A petition to place a measure on the November ballot calling for the city of Kirkland to switch from a council and city manager form of government to a strong mayor system has started.

Former Kirkland City Council member Bob Sternoff has started the petition in conjunction with a grassroots organization called “Kirkland Strong” to collect the 2,100 signatures needed to get the measure on the ballot.

Moving to a strong mayor form of government would increase accountability, Sternoff said, with an elected city executive who could be directly elected and recalled by voters.

“There’s a sense today that there’s no accountability, in other words, there’s nobody, one person, that a citizen can go to,” he said.

Currently, the city has a council and manager system, consisting of a seven member council that elects a “weak” mayor who serves as the ceremonial head of council meetings, but has little hard power above that of other council members.

The council in turn selects and hires a city manager to run the daily operations of city staff. The manager is not elected and is adherent to the council’s direction.

Kirkland Mayor Amy Walen likened the system to a business where a Board of Directors hires a CEO to run the business.

This year marks the 50th year since the city switched to a council and manager system, and Walen said it has worked well for the city.

“We have over those 50 years built an incredibly successful and prosperous city, so what we’re doing is working,” she said.

Citing explosive economic growth and high demand for retail and residential space, Walen said the current form of city governance allows for more collaboration and less competition.

Council member Toby Nixon said a council and manager form sidesteps much of the politicking and gridlock that frequently plagues state and federal government when the executive branches come into conflict with the legislature.

“You can think about how the Congress and the President work together,” he said. “It can be hard to get things done.”

Much of the responsibility a city manager takes on is non-political, Nixon said, such as running police and fire departments, maintaining parks and sewer systems and other administrative functions.

Despite being frequently out-voted by a majority of the council on issues, the best way for voters to address the issues is to change the council during elections, not the form of government, Nixon said.

“I generally prefer the council/manager form of government that we have now, primarily because it’s a lot easier for the council to replace a city manager that isn’t doing a very good job then it is to replace a mayor who isn’t doing a very good job,” he said.

But Sternoff said many residents may not feel the same, citing grassroots groups that have sprung up over issues related to proposed transit on the Cross Kirkland Corridor, the Potala Village development and opposition to fees on paper bags.

Creating a strong-mayor system would allow citizens to more directly influence the administration of city policy, Sternoff said.

“People just keep talking about the lack of accountability and a lot of these groups that are very well organized didn’t even think that maybe there was a way to go address what they feel is an inadequacy of the system,” Sternoff said.

Redmond and Issaquah have strong-mayor forms of government which Sternoff said has worked well for them. The neighboring cities of Bellevue, Bothell and Kenmore operate under council and manager systems.

Under a strong-mayor system, the mayor must be a resident of the city in which they are being elected. Both Nixon and Walen worry this could limit the talent pool for prospective administrators.

Walen said many top administrators are already employed in the private sector and may not be looking to move to public service where they would be managing some 550 city employees.

For now, Sternoff said he is just trying to stir up interest

“I really hope that people will discuss this, first understand how our government works and secondly to consider the options,” he said.

Nixon said he hopes people will think about the petition as well, but for opposing reasons.

“I’m not sure what the proponents of the petition hope to accomplish,” Nixon said.

According to the Municipal Research and Services Center, a nonprofit organization that works with local governments to provide legal and policy guidance, of the 281 cities statewide as of 2010, 227 of them had strong mayor governance, 53 had a council and manager form and one had a commission board form.

Despite the numerical disparity, 42 percent of all residents living in incorporated cities lived in a council/manager governed city as of 2010.

According to MRSC, this is because for many smaller cities, the mayor/council form may be more attractive due to limited budgets, but is still popular with some larger cities such as Seattle.

But Nixon said switching to a strong mayor system likely wouldn’t save the city significant amounts of money since salaries for a strong mayor are often comparable to a city manager.

The “Kirkland Strong” group will be holding a petition signing event from noon to 2 p.m. at City Hall on Saturday. Sternoff has started a Facebook page dedicated to the petition.