The Managing Director may be removed by the Mayor. If the Mayor removes the Managing Director, he shall specify in writing and in detail his reasons for doing so and shall cause this specification to be served upon the Managing Director. The Managing Director may, within ten days after receipt of such specification, file with the Civil Service Commission a request for a public hearing before it, and thereupon the Civil Service Commission shall promptly afford him such a hearing. If the Civil Service Commission finds the Mayor's charges well founded and a sufficient cause for dismissal, that shall be the end of the matter, but if the Commission shall find that the charges were not well founded or that they do not constitute a sufficient cause for dismissal, the Commission may award to the Managing Director his salary for the balance of his term or such part thereof as it deems appropriate, and the Council shall promptly make an appropriation out of which the award can be paid.

ANNOTATION

Sources: No specific source.

Purposes: The office of Managing Director is one of the most important new offices created by this Charter. See Article V, Chapter 1. The nature of the duties to be performed by this officer are such as to make desirable his having some measure of independence and freedom from unwarranted pressures from the Mayor himself. Yet so fundamental is the necessity for maintaining in the Mayor the power to remove that such power must be preserved even as to this office. See Annotation to Section 9-200. One more consideration enters: it is that of being able to attract to the office of Managing Director an individual of experience and ability. This section seeks to balance these conflicting considerations. The power of the Mayor to discharge is preserved but he does so at the risk of the Civil Service Commission finding his action unfounded and without sufficient cause, a factor that might well be grounds for a recall proceeding. Nevertheless, to assure administrative harmony the dismissal stands but the Managing Director may be awarded all or part of his salary for the balance of his term. The latter is intended to afford a measure of security, financially, to an experienced and able governmental or business official requested to assume the office of Managing Director and to leave his then position and employment. If the Civil Service Commission finds the Mayor's action well founded and sufficient cause for dismissal, no reason exists for awarding any salary for the balance of the term or any part of it. See generally Annotation to Section 3-403.