opinion
february8
2011
An Opinion: New Council Must Find a
Way To Work Together
By Scott Laird
Holding public office is a
difficult and challenging task. Making
decisions that impact the lives of all
citizens in a community is a huge
responsibility. Being an elected leader
takes time, energy, patience and, above
all, a level head. Being unbiased and not
letting interpersonal relationships affect
decision-making is a difficult challenge.
These are all issues that have
arisen for the new City Council in
Vernonia, a Council that has been on the
job (even though they are volunteers) for
only one month.
In January, Vernonia saw a
major shift in the make-up of our City
Council. Three new members, Mayor
Josette Mitchell, and Councilors Willow
Burch and Marilyn Nicks, were sworn
into office, joining sitting members
Randy Parrow and Kevin Hudson on the
Council.
Right now, the city staff is being
overseen by Interim City Administrator
Bill Haack, who has been on the job
since this past July, and although Haack
has a lot of experience serving in City
government as a citizen and working
with government entities as a project
manager, he has never worked as a City
Administrator before.
Governing Vernonia in this time
and place is no easy task. There has been
a high turnover in city staff in recent
years and we have more than our share of
major projects in development. We are
still recovering from the flood of 2007.
And now we have an inexperienced
City Council and an inexperienced City
Administrator.
When the citizens of Vernonia
chose to replace a majority of the
members of their sitting Council, they
made a statement that they were not
happy with the way things were being
run and I think they were expecting
immediate change.
What this community and
the Council are finding out after two
Council meetings and two workshops
(a third Council Meeting was scheduled
to take place on February 7) is that
change isn’t easy and that growing into
an effective and productive governing
team takes time. What we need to do
is allow this Council some time and
have patience as they all figure out their
roles and responsibilities, get familiar
with the details of current projects and
issues, and learn the nuances of how a
city government functions. It is going
to take time for the group as a whole to
come together, learn each other’s styles,
personalities and triggers, and learn to
work together as a team.
My guess is, it’s going to take
6 months to one year, maybe longer, for
the three new members of this Council
to get up to speed on all the ongoing
work happening in the City-- as Haack
likes to call them, “the many moving
parts.” City Administrator Haack is still
learning about his job-- the laws, rules,
and ordinances that govern how the
city operates-- although he has shown a
good understanding of most of the big
projects.
Everyone needs to be patient.
The only problem is-- we don’t
have time to be patient.
Council has scheduled a day
of training for themselves on February
12th, led by the League of Oregon Cities
(LOC), and believe me when I tell you,
that training day cannot arrive soon
enough.
Right now, the City Council is
trying to figure out what to do about the
City Administrator position. Current
Interim Haack is working under a
contract through ColPac, which expires
at the end of June, and Council is
wrestling with the decision of whether
to offer Haack the position-- either for
another year or permanently, or go
through a search process that would
identify a pool of new candidates to hire
from,which could include Haack.
There are advantages and
disadvantages to both options. Keeping
Haack gives this community some
much-needed continuity; some much-
needed institutional memory. Haack
has managed large projects before, is
well respected at the federal, state and
county levels, has a wealth of experience
writing and managing grants and other
government resources, and seems to be
well-liked by his staff. He also has been
working in the City of Vernonia for three
years on Flood Recovery and has a base
of knowledge and detail about ongoing
work here that is useful. On the other
hand, he has never worked as a City
Administrator before and has had to learn
while on the job, so finding someone else
with administrative experience could be
a plus for this community.
Council is also moving forward
on the Wastewater System upgrade, a
possible Brownfields project, transfer
of the current school property to the
city, and relocation of the Senior Center,
Food Bank and Health Clinic, with some
deadlines and big decisions on those
projects in their near future. There are
numerous other projects in the works as
well, plus the day-to-day operations of
the city.
At two workshops on January
24 and 31, Council spent four hours
discussing the City Administrator hire.
They had also intended to discuss city
goals as part of their agenda-- they never
got to the goals.
The Administrator hire decision
is huge, as that position has been a
revolving door for the last five years and
Council is feeling pressure to get this
right after the disaster that was previous
City Administrator Bob Young’s year
in office. Part of the hiring discussion
revolved around the budget for the next
fiscal year and how much funding would
be available. The discussion during
the workshops also included whether
Council should consider hiring a full- or
part-time City Administrator, whether to
use the LOC to help conduct the search
(at a cost of $6,000) and even some
brief discussions about Haack’s job
performance.
Council needs to weigh the
advantages of keeping Haack against the
advantages of bringing in someone new.
They have a very limited budget, which
might lead to a limited pool of candidates
willing to take the position. If they are
going to search for someone new, they
need to start what could be a four-month
process very soon, as Haack’s contract
expires on June 30th.
3
But so far, they have
gotten stuck in the budget
numbers, stuck toying with the
idea of only hiring a part-time
Administrator, and revisiting
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side issues that have little to do
Scott Laird
with the decision that is in front
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of them and that they need to
scott@vernoniasvoice.com
make.
It was clear from the
Contributors
discussions that took place
over the last couple of weeks
Lynn Berry
that it is going to take some
Mackenzie Carr
time for this Council to learn to
Aleksa Jacimovic
trust each other and trust their
Shannon Romtvedt
current Administrator. And for
the Administrator to learn to
Photography
trust this Council. That trust
Creekside Studios
has yet to be developed.
Scott Laird
It is also clear that this
group needs to learn to work
Copy Editor
together as a team. That, too,
Dennis Nicks
has not yet taken place.
It is also clear that this
group needs to pull themselves
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out of the minutiae and look at
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the big picture-- what is going
Contact:
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to be best for Vernonia as a
whole. So far, this group has
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shown no signs of letting small
(24 issues) $35
issues, personal feelings and
disagreements get in the way of
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the job at hand.
Vernonia, OR 97064
I get the feeling that this
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Council feels a responsibility
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to be extra-vigilant after
what happened with former
Administrator Young. Young
was left alone to do his job and
interpersonal communication.
They
everyone trusted that he knew what he need to be talking to each other one-on-
was doing-- until it was too late and a one and discussing and attempting to
year had slipped by with almost nothing resolve their differences. They need to
accomplished.
realize they are all on the same team.
It is a fine line that this Council
Keep sight of the long-term
will have to walk in overseeing the vision. What is best for Vernonia? What
work of their City Administrator-- actions will help us be effective and be a
paying attention to the details and better city tomorrow?
asking questions about progress, yet not
And ultimately, each person
micromanaging; they need to let staff serving this community needs to take a
handle the day-to-day operations of the look in the mirror and ask what they can
city, all while trying to build a working do to improve the situation.
and trusting relationship.
I don’t doubt that each one of our
Trust takes time-- something elected officials and staff have the best
this Council doesn’t have a lot of. They of intentions and want what is best for
have big issues and deadlines which Vernonia. They just have some different
need to be addressed and decided now.
approaches and ideas about how to get
How can things improve? there. But they need to come together.
Given the shortage of time before big And they need to find a way to do it now.
decisions must be made, one thing We don’t have time to wait.
everyone involved can work on is their
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