For more than a decade, the City of Clay, Alabama has operated under what local officials refer to as a “mayor and city manager” model. But new legal concerns suggest that Clay may have sidestepped state law by creating the powerful city manager position without a public vote.

In 2012, the Clay City Council voted to consolidate the duties of city clerk and treasurer into a newly created “city manager” role, and hired Ronnie Dixon, which shifted day-to-day oversight of city operations to an unelected official. 

According to a 2025 legal bulletin, that decision would be unlawful unless the city formally changes its form of government through a referendum.

Dixon is listed as Clay’s “City Manager” on its official website.

Legal experts argue under current Alabama law, a municipality like Clay – which uses a mayor-council form of government – cannot simply install a city manager and transfer executive powers from the elected mayor without voter approval.

“This issue has been squarely addressed by the Alabama Supreme Court,” the bulletin states, citing a December 2024 ruling that struck down a similar maneuver in Tarrant, where the city council attempted to create a city manager position and transfer authority away from the elected mayor. The court ruled that a council cannot “strip the mayor of all or virtually all of his rights, duties, responsibilities, and powers” by ordinance alone.

To legally adopt a council-manager form of government, Alabama law requires a public vote under Title 11, Chapter 43 of the state code. 

Clay, which remains under a mayor-council structure, has held no such vote.

During a recent mayoral candidate forum in July, Mayor Charles Webster repeatedly invoked Dixon’s name, 21 times in total, as the point person for overseeing city operations.

In a final question near the end of the forum, candidates were asked directly about the “mayor and city manager situation.” 

Webster defended the current arrangement and endorsed Dixon’s wide-ranging responsibilities. He suggested that “if you had a nameplate and a plaque for everything that he does and put it on his door, it would reach from the top of the door to the bottom.”

Dixon, who was originally hired to fill the outgoing city clerk’s position in 2012, told AL.com a year later that Webster had considered changing the city’s form of government and asked for recommendations for a city manager. 

“He was thinking about changing the form of government,” Dixon said in the 2013 interview. However, no formal transition ever occurred.

In practice, Dixon functions as the top executive for the city, overseeing departments, negotiating contracts, and playing a deciding role in situations like the takeover of the Clay Public Library Board. 

With municipal elections approaching next month, whether the issue gains traction in the 2025 local election cycle remains to be seen.

However, by our analysis, the city’s current setup may be vulnerable to public or judicial review.