"Under the council-mayor form of government there is inherently significant conflict between the administration and the council," Lincoln Shurtz, legislative analyst for the Utah League of Cities & Towns, said. "If you had a city manager in there that was not politicized — that could kind of operate on his own being a strong city manager — it would remove the ability of the mayor's office to essentially politicize issues that have been ratified by the legislative branch."

Wallace believes that oftentimes mayors are elected as CEOs when they don't have much experience with city government or process. Lawyers, lobbyists, real estate developers and other professionals sometimes have little experience in running a huge city that functions like a corporation.

The private sector would never pick a CEO with no corporate experience, Wallace says, so she questions why a city, which often functions like a big company, would choose to.

"Whenever we start having things that appear to be procedural problems, I have a big concern about making sure that the people are represented, and so when you have one person that may not be representing the entire feeling of the entire city — and when you get larger that can happen — that's when your council really matters because one portion of the large city may have unique differences from another and their voice needs to be heard," she said.

Wallace's design is largely based on the way Sandy city does government. There the mayor is free to develop policy, seek economic development and develop new programs while the city manager handles the day-to-day operations of the city.

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E-mail: bsnyder@desnews.com