Marion's experiment with the city manager form of government is apparently over.
Instead, the city has hired a chief of staff for new Mayor Mike Absher, who says he is taking a CEO approach to city government and will take over the day-to-day running of the city. Absher, an experienced businessman, is formerly the CEO of the Watermark Auto Group.
"I envision the mayor's role as more than one person. It entails economic development, grant writing and human resources," Absher said on Monday, prior to introducing Cody Moake has his new chief of staff.
Under the commission form of government, it is the mayor's job to administer the city, Absher said.
"And the reality is, the mayor cannot be in more than one place at a time," he added. "And while I intend to be in City Hall, administering the city, I need some help."
There were whispers around the city council meeting on Monday that Gail West, Marion's first and only city manager, was going to retire.
On Tuesday, she put those rumors to rest.
"I didn't retire. I didn't resign," she told the Marion Republican. "I was not reappointed."
West was named Marion's first city administrator in 2008, under longtime Mayor Robert Butler. West came to Marion in 2006, initially as the city's director of economic development.
West said she harbors no ill feelings about her departure.
"The mayor as the right to appoint whomever he would like to appoint," she said. "I wish him, the city and the commissioners a brilliant future."
Absher explained after the council meeting that the city administrator position would not be erased but instead remain unfilled.
He said the city administrator position "doesn't fit in a commission form of government," where commissioners themselves oversee city departments and department heads.
Moake most recently worked in the Illinois State Treasurer's office, and previously was chief of staff for Williamson County State's Attorney Brandon Zanotti. He was hand-picked for the job by Absher.
Absher noted that he while he and Moake come from different political parties, "This office is not about politics, it's about progress."
The council, with Absher and commissioners Doug Patton, John M. Barwick Jr., Jim Webb and John Stoecklin, voted unanimously to approve the new position.
Also approved in another motion were all the city department heads, with the exception of Marion police chief, who has yet to be named in the wake of Chief Dawn Tondini's April 1 retirement.
Moake hit the ground running on Tuesday morning, accompanying the mayor to meetings with city department heads.
Asked how his first day on the job was going, he replied wryly, "I think the phrase 'drinking from a fire hose' would be applicable."
