Mayor Haviland’s Resignation Letter

See Nelson Mayor Mike Haviland’s Resignation Letter BelowOver the last four years the Nelson City council has acted to remove or transfer away the powers of the Mayor as defined in the city’s Strong Mayor form of government charter provisions.

The cumulative effect of the these actions is to create a de facto change in the form of government from a Strong Mayor form of government to a City Manager, Strong City Council/Weak Mayor form of government. A second unfortunate effect in marginalizing the powers of the mayor has been to create a contentious working relationship between the City Council and the Mayor, a situation which is not serving Nelson government or its citizens well.

In my opinion a more workable solution for the City of Nelson would be to revise the City’s current Strong Mayor charter form of government, to a City Manager form of government. This would both clarify the role, powers and expectations of the mayor position for future mayoral candidates, and would create a legal charter standing to the current de facto form of government.

In order to facilitate this change in the form of government, I am resigning my position of Mayor of the City of Nelson as of May 14, 2013.

I appreciate the opportunity to have served and contributed to Nelson City government as its Mayor. And while the city faces serious challenges in the future, I have every confidence that the leadership and vision of the City Council management team along with its staff and City Manager will step forward to address them. I would like to thank the citizens of Nelson, all of city employees, all of the members of City Council and the press for their support.

Best regards

Michael Haviland