Marathon Organizational Meeting + Manager Goals

Today was the organizational meeting of the new Oshkosh Common Council. After Mayor Frank Tower, Bryan Bain, Jess King and I were sworn in, the new council elected Burk Tower to serve another term as deputy mayor, fixed our seating arrangements, discussed meeting rules, discussed the agenda format, discussed current procedures affecting citizen participation on boards and commissions, and discussed ideas for creating new task forces, boards and/or commissions. The entire meeting lasted almost 4 hours, and was cut off only because the access cable television technology was needed for the 4 p.m. Plan Commission meeting and Mayor Tower did not want any part of our discussion to go untelevised. On the agenda was a review of the city manager's goals for 2007-2008, but due to time constraints we did not have a lengthy discussion of them.

[Note on seating arrangements: Esslinger, Bain, McHugh, and B. Tower will all be sitting in the same seats as last council session. Frank Tower sits in the Mayor's chair vacated by Bill Castle. I sit in the chair filled last year by Meredith Scheuermann, and Jess King sits in the seat formerly held by Shirley Mattox.].

Some of my specific contributions to the meeting:

*I nominated Paul Esslinger to serve as deputy mayor. Bryan Bain nominated Burk Tower. Mr. Tower received 4 votes (in alphabetical order Bain, King, Frank Tower, Burk Tower). Esslinger received three votes (Esslinger, McHugh, Palmeri).
*I requested that the city administration place the cost of each item on the Consent Agenda next to its line on the actual agenda. Mr. Esslinger suggested that cost figures be placed next to each item on the agenda--not just the consent part--and the Council agreed. This will give citizens a much better idea of where tax dollars go, and (I hope) will develop more public trust in our budgeting. The cost figures should start appearing on the next agenda.
*Frank Tower and I advocated moving the Citizen Statements to the beginning of the meeting for the next 4 council meetings, but this was not supported by the council. Citizen statements will stay where they are.

As for the city manager's goals, there seemed to be great resistance offered from the returning members of the council (Bain, Esslinger, McHugh, B. Tower) to any discussion of the goals that might even imply a public performance evaluation of the manager.

I think there has to be a way to discuss the manager's goals without having to engage in a performance evaluation. Citizens who look at the goals immediately come to the conclusion that they are not acceptable, so if I have anything to say about it this topic is not going to go away. For those who have not seen them, here are the goals:

1. By July 1, 2007, and again by the end of February of 2008, prepare and give a "State of the City" address in which you outline the major accomplishments of the City during the past year, the major things you would like to see accomplished during the next year and your view of where you see the City headed (key concerns in need of attention and major things to get done) over the next 5 years.

2. Have each major department develop an "efficiency" team to meet periodically to identify and discuss ways for the department to become more efficient and effective in its delivery of services. Approaches to helping the City achieve a higher level of ecological sustainability should also be discussed. Please have a written summary of these efforts to date submitted to the Council each July.

3. Soon after submitting to the Council the 2008 preliminary budget, hold at least one community meeting to discuss the budget with the public prior to the Council budget workshops.

4. By May 1, establish a highly visible public comment and suggestion station that will encourage citizen feedback. Also work with the IT staff to develop a Web-base public comment and suggestion system within that time frame.

5. Have an annual report summarizing that year's progress in each of the City's TIF districts. The report should be submitted to the Council along with the preliminary budget for the following year.

6. By May 1, have developed and implemented a more citizen-friendly way for citizens to sign up and serve on City boards and commissions.

7. Continue to create standards to gauge each department's annual performance. Implement these standards in each City department such that all departments are completed by the end of the current City Manager contact (through 2008). Provide a memorandum detailing the implementation to the Council at the end of the current year. At least three additional departments should be completed by the end of 2007.

8. Prepare and distribute a mid-year memorandum to the Council reporting on the progress made on the thirteen high priority action items listed in the 2005 City of Oshkosh Comprehensive Plan. This could be an update of last year's July 19th memo on the same topic. Additionally, the memorandum is to identify two items from the list and a timeline for their completion. Completion of action items is a continuous goal through the completion of the Comprehensive Plan.

9. Have a copy of this list of goals put up on the City web site as soon as possible. Provide periodic updating of progress toward the accomplishment of each goal.