05-28-1996 CC - Laserfiche WebLink

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May 23, 1996 To: Honorable Mayor and City Council From: Chuck Whiting, Clerk Administrator Re: May 28, 1996 City Council Meeting As I get settled into my position here with the City, I would like to run a few considerations past the City Council regarding routine work processes. Council members will note that this Council packet will contain my recommendations on business actions brought to the Council by department heads. My purpose is twofold. First, this places staff in a position of accountability in terms of taking a stance on an issue not only to me (you will note their recommendations will be directed to me), but also allow staff collectively to discuss and debate issues amongst themselves prior to going to Council. I anticipate this will strengthen recommendations to Council and provide more thorough reasoning for proposals. I am very comfortable with the staff's abilities to do this and I expect this approach will develop over the next few months as we work on this. Second, this also places my position where it should be, between Council and staff relations. The Council has expressed its concern in the past about its relationships with staff and perhaps this will ease some of those concerns. Therefore what you see in my memo here is my comments to the Council regarding the enclosed staff reports and additional considerations and recommended actions for the Council. The next thing I would like to work towards with the Council is to move from what appears to me to be personality based decision making to issue based decision making. Staff certainly must proceed on the latter and I would ask the Council to recognize this as the year develops. This does not mean that I don't expect disagreements or posturing,those are to be expected. I feel that staff at least must proceed this in this manner and I would like the Council to know this will be my approach with issues. This also leads to questions about how best to get information out to the community and demonstrate to the community that reasoned actions are being taken by the City. Currently the Council does show its regular meetings on cable and these meetings so far have for the most part shown the dialogue and thought processes of the Council and staff on some issues. Being shown to be working on an issue and reasoning it out even with disagreements I think puts the Council in a good light. While it has been the practice not to cable cast work sessions, I think the Council may be missing a good opportunity to depict its work style and simply be seen working on issues. Also, it will help communicate the complexity of some issues to the community and would likely solicit public input. I realize each Council member receives their various input from members of the community, but it would certainly be helpful to me and I think staff to have a better feel of the wants and concerns of the community. Without it, it is very easy to begin working as if in a vacuum away from community concerns. I simply give this to the Council as something to consider. I would also like to pass along a couple of other matters for your consideration. In reviewing the upcoming budget development, I would like to know the Council's concerns about the so called "big picture", specifically where does the Council want the City to be going in a fiscal sense. My approach to the budget will be along these lines since I doubt I will be able to fully comprehend the detail side of the budget and all its long standing history. In particular, I would like to know which source of