The Goshen City Council passed an ordinance August 3 that creates a deputy mayor position for the city.
Mark Brinson, the city’s current director of community development, will be appointed as the deputy mayor.
Mayor Jeremy Stutsman said during the meeting that he wanted to create the position to help redistribute administrative workloads and provide more efficient city services, as he “can’t be everywhere at once.”
“There’s a lot of the deputy mayor’s responsibilities that are similar to my responsibilities,” Stutsman said. “I want to be really clear to the public, the community and our council members — this isn’t pulling me out of those scenarios.”
Stutsman also said Brinson has been a “phenomenal asset” to the city, and that in addition to building and development, he has been helping Stutsman with other work that isn’t part of his job over the past several years.
“This title definitely better suits what he has been doing,” Stutsman said.
According to the ordinance, the deputy mayor will assist the mayor in enforcing city ordinances and state statutes, providing requested information on city affairs to the Common Council and signing all city bonds, deeds, contracts and licenses when the mayor is unavailable.
The ordinance unanimously passed its first reading, and was immediately moved to and unanimously passed its second reading.
Contact Jakob at jlazzaro@wvpe.org or follow him on Twitter at @JakobLazzaro.
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