Bill Wallace: Micromanagement
Sunday, May 20, 2007
I attended the Steamboat Springs City Council meeting last Tuesday and really learned a lot. No kidding! I arrived at about 5:45 p.m. to show my support for our Green Team's recommendation to the city to create a staff position. As it turned out, our agenda item didn't come up until well after 8 p.m.
In the interim, I ended up sitting through what seemed to be an interminable presentation about predicting Triple Crown economics. What I learned didn't have much to do with softball or baseball. My take was that the City Council has taken micromanagement to a whole new level.
For those who weren't at the Council meeting, here's how the economics discussion went (well, sort of):
Consultant on the Triple Crown economic model: "So, as you can clearly see on slide 147, if you take the square root of the average length of softball bats and:"
City Council: Zzzzzzz
Total elapsed time: More than an hour.
In contrast, here's how it might have gone had the Council stepped up to the plate (pun intended) and resisted its apparent overwhelming urge to micromanage.
City staff person: "Per City Council's request and with the help of an experienced consultant, we developed an economic model that will allow us to calculate the cost and economic benefits of holding Triple Crown softball tournaments in Steamboat Springs and around the region. The model enables us to look at many different scenarios and will be a very useful tool when it comes time to make decisions. We've tested the model and find it to be sufficiently accurate to meet your needs as well as ours."
City Council: "Great! Next item."
Total elapsed time: Thirty seconds.
My guess is that most if not all City Council members must dread the prospect of the Tuesday meetings, knowing that they will have yet another long, unproductive and mind-numbing experience. The Council owes it to the citizens of Steamboat Springs and to itself to raise the level of governance - exercise more discretion over what it needs to hear and rely more on the competence and judgment of City staff.
Bill Wallace
Steamboat Springs
Comments
Gadfly 6 years ago
Hear, hear, Mr. Wallace! This ineffective bunch has decided that the little stuff is easier to understand, so it has inserted itself where it is already paying staff to do that work. The big stuff -- policy issues -- is too hard for them to understand, so they just "table" and "reconsider" instead of doing the people's business. But there's hope: this November, we get to tell five of them that their services are no longer required.
elphaba 6 years ago
Mr. Wallace you are right. The members of this Council are totally inexperienced in business or management so to them the mind numbing details are what is the work. They cannot grasp the concept of policy and philosophy or understand delegation to a paid staff. Gadfly is right This November we get to tell five of them to go back to work at their jobs and get some mature talent and experience into this City Government!
another_local 5 years, 12 months ago
If you want "mature talent and experience" (and I agree!) you are going to have to pay more than the $10 an hour and endless abuse that council gets paid for a thankless job.
I am no fan of our current group but I am not optimistic that you will see good candidates run for council under the present arrangements.
I hope that the council votes a pay increase for the incoming council and then does not run for the office themselves. To put the time commitment and responsibilty into balance with the compensation for capable people, the pay should be at least 40K - 50K. They can take the money from the "consultant" and "study" budget.
elphaba 5 years, 12 months ago
The point is that being on City Council should not be a full time job which requires full-time pay. It should be policy and oversight on Tuesday night and not the micromanagement and constant meddling we see in the current Council. Public service should be just that - not because you have been fired for incompetence and need to run for the "job".
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