I was sorry to see that the issue of changing to an elected mayor for Federal Way has resurfaced.

I thought the voters had spoken when they defeated this at the polls before.

One of the things I pointed out in letters to this paper at that time was that a city manager can be removed from their position by the city council if they are not performing as they should. An elected mayor gets to complete their term unless they do something so terrible that they can be recalled, and this is very rare.

What makes this point very clear is that the Federal Way City Council recently terminated our city manager for performance reasons. If our city manager had been an elected mayor, he could not have been removed by the citizens or the city council. He would have been able to serve out his term.

Why wouldn’t we want a qualified, professional city manager that can be fired if they don’t do the job? They are running the day-to-day operations and need to be qualified and accountable to the city council. Do you really want to elect someone who does not have to meet any professional qualifications to be elected and cannot be removed for poor performance? How is an elected mayor more accountable if you can’t get rid of them until their term ends? What do you or the city council do with a poor performing mayor?

Don Dennis, Federal Way