In early November, The Beacon-News published a letter to the editor written by Aurora Ald. Carl Franco, 5th Ward, in which he called for the city to change its form of government.
“Aurora has always been a city that adapts and grows stronger through change,” Franco wrote at the time. “I believe now is the time for that next step — a government lead by professionals, guided by our community’s values, and free from partisan politics.”
But Franco didn’t share his opinion just to wait around until things were different. Since his letter was published, he’s been working to organize a push to make the change he suggested through a referendum in next year’s municipal election.
Specifically, Franco wants to see Aurora move to a form of government that includes a city manager, which is an appointed professional that would run the day-to-day operations of the city. Under Aurora’s current form of government, which has been in place since the 1970s, that responsibility is in the hands of the mayor.
Days after his letter to the editor was published, Franco told The Beacon-News that he had long wondered why a professional wasn’t running the city.
“If there’s an entity out there, some kind of business, and they had a thousand employees and a $700 million budget,” he said, “would you hire somebody that’s never done that job before — doesn’t have a degree in it, doesn’t have a certification — or would you hire somebody that’s a professional?”
In his letter to the editor, Franco also said that city government was becoming more partisan despite having ostensibly nonpartisan elections, specifically citing the Democratic Party’s influence in last year’s mayoral race in favor of Mayor John Laesch.
A city manager, Franco wrote in the letter, would bring “consistency and accountability, while reducing the influence of electoral politics.”
Although the current system has worked for a number years, Franco said in the fall, he believes Aurora’s current administration is hurting the city because they lack knowledge, got rid of existing institutional knowledge and are an “extreme case of unprofessionalism.”
Laesch, speaking to The Beacon-News in November, responded to Franco’s criticisms by saying that it had personally been a learning curve since he was inaugurated earlier in the year. But, the city had a hard-working, dedicated team that’s going to be “top notch” and running smoothly within six months, he said at the time.
Laesch also questioned why Franco was bringing this idea forward now rather than under the previous administration, which Laesch blamed for the budget issues that the city was dealing with at around that time.
A city manager wouldn’t have allowed those issues to happen, Laesch said, but the new administration was making the hard choices to solve the problems.
“He wanted a strong mayor form of government when things were being handled recklessly, and now that things are being managed more stringently without political influence, there’s a need for a change, apparently,” Laesch said.
Despite that apparent endorsement of a city manager, Laesch expressed mixed feelings when asked about the idea directly. He’s thought about it, and there are advantages to both, he said.
A city government with a manager can be more independent and not bend as easily to political pressures, Laesch said, but a mayor is accountable to the people in a way that a manager isn’t. Plus, elected officials can sort of dodge responsibility when there’s a city manager, which a strong mayor cannot do, he said.
Ultimately, both mayors and city managers can be influenced, so the change really needed by the city is ethics reform, according to Laesch. He has been trying to get an ethics reform package passed for months, but aldermen continue to have issues with it that delay its approval.
Franco said soon after his letter was published that he didn’t expect pushback on his proposal except from people who want to become mayor themselves. But still, there would be a mayor, and it may even be an easier job since they could focus more on their vision and values rather than day-to-day operations, he said.
Overall, a city benefits by having a city manager because it separates the policy-making from the implementation of the policy, and takes the politics out of running the day-to-day of the city, Dawn Peters told The Beacon-News in late November. She’s the executive director of the Illinois City/County Management Association.
City managers also bring with them greater efficiency and extensive training on the workings of city government, according to Peters. Plus if they belong to an organization like hers, she said, they are bound by a code of ethics and can rely on other professionals for ideas and best practices.
If Aurora does adopt a form of government that includes a city manager, it would join the ranks of communities like Naperville, Elgin, Arlington Heights, Champaign, Evanston, Oak Park and more, Peters said.
To make the change, Franco plans to place a referendum question on the ballot in the April 2027 municipal election, he said on Friday.
Beyond weakening the mayor position, Franco isn’t looking to make any other changes to city elected positions. For example, he wants to keep the way aldermen are largely elected through wards.
Even if voters approve the ballot initiative in early 2027, the specifics would be up to the City Council, according to Franco. So, he said it would likely take another six months to a year before the new form of government would go into effect.
But to even get the referendum question placed on the ballot, Franco and those he is working with will need to collect enough signatures from city voters. In total, he is looking to get about 4,000, he said.
Those signatures will be filed by December, Franco said, and the petition-signing campaign is likely to start in June.
A political action committee called Professional Aurora is being set up for the effort, according to Franco. He said that group will be sending out flyers in around May or June and will be hosting an educational tour at the city’s libraries throughout this year.
Since the start of his push, Franco has seemed confident about the idea’s popularity. On Friday, he said that he “certainly” thinks the referendum is going to pass.
rsmith@chicagotribune.com
