Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC Minutes - 05/31/06 Work Session M I N U T E S Eugene City Council Work Session McNutt Room—Eugene City Hall May 31, 2006 Noon COUNCILORS PRESENT: Jennifer Solomon, Andrea Ortiz, Bonny Bettman, David Kelly, Betty Taylor, Gary Papé, George Poling, Chris Pryor. Her Honor Mayor Kitty Piercy called the work session of the Eugene City Council to order. A. EXECUTIVE SESSION The council held an executive session pursuant to Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS) 192.660(2)(i). Following the executive session, Mayor Piercy called the council into open session. B. WORK SESSION: City Manager Performance Evaluation City Manager Dennis Taylor thanked the council for its evaluation, saying the council held a useful and candid discussion during the executive session that touched on relationships and communication and which he thought created interaction that would be useful in addressing the council’s concerns. Looking back over the year, City Manager Taylor noted the value of the council’s priorities in terms of the direction they provided to staff in the work it did and in the budget he submitted to the Budget Committee. He thought the annual council retreat had also been useful. He was generally pleased with the progress of the organization in implementing the council’s priorities while doing the day-to-day work of governing. He was proud of the hard work done by the council and the discipline and focus of tough decisions that placed the organization in good financial position for the time being. Continuing, City Manager Taylor said he continued to be impressed by the commitment and quality of work done by the vast majority of employees, and by the recognition the organization received for the efforts of both individuals and work groups. He cited Public Works Director Kurt Corey’s recognition as one of the top ten public works directors in the United States as an example. He said the organization was committed to being an outstanding organization and there was room to improve. City Manager Taylor emphasized his commitment to meeting the council’s expectations with regard to his performance and to improving his relationship-building and communication efforts. He said he would work to ensure that his recommendations to the council were clear and that he was clear as to the direction he MINUTES—Eugene City Council May 31, 2006 Page 1 Work Session received from the council. He looked forward to improving his individual working relationships with all members of the council and the mayor. Mayor Piercy called on the council for comments and questions. Ms. Solomon said that City Manager Taylor was the consummate City Manager. She perceived his role as two-fold in that he both looked out for the organization and implemented the decisions of the council. She believed that latter task included keeping the council from making bad decisions, and she appreciated the “push back” from the manager when he thought the council was moving in the wrong direction. She also appreciated the monthly meetings she had with the manager, and looked forward to working with him another year. Ms. Ortiz thanked the manager for his time in Eugene as the council’s employee. She said it had been challenging to evaluate the manager on the performance on the entire organization. When the council gave direction to the manager, he gave direction to the organization, and that was where she perceived some difficulty in communication was occurring. She supported the manager and thought he did a good job, but some things were lacking. For example, the prohibition on council interactions with staff was an issue for her as City employees were also the council’s constituents. Ms. Ortiz expressed appreciation for the work City Manager Taylor and challenged him to take more time for himself and to take better care of himself. Mr. Kelly also thanked the manager for his hard work for the City of Eugene. He had no doubt as to the manager’s commitment, enthusiasm, and doggedness. He appreciated those qualities, and that, along with the fact he liked City Manager Taylor as an individual, made it difficult for him to offer criticism. However, this was his third evaluation of the manager and he continued to be frustrated that some fundamental things had not changed with regard to the relationship between the manager and council. Mr. Kelly said the council-manager of government “was fine” with him. For it to work, however, the council and manager must feel like a team. He did not feel like he was part of a team most of the time that City Manager Taylor had been in Eugene. He liked the concept of policy governance but its success depended on having the council’s policy direction followed, and on feedback that indicated the policy was implemented as directed or staff had encountered a roadblock in its implementation. Too often, the feedback loop was lacking. Mr. Kelly believed that City Manager Taylor did a great job on internal organizational operations. However, that was overshadowed by his dissatisfaction with the breakdowns in implementing council policy and the poor relationships between the staff and some members of the council. Mr. Kelly was pleased to hear that City Manager Taylor planned to revise his policy regarding communica- tion between the council and staff. Mr. Kelly referred to remarks made by the mayor in the executive session with regard to “proactivity” and said he felt that was most wanting in the areas of planning and development, particularly in community development. He thought the City