majority of votes should not be subject to recall “simply because a small group is unhappy with the outcome of the election.”
They also believe such an option would “open the floodgates and make every future mayor subject to a recall if a minority is not happy with an election outcome.”
The two referendums – the one on the November ballot and the one proposed for next spring – do seem to muddy our local political waters. But Savage, a former member of the Aurora Civic Center Authority Board that was hit with a major budget reduction under Laesch, is convinced changing Aurora’s form of government extends beyond the city’s current power dynamics. And he strongly encourages voters to visit the Professional Aurora group’s website at citymanageraurora.com for more information on why it makes sense.
Aurora has a population of almost 200,000, over 1,000 municipal employees and a city budget of more than half a billion dollars, he said.
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“This is about a better way of managing our city.”