I sat down again with Brian Bertka, a longtime resident of Farmington Hills, Michigan, for Part 2 of our discussion on I Can See Clearly Now. In this segment, we shifted from the timeline of the special City Council meeting to the structure of the city’s council manager form of government. Specifically, we focused on two roles that residents often blend together: the mayor and the city manager.
At the center of the conversation was a simple question that many people ask when something feels unclear at City Hall. Who is actually responsible for what. Brian approached this from a resident’s perspective, and he asked me to explain the city manager’s responsibilities in plain terms.
“Can you tell me a little more specifically what the city manager does?”
Brian Bertka
I grounded my answer in the Farmington Hills City Charter and in my own background in public administration. In a council manager system, the City Council sets policy, while the city manager runs day to day operations. The charter outlines that the mayor presides over council meetings and serves ceremonial functions, but has no administrative duties. That detail matters because it clarifies what residents should expect from the mayor’s office, and what decisions are meant to be handled through the administrative side of city government.
We then walked through what the city manager oversees. In Farmington Hills, that role touches every major operational area residents experience directly: finance, public safety, public services, planning, and special services. This is why changes involving the city manager can have outsized consequences. The position is not designed to be political. It is designed to be managerial, technical, and steady, especially when the city is maintaining service levels and long term planning.
Brian reflected on what qualifications he would look for in someone holding that job. His emphasis was on breadth of experience, familiarity with complex departments, and the ability to manage leadership decisions that affect the whole organization.
“This individual needs a broad depth of knowledge to run the city.”
Brian Bertka
From there, our conversation moved into an area residents may feel immediately, even if they never read a budget document. Financial stewardship. I raised the importance of Farmington Hills’ bond rating and the basic idea that mistakes in finance show up downstream in real costs for taxpayers. Brian responded from his finance background, underscoring the practical impact of a city’s borrowing reputation.
“Triple-A ratings are very important.”
Brian Bertka
As we continued, Brian offered a private sector analogy that many residents will recognize. In his view, the City Council functions like a board setting direction, while the city manager functions like an executive leading the execution team. That framework helped us return to the theme that originally brought him into the conversation: transparency. Brian argued that residents can see and vote on many public questions, but that the current concern was about what happens when communication breaks down behind closed doors, especially when not all council members receive the same information.
He also clarified a point that is frequently misunderstood in Farmington Hills local government. The mayor is a council member elected at large, tasked with chairing meetings and representing the city ceremonially, but not tasked with running departments. Brian put it in straightforward terms.
“It’s a figure position only at the end of the day.”
Brian Bertka
Part 2 of this I Can See Clearly Now conversation is ultimately about civic clarity. When residents understand the lines between policy and administration, it becomes easier to evaluate what is happening, ask better questions, and hold the right people accountable through the public process. In Farmington Hills, Michigan, that clarity matters most in moments when major decisions are being discussed, and when residents are trying to understand how government is working on their behalf.
