Professional Leadership Doesn’t Depend on a Title - Doug's Take on City Manager as Mayor.

On October 12, the Committee to Elect Ahrens hosted a Ward Conversation at Harrison Park Golf Course. It was a great evening, and I wish you could have joined us.

Ward Conversations are the first-ever series of ward-based public engagement opportunities offered by a mayoral candidate. That matters, because the semi-annual ward meetings residents once counted on have not taken place under the current administration. The Mayor has simply chosen not to hold them.

In 2017, I supported moving Danville to a City Manager form of government. I was proud to work alongside other community stakeholders to offer an alternative to the status quo, and I stand by that effort. The voters chose to keep our current form of government, and I respect that decision. I am not proposing a City Manager today, and I will not propose or initiate changing our form of government during my time as Mayor.

What hasn't changed is why I got involved. Danville needs and deserves trained, professional leadership. In 2017, I believed a City Manager was the way to get it. Today, I'm offering it directly, as a candidate for Mayor. I am the candidate of professional leadership.

Professional Leadership Works Within Any Structure

Trained and effective public administrators can lead within any organizational structure. In recognition of the voters' choice, I am fully committed to raising the bar for what Danville should expect from its chief executive, and to showing what real professional leadership looks and feels like. That will be a clear change from the last eight years, when professional standards and practices have been lacking.

For more than three decades, the citizens and taxpayers of Danville have educated and trained me for municipal leadership, including 25 years at the Director level. You've already invested in that experience. I'm running for Mayor to give you a return on it.

Those years also taught me something about how this office is often run. Too many Mayors avoid our community's biggest long-term challenges because their first priority is re-election. That is why you have never seen a 5- or 10-year financial projection from them. Their focus rarely extends past the next term.

That is also why I have always supported term limits at every level of government. If elected, I will give Danville voters a choice on term limits.

Eight Years of Data

Eight years of data now show what the current approach to leading Danville has cost us. Looking at that record objectively, a few examples stand out.

1. Contract Protections: Danville lost $1.385 million because the Mayor failed to include standard protective language when negotiating and executing a government contract, leaving the City's finances exposed to a third-party opportunist. To pay for an agreement with AZAVAR Audit Solutions to avoid or settle potential litigation over that mistake, the City raised its local gas tax by $.04 per gallon. Spread over eight years, that's an additional $173,125 per year for Danville taxpayers. Add the Mayor's salary, and the cost of this office has averaged more than $250,000 a year.

2. Casino location. Everyone recognized that Danville's casino belonged along the interstate. It isn't there. The Mayor allowed people with potential conflicts of interest to serve on his casino committee, while community partners with relevant experience in development projects and negotiations were left out. Danville will never know how much revenue the casino and the City have lost because of that siting decision. Professional leaders put the right people around the table, and they don't let personal grievances get in the way of the community's goals.

3. Size of City government. Published budget documents show City government has grown by as many as 30 employees since 2017, during a period when Danville lost significant population. Police resources needed an increase. But would professional leadership have added seven firefighters without major contract changes to control future costs? And that doesn't account for the other new positions.

4. Garfield Park & Pool: After very limited public discussion, roughly $15 million of the City's $25 million in federal COVID relief funds went to this project. Total costs now exceed $19 million of your tax dollars. What taxpayers got is a poorly planned pool that disadvantaged youth can't afford to use, and that loses more than $250,000 during each two-month season. That's $1 million lost every four years, for a total of eight months of swimming. No professional would recommend that in a community with Danville's limited resources. Professionals look for partnerships that stretch community investments further. The Mayor turned down offers from community partners to collaborate on youth water recreation. He wanted his own.

5. Sewer Fee: How policy is made matters as much as the policy itself. In 2020, during COVID-era isolation, the Mayor pushed through a sewer fee increase of 100–200% for residential customers and 210% for businesses with flow-based charges, all in a single jump in 2021 instead of a proper phase-in. The administration told City Council that sales tax revenue supporting stormwater expenses "should have never happened legally or statutorily as enterprise funds in state law are supposed to be self-sustaining." That statement was inaccurate then and remains inaccurate today. The resulting ordinance has businesses paying a disproportionate share of stormwater costs based on sanitary sewer flow, even though the City's own ordinances prohibit stormwater in sanitary sewers. These charges run against industry best practices and make it harder to attract businesses with higher wastewater flows to Danville. In any professionally run organization, misrepresenting legal requirements to the governing body would cost someone their job.

6. Demolition and Neighborhoods:  Professional leaders carry out the community's priorities, not their own. For more than two decades, Danville residents and businesses have ranked blighted structures and neighborhood housing conditions among the community's highest priorities. How much of the $25 million in COVID relief funds went to an accelerated, community-wide demolition program? None. Professional leadership doesn't set aside long-standing community needs for a favored personal project.

Continuing the Conversation

Ward Conversations are about giving residents a real opportunity to be heard, something Danville hasn't had since semi-annual ward meetings stopped under the current administration. We'll be posting video excerpts from Harrison Park soon, and I hope you'll join us at an upcoming Ward Conversation.

The voters chose to keep an elected Mayor, and I respect that choice. Now I'm asking for your vote, so that Danville's elected Mayor finally operates to a professional standard.

It's the standard any well-run organization expects of its leader. It's the standard Danville deserves. And it's the standard you can count on with me as your Mayor.

Doug Ahrens