Mayor outlines government forms and seeks council consensus to begin city administrator search

Mayor Danny Loddick told the Cedar Falls committee of the whole on Aug. 4 that he wants the council to clarify the city’s ordinances and begin a hiring process for a new chief administrative officer while preserving a later, broader charter-review process for larger structural questions.

Loddick presented the distinctions among mayor–council (the city’s current form), council–manager (at-large or ward versions) and Home Rule charter options, and recommended three near-term steps: amend the code to clarify delegation of executive duties to the city administrator, begin a full executive search for a new city administrator and, after that hire is settled, convene a charter review commission to study more substantive structural changes such as mayoral pay and term length.

“I do not think we necessarily need to change our form of government, but it is good practice to review our city charter…