June 2014

Policy & Administration
Some local guest columns in the LO Review accused city staff of not following city council policy direction. I don't believe there was a factual basis to the charges. Nonetheless, it's always good to reaffirm our commitment to our system of representative democracy.

The city management profession adopted a code of ethics in 1924, and ever since, adherence to this code has been the only qualification for membership in the International City Management Association. The code includes these tenets:

Tenet 1 -- Be dedicated to the concepts of effective and democratic local government by responsible elected officials and believe that professional general management is essential to the achievement of this objective.

Tenet 5 -- Submit policy proposals to elected officials; provide them with facts and advice on matters of policy as a basis for making decisions and setting community goals; and uphold and implement local government policies adopted by elected officials.

Tenet 6 -- Recognize that elected representatives of the people are entitled to the credit for the establishment of local government policies; responsibility for policy execution rests with the members [and staff].

A colleague once summarized it this way: "Our councils have the right to run our cities into the ground, and we have the duty to help them." There's some hyperbole here, but truth too: the elected city council members own the policy domain, and they hire us to carry it out.

To me, it's odd the issue has even come up. We sought direction on policies and goals from the City Council at their January retreat, and carrying them out has driven much of our work. The comp plan update is complete, the implementation package for the sensitive lands revisions is going to the Council on June 3, we're making significant progress on catching up on the backlog of street maintenance, and we've negotiated a sale agreement for the West End Building. These are all significant council goals for 2014.

City council policies are subject to constraints: laws of nature and economics; laws of the state and federal governments. But here too, if council policy requires it, we need to push the boundaries of these constraints as far as we can. The State of Oregon has spent the past half century removing, piece by piece, local home rule authority, and I believe we have a responsibility to the community we serve to restore local control. But that's a topic for another time...