should be more proactive, and not merely wait for the “latest proposal to come in the transom.” MINUTES—Eugene City Council May 31, 2006 Page 2 Work Session Ms. Taylor said she also liked City Manager Taylor as a person and respected him. She had sympathy for his having to “work for nine bosses.” She knew City Manager Taylor had a difficult job and worked hard. However, she believed that City Manager Taylor usurped the council’s role as policy makers. She thought that time after time, the City Manager tried to make policy and influence policy by lobbying the council in public session. She also felt he initiated policy at times. There were things the council wanted to do that were forgotten, while the manager’s priorities were completed almost before the council became aware of them. Ms. Taylor said that the manager gave the council lists of what had been done instead of a plan of what could be done. That seemed like justification rather than progress. Ms. Taylor found the manager to be evasive when asked questions and that he made excuses instead of answering questions. He was very protective of his power, which she thought was perhaps a “disease of city managers” and he used the charter to avoid sharing his power. Ms. Taylor clarified with City Manager Taylor that he was proposing to let the police auditor hire and fire his or her own staff to the maximum extent possible under the charter. Ms. Taylor was somewhat concerned about that as she would prefer the manager to think about giving away all the power he could rather than worry about the power he could keep under the charter. Ms. Taylor expressed concern about crowded agendas, and said that items that should have been the subject of work sessions were wrongly included on the Consent Calendar. Ms. Taylor thought that follow-up on requests for information from the public, council, and neighborhood leaders was lacking. Mr. Poling complimented City Manager Taylor on the work he had done over the previous year. He thought that the deficiencies brought up the previous year had been addressed but perhaps needed more work. He was impressed with what he perceived to be a better line of communication between the council and staff. He also liked that the manager offered the council multiple options in the Agenda Item Summary prepared for council agendas. Mr. Poling thought the manager was doing the best he could for the community following what he thought was the council’s direction, which sometimes changed in the middle of a process, leaving the manager to “turn the ship around.” Mr. Poling respected the work that City Manager Taylor did and said that others in the community made the same observation Ms. Taylor had about his nine bosses and “herding cats.” Mr. Poling expressed appreciation that City Manager Taylor was copying the council on his e-mail correspondence with the media, avoiding “early morning surprises with the morning paper.” He thought City Manager Taylor handled a recent personnel incident in a professional and efficient manner and as far as he was concerned the incident was over. Mr. Poling hoped the manager would use the comments made during the executive and open sessions in a positive manner that led to improvement in the upcoming year. MINUTES—Eugene City Council May 31, 2006 Page 3 Work Session Mr. Papé also thanked the manager and acknowledged his dedication to public service and the community. He said the manager worked hard and the council was aware of that. He expressed appreciation for the respect the manager earned inside the organization, and his organizational and management skills. With regard to council-staff relations, Mr. Papé did not think that in general, those relations were poor; he thought rather that some councilor-staff relations needed improvement. Mr. Papé agreed with Ms. Taylor’s remarks on agenda setting and raised the issue of his request for a work session on the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards, which had yet to be held. Mr. Papé suggested that the City Manager Taylor think of each of the councilors in the same way he considered the Assistant City Manager, maintaining there should be that kind of “candid” communication occurring “all the time” within the bounds of the charter. At times, he felt that when the manager did not agree with him on an issue, “maybe some information is withheld” or the manager became defensive. He thought the information should come out, regardless of how the manager thought the council would react. Mr. Pryor thanked the manager for the job he had done. He thought the manager had done a good job in the majority of the performance categories and, by association, City employees had also done well, as both were dependent on the other’s success. Mr. Pryor said many of the council’s comments focused on communication between the manager and the council, both as individuals and as a body. He pledged to help work on making communication as smooth as possible as it related to sharing information, answering questions, and fielding requests. Mr. Pryor asked if increased trust created greater communication, or greater communication created increased trust. He suggested that for practical purposes, if the council and manager began to work on more effective and productive conversations, it would lead to greater trust between the manager and the council as a working team, which was a concept he liked. He said that good communication would help to create the trust to make that team work more effectively. Ms. Bettman said she admired the manager’s energy and the commitment he brought to