Benton City rejecting city manager leadership in initial vote count

Benton City voters were rejecting a proposition to hire a professional city manager with the votes counted Tuesday night.

Some 234 votes, or 47% of votes counted Tuesday night, favored the change in the city’s form of leadership. The votes counted against the change numbered 234, or 47%.

Now Benton County’s mayor, elected from among council members, is the city’s chief administrative officer and manages all the city’s employees, including a city clerk, two general clerks, a code enforcement officer, three maintenance workers and a wastewater plant operator.

The city contracts with the Benton County Sheriff’s Office for law enforcement and Benton County Fire District 2 handles firefighting and ambulance service.

The proposition on the ballot Tuesday came after a string of controversial mayors led some residents to push for a form of government that gives the mayor less power.

Supporters of the proposition said hiring a professional manager would help retain skilled staff and set the stage for quality development.

The city council’s decision to put the measure on the ballot came about the same time as the resignation of the third city clerk in a little over a year and the loss of a longtime maintenance foreman.

But opponents said hiring a full-time manager would be too costly and put the city in financial peril.

It would make Benton City, with 3,900 residents, the third smallest in the state to adopt the council-manager form of government and the smallest in Eastern Washington.