The Responsibility of City Government….

In Ridgecrest, our government is the Council-manager type of government…more specifically:

Under the council-manager form of government, the elected governing body (e.g., city council, city commission, board of selectmen, or other body of at least three individuals) is responsible for establishing policy, passing local ordinances, voting appropriations, and developing an overall vision for a city, town, or county. Under such a government, the mayor (or equivalent executive) performs primarily ceremonial duties, and is often drawn from and the presiding officer of the governing body.

The elected officials then appoint a professional city manager or administrator to oversee the daily operations of the government and implement the policies they establish. This individual serves the governing body, often with an employment agreement or contract that specifies his or her duties and responsibilities. Ideally, the manager is apolitical.

The council-manager system can be seen to place all power into the hands of the legislative branch. However, a city manager can be seen as a similar role to that of corporate chief executive officer (CEO) in providing professional management to an organization. Council-manager government is much like a publicly-traded corporation. In a corporation, the board of directors appoints a CEO, makes major decisions and wields representative power on behalf of shareholders. In council-manager government, the city council appoints a city manager, makes major decisions, and wields representative power on behalf of the citizens.

This system of government is used in 48.9% of American cities with populations of 2,500 or more, according to the International City/County Management Association (ICMA), a professional organization for city managers.

So when situations (missteps as Steven said about my previous post) happen….who gets the blame? Now blame is probably the wrong word, it reeks. Blame is a bad word, much like calling MISTAKES missteps. So, let’s look at it LIKE it’s a company. Who gets called to the carpet? How do you fix the problem.  How do assure the public that these type mistakes don’t happen again. In our city, most of the time it becomes a “personnel” issue and gets settled in closed session. Regardless of what you call it…to continue to watch it happen, time after time and see it downplayed or covered up, or worse…ignored…it becomes alarming.

I know nobody is perfect. I know mistakes happen. But this seems to be a constant lack of diligence. How did we do a contract with a trash company that’s evergreen. A ten year out? Seriously? We don’t go out for bids on mandatory recycling? We don’t put controls in to make rates competitive? We allow something to come to the planning commission that shouldn’t have then settle the thing with NO public disclosure? We draw out negotiations with Wal Mart (yes I know the ball has been in their court for sometime now but still) and the list goes on and on. As I said earlier, I consider a lot of these people friends, but how can anybody have a job with no accountability? Where are the staff meetings to keep people on the same page. Are they happening? Elected officials, who have full-time jobs put faith in that system and then are dismayed when it doesn’t work?

Who steps up to put this house in order. That is the question.