With the holiday, on Tuesday Council meets for a special session with one topic, recruiting and hiring a new City Manager.
 |
| Tuesday, LA Times front page |
 |
| Tuesday, SJ interior |
 |
| Thursday, front page |
The job description mentions climate but once.
 |
| Shouldn't we center climate more? |
Though the Mayor has not supported the Climate Action Plan with any real enthusiasm, the City Manager's role in selecting the consultant and setting up the process and framework should not be underestimated.
 |
| "Salem...is mostly unaware of the overall progress" |
One reason the current plan is underwhelming is because the City Manager set it up that way. You may recall the initial framing sought to look at actions only by the "municipal corporation" and saw a messaging problem rather than a need to reduce emissions citywide. (Notes from early 2020 here and here.)
We should want our next City Manager to have an actual interest in real climate action, and not just do the minimum or go through the motions with Potemkin gestures.
Even if the Manager does not set policy, they will execute it, and they will be able to do so with enthusiasm and effort, or with indifference and carelessness, even discouragement. As we saw with the update on the Geer Park Master Plan, stronger interest and direction from the City Manager would have likely resulted in better coordination and deeper integration with climate needs.
3 comments:
It seems that, sometimes, the City Manager has become a de facto policy maker by acting as a proxy for others or advancing positions that are, or should be, under review by the full Council, in contradiction to the dictates of the Charter, which states: "Except as this charter prescribes otherwise and as the Oregon Constitution reserves municipal legislative power to the voters of the city, all powers of the city are vested in the council".
The CM acts as an administrator who oversees staff and plays a role in determining what should come before Council, amongst other duties. The CM's role should be to assist Council, not manipulate it. The CM should exhibit objectivity and independence.
It is generally best for both sides of a discussion to be well represented because it tends to make the process easier to navigate and those who may disagree with final decisions can at least know that their positions had been presented.
Bob Wells, who served with and was educated by prior CM's Larry Wacker and Bob Moore, understood the value and challenges inherent in the position when he stated that; "... managing the politics is the most difficult part of the job."
He went on to say that: "I sat in the office next to (Larry Wacker) and I remember some of the elected officials would literally start screaming at him to try and influence his staff recommendations because they carried a lot of weight. The angrier they got, the quieter Larry got, which of course only made them angrier. But he never backed down and he never succumbed to political pressure."
(Edit: Messed up the Holiday, so revised the date reference to Tuesday instead of Monday.)
No one was better than Larry Wacker, except Bob Moore, in my opinion. Although, Bob Wells was right up there in skills.
That said, of the 7 city managers that I had the opportunity to watch and at times work with, Steve Powers by far had the most difficult of issues to deal with from contaminated water, to riots, to ice storms he has had a very hard set of trials to overcome. And for the most part, he managed them better than most.
Post a Comment