This is a guest opinion column

Madison city mayor and the council have shown blatant disregard to democracy, transparency, and accountability. We elected them to represent our city residents, not to replace us. We elected them to protect the interests and the rights of all of us, not to use their offices to suppress our voices and opinions. If democracy fails for anyone, it fails for everyone. Mayor and council have attacked their own government as outdated and inadequate to handle a growing city. Nothing could be further from the truth.

By not working for the people, they have hatched a plan to take away our vote and voice, to reduce representation and rights of citizens. Modest and low-income areas and minorities are going to be impacted most adversely by eliminating a council district, by installing a zero-accountability council-city manager government, and by giving unchecked power to an unelected city manager. It will be followed with redistricting, which is another serious problem in the making.

Mayor-Council have said that citizens would benefit from the continuity with a council-city manager. Citizens will not be able to vote the city manager out of office and he or she will be able to continue imposing unpopular choices. City hall will be less responsive to the will of the people. Frequent city manager turnover and less continuity are possible. And changing city manager who is under contract could prove to be very expensive and difficult.

There are troubling conflicts of interests when taxpayer funded appropriations are made year after year to Madison Visionary Partners (a community non-profit), which was founded by the then outgoing mayor in 2012 who is serving his third term through 2025. These appropriations of $170,000 to date and plus another one allegedly in 2024, making it nearly a quarter million taxpayer dollars despite all the promises made by the mayor and council in 2016 and 2020 about transparency, accountability, and ethics.

Madison has a problem of too much outside influence by special interests such as the wealthy, powerful outsiders – the Committee of 100.

City managers are not superheroes for transformation or growth, and they are not accountable to We The People. Are the current mayor and council members not doing their job and making proper decisions for our citizens? If not, why should we trust them to hire a city manager? If they are, why do we need a city manager? Tell them to do their jobs.

Tuesday’s ballot proposal is to change from mayor-council to council-city manager and to also reduce the number of council districts from 7 to 6. Reducing council districts and eliminating the executive branch will most adversely impact the representation of modest and low-income areas and minorities. When my wife and I moved here 23 years ago the city population was around 27,000 and the council districts were 7. Now we are close to 60,000. Vote NO.

Special interest groups say that we are not capable of electing mayors with the skill set and vision. However, the same groups continue to donate and prop up the council members and mayor. Madison Forward PAC campaigned for property tax increase in 2019 and a co-chair then is the current council member now from my district 2. This PAC is spending a money in their campaign of confusion and misinformation to support council-city manager and reduced districts.

The whole process is filled with mistrust and lack of transparency. Our city is in two counties. Did the city officials try to ignore the citizens in Limestone County part? City elected officials treat the residents in the Limestone County part as second-class citizens and Limestone County elected officials treat the county’s Madison portion as a neglected child. We must end the discrimination. If we want both continuity and effective representation, we should increase the number of council districts above 7 and stagger their election. In fact, we should have term limits for mayor and council members – not more than two terms.

Our city has a problematic governance culture, which is condescending, insensitive, insulting, disrespectful, and demeaning to the residents. There is also a toxic culture of voice and opinion suppression, ongoing rejection of any and all questions and or criticisms, and even intimidation. So, city manager-council will make it even worse.

We should protect our democracy, not promote autocracy. I do not intend to run for office ever again in the city. I don’t have any special interest connections with the city. My only interest like many is to stop the city from becoming a dictatorship and oligarchy.

Protect our city. Protect your vote and your voice. Let’s unite with one voice and Vote NO on Tuesday, May 9th.

Hanu Karlapalem was a 2016 mayoral candidate in Madison, Alabama.