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<br /> <br />Ms. Taylor said she also liked City Manager Taylor as a person and respected him. She had sympathy for <br />his having to “work for nine bosses.” She knew City Manager Taylor had a difficult job and worked hard. <br />However, she believed that City Manager Taylor usurped the council’s role as policy makers. She thought <br />that time after time, the City Manager tried to make policy and influence policy by lobbying the council in <br />public session. She also felt he initiated policy at times. There were things the council wanted to do that <br />were forgotten, while the manager’s priorities were completed almost before the council became aware of <br />them. Ms. Taylor said that the manager gave the council lists of what had been done instead of a plan of <br />what could be done. That seemed like justification rather than progress. <br /> <br />Ms. Taylor found the manager to be evasive when asked questions and that he made excuses instead of <br />answering questions. He was very protective of his power, which she thought was perhaps a “disease of city <br />managers” and he used the charter to avoid sharing his power. <br /> <br />Ms. Taylor clarified with City Manager Taylor that he was proposing to let the police auditor hire and fire <br />his or her own staff to the maximum extent possible under the charter. Ms. Taylor was somewhat <br />concerned about that as she would prefer the manager to think about giving away all the power he could <br />rather than worry about the power he could keep under the charter. <br /> <br />Ms. Taylor expressed concern about crowded agendas, and said that items that should have been the subject <br />of work sessions were wrongly included on the Consent Calendar. <br /> <br />Ms. Taylor thought that follow-up on requests for information from the public, council, and neighborhood <br />leaders was lacking. <br /> <br />Mr. Poling complimented City Manager Taylor on the work he had done over the previous year. He thought <br />that the deficiencies brought up the previous year had been addressed but perhaps needed more work. He <br />was impressed with what he perceived to be a better line of communication between the council and staff. <br />He also liked that the manager offered the council multiple options in the Agenda Item Summary prepared <br />for council agendas. <br /> <br />Mr. Poling thought the manager was doing the best he could for the community following what he thought <br />was the council’s direction, which sometimes changed in the middle of a process, leaving the manager to <br />“turn the ship around.” Mr. Poling respected the work that City Manager Taylor did and said that others in <br />the community made the same observation Ms. Taylor had about his nine bosses and “herding cats.” <br /> <br />Mr. Poling expressed appreciation that City Manager Taylor was copying the council on his e-mail <br />correspondence with the media, avoiding “early morning surprises with the morning paper.” He thought <br />City Manager Taylor handled a recent personnel incident in a professional and efficient manner and as far as <br />he was concerned the incident was over. <br /> <br />Mr. Poling hoped the manager would use the comments made during the executive and open sessions in a <br />positive manner that led to improvement in the upcoming year. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />MINUTES—Eugene City Council May 31, 2006 Page 3 <br /> Work Session <br /> <br />