. . . because much of the content relates both to Washington, D.C., and "outside the beltway" -- the heartland, specifically Iowa -- and because after going from Iowa to Washington via Texas and California I subsequently returned, From DC 2 Iowa.
Showing posts with label Michael Lombardo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Michael Lombardo. Show all posts
Things are getting a little heavy around the Lombardo mystery, so to give us all a little break I thought I'd do some research on how other cities, city councils, and mayors do it.
Is there an alternative to the management style of our City Council and Mayor?
As the Henny Youngman routine might have gone: "How's your Mayor?" "Compared to what?"
Well, compared to Hazel McCallion for instance.
Mississauga, Ontario, to the west of Toronto is no small town. It's the sixth largest city in Canada.
And the citizens of Mississauga have been re-electing their mayor, Hazel McCallion, in 11 consecutive elections over the past 31 years. Asked her secret, the approachable and charming McCallion says she "never stops campaigning" and "you have to look after your people."
Not incidentally -- as our City Council confronts its ill-fated, ongoing budget process not knowing its own priorities without a consultant (see below) -- McCallion has seen to it that her city remains debt free and now has a $700 million reserve.
Clearly, Mississauga has thought through its "governance model." Standing next to a detailed miniature model of the city she explains, "That's the future; we had a plan, so we made a model."
A former professional hockey player, Hazel McCallion is now 88 years old.
Oh, and her approval rating? 92%.
Watch her interview on the CBC's "Rick Mercer Report" from February 26, 2009, and let your imagination soar to what Iowa City's future could be:
Meanwhile, the stories continue: Chris Rhatigan, "Iowa City Budget Issues Still Loom; Acting Manager Plans to Stick to Timeline,"Iowa City Press-Citizen, April 23, 2009, p. A1 ("In addition to having a new leader [Dale Helling], the council will re-examine hiring a consultant to conduct a community survey on city services"); Editorial, "What Happened, I.C. Council?" The Gazette, April 23, 2009, p. A4 ("[C]ouncil members should at least publicly explain the grounds for dismissing Lombardo and the general reasoning behind their move").
* Why do I put this blog ID at the top of the entry, when you know full well what blog you're reading? Because there are a number of Internet sites that, for whatever reason, simply take the blog entries of others and reproduce them as their own without crediting the source. I don't mind the flattering attention, but would appreciate acknowledgment as the source -- even if I have to embed it myself. -- Nicholas Johnson
Gary Sanders holds the highest office in the land: "Public Citizen." That doesn't mean he's always right, any more than that fellow who holds the second-highest office in the land (President) is always right. I've disagreed with both of them in this blog and elsewhere, and am about to do it again.
But Sanders is a real community asset in terms of the process he represents -- regardless of what you think of the substantive positions he may take on any given issue.
In this morning's Press-Citizen he's complaining about the job the media has done covering the City Council. He contends if it had done a better job we'd all understand why Lombardo was fired. Gary Sanders, "Lombardo deserved firing, press didn't do its job,"Iowa City Press-Citizen, April 22, 2009.
(Not incidentally, a "Hat's Off" kudo to the Press-Citizen editors for their consistent willingness to run criticism of the paper on its own pages. How many of us would be willing to do the equivalent in our own lives?
And another, if you're wearing two hats, for the revelation in this morning's editorial that, "On Monday, the Press-Citizen put in a records request asking for all e-mail exchanges between Lombardo and members of the council in the past few months. We also asked for any e-mails between councilors in which they mention Lombardo. The city has 10 days from then to respond to the request, and we will report anything that helps shed light on Lombardo's firing -- whether in terms of procedure or cause." (And in this connection see, below, "What can the City Council disclose?") Editorial, "Questions About Lombardo Before City Can Move On,"Iowa City Press-Citizen, April 22, 2209.)
And speaking of newspapers, they're not doing so well financially these days. They're looking for alternative business models. One involves greater involvement of the community in reporting, and commenting about, the news. The Press-Citizen already does it to some degree with its op ed page (where Sanders appears along with "letters"), the blogs it hosts on its online edition, and the comments it permits there regarding its stories.
