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.
Chelsea has long since outgrown its rural roots. Now it’s outgrowing its government.
The fast-growing town in Shelby County has exceeded the amount of people it can have under its current form of government.
“This is part of the city growing up,” said Mark Boardman, Chelsea’s city attorney.
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.
In Alabama, municipalities with under 12,000 residents may have a government that is comprised of a city council where the mayor sits on the council. The change means the mayor will be separate from the council.
“The city will now have an executive branch and a legislative branch,” Boardman said.
The City Council will vote on July 16 whether to change the government.
Picklesimer believes the council will vote to approve the change and conform to state law.
“I think it’s going to pass unanimously,” he said.
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.
For the most part, Boardman said, the changes won’t affect how the city is run.
And, the proposed change won’t affect Picklesimer, who is retiring and won’t seek re-election.
Picklesimer said the mayor already has administrative duties within the city. 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.
“The meetings will look the same, but the mayor will not be sitting on the bench,” Picklesimer said.
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.
