12/06/1989 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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e developing a process to assure that the public is aware of council policy. He said that potentially controversial issues require reiteration of that policy. Mr. Bennett encouraged staff to strive to keep all councilors up-to-date on administrative implementation of policy. Referring to Mr. Bennett's comments about improving intergovernmental relationships, Ms. Ehrman said she thought that relationships with Lane County and EWEB had improved and the most improvement is needed in the City's relationship with Springfield. Mr. Bennett concurred. Ms. Schue pointed out that the City is working more productively with the Oregon Department of Transportation than it did in the past. Mayor Miller summarized councilors' direction as being to strive to work with chief administrators and policy-making bodies of other public agencies to find ways of strengthening relationships. Mr. Boles said that formal evaluation of the manager should occur on an annual basis. He emphasized that to achieve excellence, detail is important. For example, he said spelling errors on flip charts at public meetings detract from the City's overall excellence. As a monopoly, it is imperative that the organization have quality control mechanisms in place that will remain high across time. To guarantee long-term employment to competent persons (and to not expand staff), high-quality training and retraining and high standards are imperative. e Specifically, Mr. Boles said it would be helpful if there were assurance that all council goals were processed in a timely fashion, regardless of their relative priority. In the past year, he felt that public input and alternative citizen involvement mechanisms were put aside until the end of the year. Regarding budget changes, Mr. Boles said those items that would obviously meet with large-scale public resistance should be recognized (e.g., neighborhood associations, pools, parks, and recreation) and should not continue to be suggested as potential areas for budget cuts. Next, Mr. Boles suggested that reorgan;zational changes, particularly those involving managerial span of control, should be timed so that their consequences can be processed inside a coherent budget picture. Mr. Boles continued by asking for a common information base for all councilors. He suggested that written documentation addressing all points to be covered accompany the manager's discussions with individual councilors and that all councilors be privy to that documentation. Mr. Boles further requested assurance that those aspects of a work plan that ;s being implemented that might affect a particular ward will be brought to the attention of the appropriate councilor and the affected citizens before being put into place (e.g., the Chambers underpass). By involving the public initially, a higher-quality solution is possible. By relying on staff perceptions or expertise for solutions without checking with the community in e MINUTES--Eugene City Council December 6, 1989 Page 7 -~- ---