the job. She appreciated the many City employees who worked so hard for the community. Ms. Bettman noted that, if the mayor’s ratings were eliminated from the total, the manager received an average rating of 2.99 on a scale of 1-5. She thought that reflected philosophical divisions on the council, and the fact the manager aligned himself with “certain divisions and not others.” She thought it was worrisome that the manager did not have a better rating. Ms. Bettman said she had participated in five previous manager evaluations and had never been in the position where she had to be so critical of a manager’s performance. She asserted that her criticisms were very specific and that she had backed up each one of her ratings with at least one example. She added there were “many, many examples.” Ms. Bettman noted the evaluations the council received from the organization included only eight employees outside management. She considered that an “anemic” response rate given the number of employees. She thanked the employees who provided evaluations and asked the manager to address criticisms about the MINUTES—Eugene City Council May 31, 2006 Page 4 Work Session executive team not acting as a democracy, his lack of visibility in the organization, and assertions the organization was “polarized” and communication had lessened over the past few years. Mayor Piercy thanked the manager and staff for their work. She said that it seemed like every week, the City or its staff was recognized for excellence in performance, and she appreciated that. She commended the manager for the City’s current state of financial well-being. She commended the manager and Police Chief Bob Lehner for their investigation into the Eugene Police Department and pursuit of recommended improvements, and for their support of the independence of the Police Auditor and Civilian Review Board. Mayor Piercy recognized the work that was being done to move the council’s goals forward, and looked forward to working with consultants and community members on making Eugene a great city for the arts and outdoors. Mayor Piercy said it was a real coup for Eugene to be name the site of the 2007 Olympic Trials and staff deserved credit for its participation in that effort. Mayor Piercy said she was pleased with the community outreach occurring in conjunction with a discussion of a new city hall. Mayor Piercy thanked the manager for his work with the City’s interjurisdictional partners in finding a collaborative way to resolve west Eugene traffic issues and protect wetlands. Mayor Piercy said in spite of recent disappointments in downtown, interest in the area remained strong and possibilities were good. She said that Eugene needed to ensure that downtown was safe and pleasant in the meantime. She looked forward to continued discussion of a permanent Farmers Market. Mayor Piercy commended staff for its continuing commitment to the council’s race and homelessness priorities, and for working to ensure Eugene was a welcoming community. She expressed appreciation that the manager was participating in one of the City Club’s study groups on race, and that he was willing to meet with those on both sides of an issue. Mayor Piercy expressed appreciation for the hiring of Susan Muir as Planning and Development Director. Ms. Muir was very pleasant to work with and open to new and improved levels of public engagement. Mayor Piercy also was happy to see that that manager took the council’s focus on neighborhood organiza- tions as a key means of effective communication. Mayor Piercy said that roads remained a major issue and she looked forward to working with the manager on that. Mayor Piercy expressed appreciation to the staff for its commitment to the council’s sustainability goals, and said it was time for Eugene to do more in conjunction with its intergovernmental partners. She said that Eugene needed to “move up to a whole new level of commitment” as it faced climate change and fuel shortages. Mayor Piercy called on the council for a second round of comments. MINUTES—Eugene City Council May 31, 2006 Page 5 Work Session Referring to statements that the manager had “nine bosses,” Ms. Bettman said the manager had one boss, the council. As far as she knew, there was no manager response to a single councilor’s request. Referring to Mr. Kelly’s remarks about policy governance, Ms. Bettman shared an anecdote about a long- time married couple where big decisions were made by the husband and small decisions were made by the wife; after many years, there had not been a big decision yet. Ms. Bettman said in terms of carrying out council policy, if the policy reflected the organization’s priority, it was carried out. If it did not, the policy was obstructed, was subjected to interpretation, or was not carried out. She said examples could be found in her evaluation. Ms. Bettman highlighted the issue of what she maintained were “legal contradictions.” The City had legal counsel who worked for the City Manager, not the council. The council had no way to respond to legal advice with which it disagreed unless it hired its own attorney. There had been several “glaring” inconsis- tencies in the information provided by legal counsel. City Manager Taylor thanked the council for its candid feedback in the executive and open session and said he looked forward to making progress in the areas identified. The meeting adjourned at 1:30 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Dennis M. Taylor City Manager (Recorded by Kimberly Young) MINUTES—Eugene City Council May 31, 2006 Page 6 Work Session