Former councilmen advise governance committee

Madison Governance Committee 2025 is analyzing various models for Madison’s municipal leadership. (RECORD PHOTO/GREGG PARKER)

MADISON – On Sept. 23, Madison Governance Committee 2025 hosted a ‘class reunion’ of sorts with former members of Madison City Council.

Greg Curtis, Marc Jacobson, Cynthia McCollum, Sally Warden and Larry Vannoy shared their council experiences. Longtime city and school board attorney Woody Sanderson also attended. McCollum and Warden also serve on the governance committee that is analyzing models for Madison’s municipal leadership.

Jacobson, who served on council from 1992 to 2004, said, “With all due respect, I’ve observed confident mayors and some who had challenges – same with city council. Some individuals had ‘power trips.'”

In 1999 and 2003, council attempted to implement a city manager. “In both cases, we ran into obstacles from the mayor’s side,” Jacobson said. Vannoy agreed about “strong resistance from the mayor and his supporters against a city manager form of government.”

Warden said council believed “a city manager was the answer, but we had a fledgling school system to protect. We were tired.”

“We could have fought it and gone ahead, but we were really tired,” McCollum said about founding Madison City Schools, constructing Dublin Park and writing the original capital improvement plan.

“Does the average citizen in Madison know the difference between mayor/city council and city manager forms of government? I don’t think so,” committee member Mary Lynne Wright said. “As long as everything was going well, the average citizen didn’t really care,” McCollum said.

“From 1992, we went from a sleepy town with a four-way stop at Applebee’s (to) a city and budget that were exploding,” Curtis said. “Woody, Marc and I were in New York City negotiating bonds for this thing called ‘Bob Jones High School.’ We had gone from a well-run, small place to something that was running 90 miles an hour.”

However, council members then worked without “angst,” Curtis said.” We worked extremely hard together. We were looking at how to build a city.”

To Jacobson, Madison is missing “continuity between administrations.” Sanderson believes “an election to choose between city council/mayor and city manager forms would be a difficult one.”