Campaign update. A recap of the week and some future events:
*On Monday I had the opportunity to speak at a poverty forum held before the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. dinner. My main points:
- We need to do a better job in Oshkosh of keeping the issue of poverty in the headlines for the entire year, and not just on Thanksgiving and Martin Luther King day.
- We need to fight hard to get shared revenue monies restored, as that program over the years guaranteed that all citizens regardless of income would be able to live in cities in which funds existed for providing basic services.
- W e have too many citizens in Oshkosh who are not labeled poor because they make too much money to be classified as such under the federal guidelines, but they are struggling. What we need to do is hold a jobs summit and/or create an Economic Development Commission to come up with real strategies for maintaining, attracting, and creating family supporting jobs in the community.
*On Thursday I submitted a 300 word statement to the Oshkosh Northwestern, along with my answers to 10 questions that they asked all of the candidates. When the newspaper publishes the statement and responses I will also place them on this blog.
*The League of Women Voters will be holding a candidates' forum on January 30. More information about this as we get closer to the event.
3 comments:
Frank,
I do believe that the basic needs of people should be a priority of city government. The basic needs of small, locally owned businesses should also be a priority.
Too often, and I think this is part of the point you are making, local governments meet the needs of big businesses that have little loyalty to the community and do not keep the profits local. Local government needs to have on it people who can serve as watchdogs to make sure that any partnership being considered really does benefit the public in a meaningful way.
Having taken a look at the gauntlet the Northwestern has thrown out to candidates by way of the editorial you have linked to on your main page, I wonder if you might comment on a few points. Since the NW has framed its message in an advice to voters format, as I voter I must say that frankly I am confused by their article.
Oshkosh has a Council/Manager form of government, which I understand means the manager handles operations, personnel and administration through his department heads, who also have a great deal of autonomy. But that the manager is much like a corporate CEO, where the Council is limited to Legislative decisions. Yet doesn't the set of tasks laid out by the NW list a preponderance of ADMINISTRATIVE tasks? People complain about mismanagement and bad decisions here, but we are not about elect a new City Manager, why then are his tasks included in the Northwestern's Laundry List of qualifications for candidates? Am I in error here?
The following examples are pulled from the NW's list, they all seem to describe job functions of either the city manager or of a department head.
Check out what's going on with area building permits, assessed value growth and private investment in city sectors like the U.S. Highway 41 corridor or the North Main Street canyon. Are more businesses moving in? (Public Works/Plan Commission)
Tackle street and highway improvements faster (Public Works?)
Get into employee contracts and find creative ways to control costs while honoring worker talent. (Personnel?)
The work ahead isn't as easy as yanking the sparkplugs from our library Bookmobile (Vandal?)
Digging into human resources paperwork, developing or demanding plans for program or employee expansion, reduction and reallocation and making sure administrators accomplish what's asked of them. (Personnel?)
angrily snipping around the edges of budgets.
finding real tax savings, finding innovative, cheaper ways of collecting refuse, keeping up parks
Then I see you have said
"City government at all levels must be held to higher standards of performance and accountability.
The serious issues facing this community, including poverty, deteriorating neighborhoods, how to deliver basic services in a period of tight budgets, lack of enough family supporting jobs, downtown redevelopment, and many others--have not been addressed adequately by the current Council and City Administration. In our Council/Manager form of government, the Council is charged with developing a vision for the city and demanding that the Manager display the leadership necessary to put that vision in place. Today, we have no Council vision and managerial leadership is absent. Public trust in city government is the lowest I've seen it in my 18 years as an Oshkosh resident. It's clearly time for a change."
So if I understand correctly that the NW as in error when it laid many of the specific tasks at the candidates' door, and if the city manager will not be changing regardless of the outcome of the election, then how can a council member, in your view, effect change in this kind of system ?
You say you like more accountability but everyone involved in the system already is so fuzzy on who is responsible for what, that a voter doesn't know what's up or down. And that NW article just seems to have the voter asking the wrong questions to the wrong guys.
Thank you for your time if you choose to answer.
D.T. Brown
I believe that, regardless of the form of government in existence, legislators (in this case a member of the Oshkosh Common Council) effect change in the same manner. The "formula" (for lack of a better word) is to
1. Introduce a new policy proposal or become a co-sponsor of a policy already in existence. (We might refer to such policies as part of the "vision" the Council is charged with developing.).
2. Mobilize a grassroots constituency in support of the policy or become part of a constituency already in place.
3. Hold public forums to give the policy proposal greater visibility.
4. If the proposal gets the necessary 4 votes on the Council, require the City Manager to provide periodic updates on what he has done to implement it.
In the Council/Manager form of government, step #1 above may also come from the Manager, who if qualified and adept enough, should able to get some Councilors "on board" to push his ideas. Indeed, that's the way government in Oshkosh worked during the City Manager reign of Bill Freuh. The current Manager, Mr. Wollangk, either does not see policy development as his responsibility or is not able to do it; the result has been a kind of stalemate in which the Council and the Manager seem confused about their responsibilities and keep waiting for the other to lead.
Hope that helps. Thanks for writing.
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