The Michigan Daily-Wednesday, August 8, 1979-Page 3
Local officials discuss city power structure
By JUDY RAKOWSKY
Accountability to citizens is greater with a govern-
ment structure centered around the city ad-
ministrator than with a strong mayor form, accor-
ding to outgoing City Administrator Sylvester
Murray. He explained that elected officials can fire
the bureaucrat, but an undesirable mayor stays in of-
fice until he is voted out.
"It's better this way," said Murray, who recently
accepted Cincinnati's city manager job. "If the
people elect a mayor for four years, during the first
year he may not be accountable, but he'll be there for
the next three years."
ALTHOUGH THE 23-year-old city administrator
structure is popular with most past and present Ann
Arbor politicians, it is still subject to debate.
Former Mayor Albert Wheeler is an advocate of a
strong mayor system. "Mayors have to go out and
Mideast
talks end;
major issues
still unsettled
HAIFA, Israel (AP) - Mideast talks
on Palestinian self-rule ended yester-
day with a declaration of modest suc-
cess, although Israel, Egypt and the
United States left fundamental issues
unresolved for later negotiations.
After three stormy sessions, the talks
produced a seven-point agenda for fur-
ther negotiations on how Palestinians in
Israeli-occupied territories will elect a
self-governing council.
Agreement on an election procedures
agenda, an apparently innocuous issue,
proved difficult enough. It involved
probing key questions such as whether
Jerusalem Arabs should come under
the sutonomy's authority, whether
Palestinians could organize political
parties and whether the franchise could
be extended to refugees outside the oc-
cupied areas.
"WE HAVE not attempted to resolv-
e these questions, only to find a list
which is acceptable to all of us on the
basis of which we can then go forward,"
said U.S. Ambassador James Leonard.
Leonard said the "headings" for the
See MIDEAST, Page 6 Ever t
account to the people every couple of years and they
ought to be able to make decisions," he said.
Wheeler, a Democrat, said discussions with other
mayors at conventions during his 1975-1977 term lead
him to believe "there's a feeling generally among
mayors that they ought to have more authority to
make decisions and have capable pros to carry out
those decisions."
Republican Mayor Louis Belcher said, "I have all
the power I want and need."
IN ANN ARBOR'S weak mayor form, the admin-
sitrator makes recommendations to City Council, the
majority votes of which set policies for ad-
ministrative implementation. However, the mayor
has the power to veto that majority vote.
"The charter gave the administrator authority, but
he can't ignore the chief elected official, and the
mayor can't just run over the chief administrative of-
ficial," Murray explained.
Murray said Friday' the structure provides a
"possibility for friction" between the mayor and the
city administration which makes necessary
cooperation of "personalities between the two for it to
really work." He added, however, that "there ought
to be cooperation between the bureaucracy and
policy-makers."
FORMER CITY Administrator Guy Larcom said
Friday that Ann Arbor has a relatively weak type of
administrator government, in which the mayor's role
is larger than the prototype. He said this city's ad-
ministrator is constrained more by City Council than
those in many other, especially larger, cities. Unlike
many cities, Ann Arbor's city administrator does not
have complete authority over hiring and firing of
department heads.
See Az, Page10
Canine lineA
ry to round up a dozen Irish Setter puppies for a portrait sitting? Anthony Henry, 13, of Memphis, Tenn., stuffed
ps into socks yesterday and hung them from a clotheslines. Mother Molly, pictured center, didn't seem to mind,
d the puppy next to her right ear, who promptly fell asleep.
to day
the put
nor did
sideration for the presidency of the City of New
York's Hunter College. Although she has not yet
been officially nominated, Cobb and Dr. Robert
Hirschfield, chairman of Hunter College's political
science department, have been recommended for
the post by a search committee. Cobb currently is
the dean of Douglass College at Rutgers University.
About four years ago, the University offered Cobb,
then dean of Connecticut College, a two-year, no-
tenure contract for the LSA deanship. Apparently
after some hesitation, Cobb accepted the offer, only
to find that the Department of Zoology's decision to
reject her tenure application had swayed the
University Board of Regents against her. The
Department of Health, Education, and Welfare
questioned the "University's affirmative action
policy as a result of the controversy. Eventually
Zoology Prof. Billy Frye, who had been acting LSA
dean, was named to the post.
Mismonickered
til next month. "Dear Miss Barbour-Newberry,"
the card began. Perhaps the postcard should be
forwarded to the winner of some future beauty con-
test.
Happenings,...
... at noon, Ed Parmentier and harpsichordists
will perform in the Pendleton Center of the
Michigan Union . . . the Students International
Meditation Society presents an introductory lec-
ture, "Transcendental Meditation and TM Sidhi
Programs," at noon and again at 8 p.m., in Room
4315 -of the Michigan Union ... anthropologist
Niara Sudarkasa and feminist attorney Sallyanne
Payton will debate "Black Macho and The Myth of
the Black Superwoman" on WCBN-FM, 88.3, at 6
p.m.... FILMS: Trdlffaut's The Wild Child, 8:40
p.m.; Herzog's Every Man for Himself and God
Against All, 7 p.m., 10:20 pni.; both in Aud. A,
Angell Hall.
Cobb
Cobb considered for
CUNYpost
'Dr. Jewell' Cobb,'A black edtcator who was of-
fered the d ahsri' of LA - n"1975, is under con-
A wayward postcard addressed to the Barbour-
Newberry Library found its way into the Daily's On the outside
stack of mail yesterday. The card was from the cir-
culation department of Vogue magazine, and inten- Anothdr hot and humid afternoon, with a high
ded to inform the shared library of the two women's. temperature near 15' and partly sunny skies. The
dormitories that its subscription could not start urt" will be near Goo.