When the City announced the January meeting changes last Tuesday, I emailed the Mayor, Council, and City Manager. I also spoke with City Manager Paul Radford and Council Member Mason Roszel in person to ask what would be included on the agendas. It seemed like a very straightforward question that should have been easy to answer.
Now that the January City Council Meetings are complete, we know what they were planning to discuss. They were selecting a new Mayor Pro Tempore, setting the qualifying fees for this fall's election, AND having an Executive Session to conduct annual reviews of the City Manager and City Clerk and give them pay raises for the year. By the way, both got 5% increases, which Council Member Marc Cohen said they gave to all their employees across the board.
So, it turns out, I was correct that my question about the agenda would have been easy to answer. The topics were few in number. They were clear-cut. They were probably something that at least some of the people knew about in advance. So why could (or would) no one answer?
When I spoke with Paul Radford the Tuesday before the meetings, he told me they were still trying to decide what would be on the agenda. Since we now know only two (or three) items were on the agenda, I don't know what was so hard to figure out. He did tell me the agenda topics were only administrative, revealing that he knew exactly what they were. So, why didn't he just answer the question? (And is this really the kind of behavior that deserves a 5% raise?)
Mason Roszel heard me talking to Radford, and deferred to Radford on the question of what would be on the agenda. I later received an email response from Jenn Thatcher, who also declined to tell me what was on the agenda. I asked Roszel and Thatcher point blank why they couldn't just push items to February, and neither had an answer. I know that both told me they do not usually receive an agenda until the Friday before a City Council meeting.
Does that mean everything that happens at every monthly meeting is a complete surprise to the Mayor and Council up until two business days before the meeting? If so, is this a matter of the staff, led by City Manager Paul Radford, keeping the elected officials in the dark? Or, is it a matter of the elected officials not staying on top of things? Or, does everyone know, but work together to make sure the public doesn't?
At recent meetings, Mayor Brandon Hembree and Council Member Marc Cohen indicated that people can come to them and ask for more information. In this case, both completely failed to respond to a written request for information, leaving the question to the City Manager and two of the newest council members, who failed to provide answers.
The Mayor, Council, and City Manager bristle at the idea that someone could doubt them. But when you refuse to answer questions posed to you directly, and talk in circles to avoid something simple, you EARN the public's doubt.
At the very least, the City thoroughly bungled what should have been something very straightforward. If you want to cancel a meeting for a sports event (what Radford said they did), do so as soon as possible. The date of the National Championship has been known by EVERYONE for a while now. Better yet, just reschedule the meeting for the NEXT DAY. The City does that ALL THE TIME. If you can't recover from your sports-related celebration or disappointment well enough to drag yourself into a meeting the next evening, that's sad, and that's on you. Even so, you still have the option to hold your Special Called Meeting sometime after the cancelled meeting. You should NEVER announce a Special Called meeting at the last meeting to discuss topics a week early, withhold the agenda, and refuse to answer questions about the meeting topics.
Is it really that complicated? I don't think so. Certainly not as complicated as a $55 million budget, a $40 million debt, a gas department, planning decisions that affect property values, transportation, or any of the other things we let them handle.
All this has left me wondering...who exactly steers the ship out there...and why they don't steer better?