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 regularly,” Loddick said. He asked the council for consensus to direct staff to begin work on ordinance clarifications and to start preparatory work for a more intensive recruiting process for the administrator role.

Council discussion split along several lines. Several councilors said they opposed making the mayor a voting member of the council, arguing that the current separation — a nonvoting mayor who sets agendas and a council responsible for votes — provides an independent check on executive influence. Councilor comments emphasized that ordinance language could clarify roles without changing the form of government.

Public commenters urged different approaches. Gabe Grodhouse, a resident who identified himself during public comment, said he wanted an explicit timeline and a public recommendation to reduce the mayor’s salary, calling the current compensation “too much.” Josh Wilson, a petition organizer in the audience, said the petitioners want a public vote on a form-change referendum and asked that citizens be allowed to decide at the ballot box. James McCullough urged caution on shifting to a council–manager ward form, citing concerns about redistricting and the experience of other cities.

Loddick and staff said the city typically takes roughly six months to complete an executive search and that preparatory work could start immediately — developing qualifications, hiring a recruitment firm and drafting job materials — with interviews and final selection likely to come after the November election to avoid confusion during campaign season. Loddick said some preparatory hiring work would still be useful to conduct now and that the council would return to formal votes on items such as hiring a recruitment firm, ordinance changes or establishing a charter-review commission.

Residents and councilors also questioned relative salaries and organizational comparisons cited in Loddick’s slide deck. Loddick acknowledged salary comparisons can be difficult to make ‘‘apples to apples’’ because cities structure senior staff differently; he suggested a charter review process would be the appropriate mechanism to consider mayoral pay, council compensation, term lengths and whether to require regular charter review every 10 years.

At the end of the meeting Loddick asked for consensus to move forward with the three-step plan; no formal recorded vote was taken. He told the council he would proceed unless a majority objected and scheduled the regular city council meeting to follow the committee session.

No ordinance changes or hires were approved at the Aug. 4 meeting; Loddick said any specific contracts, hiring firm engagements or ordinance amendments would be returned to council for formal action.