See Nelson Council Member Duane Cronic’s Response to Mayor Mike Haviland’s Resignation BelowFirst, Mayor Haviland’s resignation was completely self inflicted. Mayor Haviland had a profound understanding of his role under our city government before the election that placed him in office. Mayor Haviland advocated for the Council/Manager form of government during the previous Mayor’s term. However, Mayor Haviland saw his role as Mayor a little differently once he was placed into office.

This City Council decided months before Mayor Haviland won his election to establish a City Manager (the provision for a City Manager is in our Charter. It states the Council may appoint a City Manager, and delegate any of the administrative duties of the Mayor to the Manager). This provision was in the original Charter of Nelson; we did not create this provision. Our main contention for creating a City Manager was that “anyone” could pay their $25.00 and run for mayor, but that $25.00 fee did not automatically qualify that person to be the C.E.O. of a company (of in our case, a city). Our city manager has the qualifications necessary to deal with the day-to-day operations of the City, where a Mayor may not have these qualifications.

The City of Nelson has done several wonderful things since the implementation of our City Manager. We have began renovating our parks, we have purchased much needed maintenance equipment, as well as surplussed outdated, unused equipment. We now have the “first-ever” Capital Improvement Plan to help guide the City over the next 5 years in improvements to our roads, public safety,and parks.

For the first time in over 8 years, our general operating budget is in the black. The new leadership of Nelson took a reserve fund of $0.00 in August 2012, and placed over $30,000 back in within the next 4 months. The annual operating budget met revenue expenses last month (we hit our expected revenue in 10 months, which means all revenue coming into the City during May and June is surplus revenue to be placed in our growing reserve fund. This feat has not be done in Nelson in many years. The Council also lowered property taxes throughout all these changes. I feel the City of Nelson has taken a HUGE step forward over the last year, and one reason was appointing a qualified individual to help direct the Council down the correct path for the good of our City.

Mayor Haviland had ideas to save the City by eliminating our Sanitation Department, outsourcing our police department, as well as cutting our manager back to part-time. Mr. Haviland could not communicate those ideas properly with all parties involved within the City Government, and in the end, I believe this was his downfall.

Our City Government will move on, and continue with business as usual. This Council is committed to work together and deal with City Business in a normal fashion, and to do what we genuinely feel is best for the City of Nelson.