Provocative ideas. I like a lot of them. Perhaps you could illucidate on some of them. It puts a lot of power into the hands of councilors. Appointed Mayor as protocol? That really swings the power to a committee of politicos and creates a leadership vacuum that would put the councillors at odds as they jockey for position. Call me old fashioned but I like the balance of powers that our founding fathers created; legislative, executive and judicial. The mayor/council should be in some balance.
And who would spearhead such a movement? Cause it isn't going to happen on its own. Too much change and too much power at stake. The only reason we changed it 20 years ago was because of a potential law suit.
BTW, too simplistic with the Civil War reference. There were lots of issues, cultural, societal, industrial and political. But I get your point. This is a time of similar upheaval.
At the time this came up, FOTD was working weekly with Charlie Norman begging him not to act out of fear of a lawsuit. That lawsuit that scared us would have been negated. So, don't say the devil was in any of these details.
Shadows. #3 ...head of Public Werks and Kier are our sity managers.
#4 ....will never get past the oligarch egos and their dollar commitments...
and good luck with that full time corrupt councilor stuff.....
The rest of your ideas seem good.