For people upset about the city manager ignoring the council, you& #39;re *really* not going to like how much an elected mayor ignores them. #CambMA

The "responsiveness problem," whereby the executive ignores the legislature& #39;s wishes, is emphatically not a Plan E problem. It& #39;s a separation of powers problem. The manager has charter prerogatives, as does the council. If the manager were a mayor, the conflict would persist.

City Managers are, from a political science perspective, more modern and more progressive than strong mayor systems. City Manager systems were invented to solve problems inherent in mayoral systems. I& #39;m not sure we need to scrap Plan E.

But we can reform it...

A patch for the "responsiveness problem" might be a legislative override to executive decisions or a legislative mandate system, whereby a supermajority council vote could require certain actions of the manager. The problem and the solution would need to be carefully studied...

...but it& #39;s not necessary to throw the whole system out to solve what boils down to a checks and balances problem.