Westerville has a council-manager type of government that it chose in 1912 and implemented in 1916, making this its 100th anniversary. The city celebrated this on January 19 with an invitation-only event.
The change took place after the state amended its constitution to allow communities to choose their form of government. Westerville was the third community in the state to make the switch to the council-manager system.
One of the reasons for the change was to save money. The first three managers were also engineers, so they could handle the duties of both offices simultaneously. It was believed that the cost of hiring a professional manager for what was a village at that time would be prohibitively expensive.
However, the system came with a big drawback, because other cities acquired the managers Westerville hired, resulting in a rapid turnover. Bill Merriman, of the Westerville Historical Society, said this pattern continued to the point that officials believed Westerville was becoming a training ground for bigger cities.
By the 1960s, though, the “poaching” stopped, and Westerville residents enjoy a strong economic base that has enabled the city to grow, and still maintain a good quality of life.
City officials and historical society members could collaborate with a brochure printing company to create a booklet about the city's history, which could be made available to interested residents, and perhaps to students.
