Photo by Erin Nelson Sweeney
Mayor Tony Picklesimer stands in the Chelsea City Council chambers at Chelsea City Hall on Thursday, July 11, 2024. Photo by Erin Nelson Sweeney.
The Chelsea City Council voted to change its form of government on Tuesday night.
The council voted unanimously to change to a form of government where the mayor does not sit on the council. Instead, the mayor will be separated from the council, but have veto power.
“Just one of the things that happens with a growing community,” said Councilman Chris Grace Tuesday night before the vote.
The question of changing the form of government is not in question – that is governed by state law which requires municipalities of more than 12,000 to change their form of government.
“I look at it as another set of checks and balances,” said Chelsea Mayor Tony Picklesimer.
Picklesimer said the council could have delayed the decision, allowing the next council and mayor to change the form of government, but the current council decided to move forward with the change.
Chelsea has grown leaps and bounds in the last 10 years. In the 2010 census, they had just over 10,000 residents. It grew to more than 15,000 residents, according to the 2020 census. Now the U.S. Census Bureau estimates the town has nearly 17,000 residents.
With the mayor cleaved from the council, the council will elect a council president and a council vice president, if they vote to make the change. Currently the mayor presides over the council meetings with a mayor pro-tem who presides in the mayor’s absence.
The mayor will not be able to vote as part of the council under the proposed change, but state law allows the mayor to have veto power, which can in turn be overridden by a 2/3 council vote. All of Chelsea’s council, including the mayor, are elected at-large by the whole population, so any changes upcoming will not affect voting districts.
The proposed change won’t affect Picklesimer, who is retiring and won’t seek re-election.
The next mayor, though, will see their pay reduced from what the current mayor receives. The council voted to increase the pay of council members from $600 a month to $1,000 on Tuesday night. They voted to cut the mayor’s pay from $81,000 to $66,000. Picklesimer was the only council member to vote against the measure. He said presiding over the council is a small percentage of the mayor’s duties and overseeing the day-to-day operations of the city takes up much more of the job.
He fears changing the new salary will “shrink the pool” of qualified candidates for the position.