Imagine what a difference it would make if 10% -- shucks, if even 1% -- of Iowa City's residents would take on the "Public Citizen" role. Any individual Public Citizen could pick a public body, or official, to track as closely as Sanders says he does with the City Council -- the School Board, the County Board of Supervisors, the Board of Regents; the campaign contributions and votes (and their relationship) of each of our representatives in Des Moines and Washington.
Newspapers have always needed, and to some extent relied on, news and opinion contributions from their citizen-readers. They need it now more than ever.
I am not in a position to challenge any of Sanders' factual assertions regarding Lombardo's failings and why the City Council was right to fire him. I haven't tracked the City Council very closely, certainly not as closely as Gary Sanders.
But even accepting everything he asserts as true I think he's come to the wrong conclusion.
He writes:
Anyone who needs convincing that Lombardo should have been fired should watch the council's April 13 budget priorities meeting . . .. For two hours, the council was perplexed, upset and angry that Lombardo had not come to this meeting with what they had asked him to do -- suggest recommendations on cutting the budget.
Repeatedly the councilors would say that they wanted him to . . . present them with choices and recommendations, . . .. And repeatedly, Lombardo said he wanted some kind of broad framework or parameters first. . . .
That to me was a direct work order, and Lombardo was unwilling or unable to do as they requested. In this country, that is grounds for termination.
As Sanders describes the meeting it seems to me that Lombardo was right and the Council was wrong -- and that, therefore, his effort to get the Council to do its job was not only not "grounds for termination" it was grounds for commendation.
For similar reasons I would disagree with the Press-Citizen's characterization of the meeting in this morning's editorial: "the council asked Lombardo to give them recommendations for budget cuts, and he seemed to fail to grasp why he should do that." Editorial, "Questions About Lombardo Before City Can Move On,"Iowa City Press-Citizen, April 22, 2209.
As a School Board member I used to say, "Well, you may not get any pay, but at least you get a lot of grief." City Council members get both grief and pay -- not that it should make any difference. If you accept a public responsibility you have an obligation to perform, pay or not.
But the fact is that being a member of our City Council is a paid position. It carries responsibilities. And among those responsibilities -- as I have often written, including in the two earlier blog entries from this past week -- is to think about, develop, and write in precise language regarding the "governance" rules, expectations, responsibilities, and relationships by which Council members agree to live and govern. (There's a literature about this. I prefer the John Carver approach. Others don't like it. There are alternatives.)
It is not the CEO's (City Manager's) job to tell the Board (Council) members what he and the staff think the Board (Council) should establish as their priorities and measurable goals for the City (what Carver calls "ends policies"). That's what Council members get the big bucks for, and what properly can only be done by the Council. It's hard work, no doubt; but it's their hard work..
The Daily Iowan has a page-one story about the Lombardo saga this morning that quotes a county supervisor with whom Lombardo worked in a prior role as county administrator in Michigan. The guy obviously thought well of Lombardo -- but that's not my point in quoting him:
Bill Sikkel, then-vice-chairman of Allegan County, spoke positively about Lombardo.
“My style of leadership is to delegate, pick the right people, and get to work,” said Sikkel, a retired Army colonel, noting Lombardo understood that philosophy and worked well with him.
Sikkel also said the word “fired” surprised him — adding Lombardo was a “very nice man” to work with, a sentiment he said could be iterated by most of his staff.
“I was very unhappy when he left,” he said. “We were blessed to have him.”
So why do I quote this? Because what that county vice-chairman is saying is that the first thing he did was to "delegate." Properly done, those delegations would have been accompanied with "delegation orders" -- documents that would both require and reflect that county board's thinking, deliberations, and expression of its measurable goals, its priorities, and the tasks required to get there; the relationship between board members and their "county administrator." In short, it would reflect a process similar to the execution of a workable governance model, or statement of expectations.
Something along that line is simply indispensable. It is what Sanders' report would suggest Lombardo was, quite properly, asking for. It is what the Council was, to quote Sanders (in reaching the opposite conclusion) "unwilling or unable to do as [he] requested."
