$75K Approved For Mayoral Transition

Alders unanimously approved transferring no more than $75,000 from the city’s rainy day fund to help cover the costs of transitioning from a Harp to an Elicker administration.

Mayor-Elect Justin Elicker, meanwhile, said that he will likely need to spend only roughly two-thirds of that allocated amount before taking office in January.

The Board of Alders took that vote Monday evening during its regular full board meeting in the Aldermanic Chambers on the second floor of City Hall.

Alders unanimously agreed to transfer ​“no more than” $75,000 from the city’s rainy day fund towards a previously-empty mayoral transition line item in the current fiscal year’s budget.

Update: The original version of this article incorrectly stated that the final language approved by the alders reads ​“up to $75,000.” It in fact reads ​“no more than $75,000.” There is no substantive difference between those two statements.

Westville Alder and Finance Committee Vice-Chair Adam Marchand took the floor to suggest verbiage changes to the order that had previously been submitted by Mayor Toni Harp’s budget office and heard by the Finance Committee earlier this month.

Acting City Budget Director Michael Gormany had initially pitched the alders on setting aside a full $75,000 to cover the cost of a mayoral transition. He acknowledged to the committee that that number was a bit of a guess, and that the city did not have a detailed understanding of how much a successful mayoral transition might actually cost.

Marchand on Monday recommended changing the proposed order from setting aside $75,000 to setting aside no more than $75,000. His colleagues unanimously adopted the amendment, and then passed the transfer request.

The City Charter, in Article 111, Section 1(b), states that, ​“Each newly elected Mayor shall be provided with at least one secretary, one professional staff assistant, furnished office space and such other assistance as the Board of Alders may approve upon request of the Mayor-elect at the Board of Alders’ next meeting following the election for the period from November 15th in the year said Mayor was first elected up to the first (1st) day of said Mayor’s term of office so as to best effectuate the transition of the change of executive leadership of the City government.”

“We got some indication that they wanted to hire staff,” Marchand said about why he felt comfortable providing no more than $75,000 to the Elicker transition team between now and January. ​“We were willing to provide up to that amount.”

After the meeting, Elicker told the Independent that his transition team likely will not need to spend all $75,000. He said he plans to spend $50,000 of those transfer-eligible funds.

Gage Frank, Elicker’s campaign manager and now the manager for the mayor-elect’s newly appointed transition team, said that that money will go towards reading through resumes and conducting interviews with job applicants for roles in the new administration.

It will also go towards researching, writing, and distributing to the public a transition report that should be published around when Elicker takes office.

And it should help cover the cost of professionally-facilitated public meetings hosted by the transition team, as well as other community outreach efforts between now and January.

The transition team has an office set up on the first floor of the municipal office building at 200 Orange St., he said, in a conference room usually used by the adjacent Human Resources department. That’s where Gage and staffer Kevin Alvarez as well as a host of interns and volunteers are currently doing their work.