“Out of the frying pan and into the fire.” This old adage means trying to get out of a bad situation and getting yourself into an even worse spot. It comes from not looking where you are going. This is exactly where the people who intend to vote for the dreadful new charter are getting ready to do to us. Folks, it will get much worse than what we have now, if you vote in favor of having our city run by a politico instead of a person highly trained in city management.

The heart of the proposed new charter is having the mayor run the city, and getting a six-figure yearly salary. We do not have to look far for a horrible example of what can happen with this inferior method. A few years ago, the city of Flint saw the mayor fire the City Manager and replace him with his own campaign manager. Way less than half the cities in Michigan use the “strong mayor” system of government, but every Michigan city in the 21st century that had to go into receivership and had the state take over because of financial mismanagement had used this strong mayor system! There is no support in Saginaw from any responsible community leaders or organizations to give a fat salary and near-dictatorial powers to a politician. Here’s why. Saginaw has had good mayors and bad mayors; it is a foolish gamble that from here on out they will all be good. Our city is on thin ice because of the auto industry woes. With the concentration of power this charter will give to the mayor, it will take only one loose cannon to do irreparable damage to our ship.