DAPHNE, Ala.—Daphne resident Ernest Berger on Monday suggested the council consider hiring a full-time administrator to handle the daily needs of the city and free up the mayor’s position for other duties.

Berger said his suggestion was prompted by a guest commentary suggesting a part-time mayor for Daphne. The Bulletin last month ran two guest commenatries from former council member Eric Nager, who suggested scaling back the mayor’s duties and paycheck.

“I think you would all agree that there is a time now for a retooling in our city government. We are large, we are complex, we employ well over 200 people … there is an opportunity and an absolute need to consider a full-time, paid city administrator here to run Daphne government on a day-to-day basis,” Berger, a former mayoral candidate from the last municipal election, said.

Berger said he didn’t favor making Daphne’s mayor a ceremonial mayor, but he hoped creating the administrator position would free the mayor up for other duties.

“I would recommend that our mayor’s position is reduced from full-time to part-time. That does not mean that our mayor becomes a ceremonial mayor — quite the contrary. It frees our mayor up to be the strategic visionary that he needs to be to lead this city,” Berger said.

Berger suggested the council begin working toward a referendum in the near future to consider the issue.

Councilman August Palumbo said there was not enough public outcry from constituents to even consider a referendum to add the position to the city.

“I have seen no ground swell, no public outcry, no organized effort besides a letter to the editor. I don’t think it is worthy of our time. There has been absolutely none of that,” Palumbo said. “To even consider holding a referendum is ludicrous.”