Joshua Paladino and his family. Courtesy | Facebook
Joshua Paladino, a Hillsdale grad, said the office’s limited authority is not worth the drama
Acting Mayor Joshua Paladino will not run for mayor in August.
The city council voted the Hillsdale alumnus into the temporary position, officially called “mayor pro tem,” when former mayor Adam Stockford ’15 stepped down in December. Stockford said he resigned to move his family to a dream house outside the city limits. Paladino also cited a commitment to family while saying the office is not desirable.
“I love the city. I love the work,” Paladino told The Collegian this week. “It’s literally just that the drama is not worth the authority that comes with the office.”
The council voted Jan. 20 to hold a special election this August to fill the mayor’s seat, but if more than a couple of candidates run, the city will hold a November runoff with two contenders. After the special elections, the new mayor will have to run again in the regularly scheduled primary and general elections in August and November of 2026.
“I don’t have time to run in possibly two elections,” Paladino said.
Paladino — who earned bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate degrees from Hillsdale College — was elected to the city council in 2022. Just before Stockford stepped down, Paladino defeated Ward 2 Councilman Will Morrisey in a 5-4 council vote to become mayor pro tem. Morrisey, a former politics professor at the college, held the second-in-command position for six years until Paladino replaced him.
Paladino began his term as acting mayor with plans to allocate more funding to road repairs, remove fluoride from the water, and wean the airport off city funding, according to his December interview with The Collegian. But his plans faced opposition from other council members and some city staff. Two city officials — Airport Manager Ginger Moore and City Engineer Kristin Bauer — resigned in the past month, both citing a negative culture in city politics.
After the resignations, Ward 1 Councilman Greg Stuchell told Paladino at the April 8 city council meeting to resign.
“I am just sick of the fact that we lost two excellent managers, and both of their reasons were the same. I’m going to end this with you mayor pro tem,” Stutchell said at the meeting, referring to Paladino. “I’m going to ask you to consider resigning your pro tem position.”
Paladino said his power in the mayoral seat was more constrained than the public believes.
“The mayor’s office receives more attention than is warranted,” Paladino said in an interview this week. “The mayor is a council member with limited appointment powers. All of the appointments have to go through the council. He has no executive authority in his own right that he can exercise without the consent of the council. So it’s not an office that particularly interests me.”
This lack of power combined with criticism from the public makes the office undesirable, Paladino said.
“It would be one thing to take heat and criticism if you had a lot of authority,” Paladino said. “All of the city staff is responsible to the city manager under our charter and our ordinances. He has sole control over all of their duties, all of their functions, day to day. Council can set parameters.”
Paladino most recently faced criticism on social media for an Officer Compensation Board’s recommendation to increase salaries for the mayor and city council. But Paladino opposes the measure, which the council will vote on April 21.
“I don’t know that any amount of money would be worth it for the drama,” Paladino said. “I don’t know how Stockford did it for so long.”
Stockford, the former mayor, held the office for seven years. Reflecting on his time as mayor, Stockford also said the mayor’s office is seen as more powerful than it is in reality.
“The hardest part of being mayor was that you don’t have as much authority as what the general public believes you might have, but you get held accountable for all the decisions that are made,” Stockford said in a March interview.
But Stockford also said in a comment to The Collegian this week that the mayor has a “bully pulpit,” which can allow the mayor to set the agenda.
“It’s more about steering the ship than being the navigator,” he said. “You can chart a course, but you need everyone else rowing in the same direction. That takes the trust and support of your peers. Most of the time I was Mayor, I had that.”
Stockford also said sweeping reform is difficult to accomplish quickly at the local level.
“When you start talking about major policy changes, it not only threatens the status quo, it can threaten people’s livelihoods if the policies can result in budget cuts or positions being eliminated,” Stockford said. “You better believe people will get up in arms when you start talking about taking food out of their mouths. That’s human nature.”
As mayor, Stockford said, one is expected to be responsible for city council decisions, whether or not he opposes them.
“You answer for all of it by honor of the title, but it’s what you sign up for,” Stockford said. “I was very clear about this with all of council when I talked to the mayor pro tem candidates the night we voted for mayor pro tem.”
At least two candidates have announced they will run in August: Ward 2 Councilman Matt Bentley and Scott Sessions, who was mayor of Hillsdale from 2013-2017.
“I would like the people to look for a mayor who wants to take the time to know the laws, the city charter, the ordinances — who wants to understand the city’s policies,” Paladino said.
The city should reform the mayor’s powers to give him more authority, making the position worth the hassle, according to Paladino. The mayor, he said, needs more control over the city’s administration, budget, and hiring.
“The highest executive office in the city should have some sort of real independent authority attached to it,” Paladino said.
When the city elects a new mayor, Paladino will keep his seat as a Ward 4 Councilman.
“I don’t need this,” Paladino said of the mayor’s seat. “I have a family. I have a full-time job.”
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