Starting next week my column is moving to Fridays. That’s
because the Hollister City Council’s regular meetings are on
Mondays and those of the San Benito County Board of Supervisors’
are on Tuesdays. With a Monday deadline, my comments was often
over-ripe by the time they came out a week later; columns don’t
come with a
”
sell by
”
date, but they are still better fresh.
Starting next week my column is moving to Fridays. That’s because the Hollister City Council’s regular meetings are on Mondays and those of the San Benito County Board of Supervisors’ are on Tuesdays. With a Monday deadline, my comments was often over-ripe by the time they came out a week later; columns don’t come with a “sell by” date, but they are still better fresh.
The transition plan is to publish two columns this week, one today and one this Friday (it’s a twofer!). Starting next week, my regular column will appear on Fridays.
District 5 Council Member Johnson announced that she would not run for reelection; therefore, the race for that seat is wide open. Councilman Brad Pike of District 1 and acting Mayor Doug Emerson of District 4 are also up for reelection. If you’re interested in representing District 1, 4 or 5, you should contact the Hollister city clerk, as the filing period is open right now.
Doing the work right will require a lot of time and energy. I believe it’s become a full-time job. The city council meetings are scheduled for the first and third Monday evenings of each month, but that’s not nearly the whole story.
Even during this moratorium, the council has had to schedule an additional 12 special meetings in seven months. There are also subcommittees and numerous non-council meetings such as COG, AMBAG, etc. Doing the necessary homework and preparation is going to be difficult. Based on the number of special meetings required, the council should seriously consider having a regular third meeting every month. Perhaps this could occasionally be held on Saturdays so the commuters and long-shift workers will have a better opportunity to participate in city government.
Additionally, I believe that both the council and city government are badly in need of major reform. The primary issues are open government and citizen participation. Although putting information “into the public record” meets the legal requirements, it does nothing to generate the community participation necessary to form a consensus and get things done. The council has to come up with ways to force-feed information to the electorate and they must do better at engaging the commuters who are critical members of the community. Some council members are commuters themselves – they should reach out to others who are in the same boat.
Neither the previous councils nor the current council were attune to the fact that for many issues, time is money and nothing takes care of itself. When it comes to wastewater treatment, they learned their lesson the hard way and the cost has been crippling – let’s not overlook that, even though the project is now going well. On several important items, the staff was not prepared to move when required. This included airport issues, the gang taskforce and job descriptions and related hiring authorizations for critical personnel. My fear is that they are taking that same attitude toward economic recovery.
The primary job of a manager is to manage. It’s high time the city manager delegated more responsibility and authority to the department managers. Then he can then manage, rather than always saying, “I’ll have to write that.” Looking to the future and developing subordinates is a key factor in all good organizations – you need to be ready before your boss is.
Poor planning of previous development did not result in sustainable economic prosperity, so what’s going to be different this time and why? The council did not even see fit to include substantial economic issues in its development rating system; that’s a very bad sign. They seem to believe that as long as they have a huge pot of Redevelopment Agency money to spend, everything will take care of itself; and this is folly. I would like current and new council members to become results oriented. They should not just hope things will get better; they must constantly push to get things done.