In short, as I've suggested in the prior two blog entries about Lombardo, it continues to appear to me that the conflict, leading to Lombardo's peremptory firing came down to, or was the casualty of, the Council's failure to exercise its responsibility to address issues of "governance."
What can the City Council disclose?
Some Council members, and commentators, seem to have assumed that because Lombardo's firing was a "personnel" matter the Council is, therefore, prohibited from saying anything about it.
There are essentially three categories of "public records" when it comes to access by the public and the media: (1) matters the agency must make public, (2) matters the agency may make public, and (3) matters the agency may not make public.
Personnel matters fall into the second, not the third, category in Iowa.
Section 22.7 of the Iowa Code does, indeed, begin, "The following public records shall be kept confidential . . ." and does go on, in subsection 22.7(11), to include, "personal information in confidential personnel records of public bodies including . . . cities . . .."
However, and this is an enormous "however," that opening sentence continues: "unless otherwise ordered . . . by the lawful custodian of the records . . .."
In other words, however much the City Council members may choose to tell the citizens of Iowa City about their 7-0 termination of Lombardo is entirely up to the Council; it's their call whether to keep mum or go public.
The reason we don't know what happened is because they have deliberately and expressly chosen not to tell us. _______________
* Why do I put this blog ID at the top of the entry, when you know full well what blog you're reading? Because there are a number of Internet sites that, for whatever reason, simply take the blog entries of others and reproduce them as their own without crediting the source. I don't mind the flattering attention, but would appreciate acknowledgment as the source -- even if I have to embed it myself. -- Nicholas Johnson
For reasons as unknown as the Council's reasons for firing Michael Lombardo, the two page-one stories under the Press-Citizen's bold, banner, top-of-the-fold headline this morning -- "What Does Firing Mean For City?" -- are nowhere to be found on its online site.
The page-three story -- "Council OKs Opening Sidewalks" -- is there. Indeed, it is the top-listed story for the day in the online edition. So it's not like the Tuesday paper's stories haven't been posted yet.
[It's a relatively insignificant sidebar compared with Lombardo's termination, but what's this sidewalk deal about? If I want to rent an apartment or office up over a downtown merchant's store I'll have to pay. Why? It's "her property." Well, the sidewalk is "my property," as a taxpayer. Either the City holds title to the property, and taxpayers paid to pave it, or if the merchant paid to pave it the use of sidewalks is controlled by the City. Last time I talked to a City worker, cleaning up vomit and blood from in front of the bars on Sunday early morning, the City was footing that bill. Since I have to clean the snow from the walks in front of my home, I assume if the taxpayers are paying to clean up the walks in front of the merchant's business the walks must belong to the City. Moreover, if I were paying to use the merchant's apartment it would not be a business for me. When the merchant uses my sidewalk he is profiting from using my property. What are the merchants paying back to the City for their profitable use of this very valuable real estate? Or is it just a gift from grateful taxpayers? "Inquiring minds would like to know." This is not about the merits of the use itself -- "ugly clutter" to some is a "charming addition to quality of life" for others -- so you can take your pick. I'm just conceerned about basic financial fairness.]
But the stories suggest the reason for his departure is looking more and more like the result of the Council's poor handling of fundamental governance issues. Brian Morelli, "Area Officials Have Differing Views on Decision's Impact," Iowa City Press-Citizen, April 21, 2009, p. A1, and Chris Rhatigan, "Lombardo Says No Reason Given," Iowa City Press-Citizen, April 21, 2009, p. A1.
Morelli's story reveals, to no one's surprise, that there appear to be no advocates for the view that the City is actually better off as a result of the City Council's mysterious and peremtory firing of its City Manager, Michael Lombardo. Some point out how the City is worse off, trying to manage without a City Manager "major business such as the upcoming sales tax vote, flood recovery or . . . budget cuts." The best that Council members can come up with is Mayor Regenia Bailey's comment that "We have an excellent staff in place. I don't have any concern about the city's operations."
In short, the Council's actions have in fact harmed the City's welfare -- and when its timing couldn't have been worse.
Given the terms of his contract, that provide for a forfeiture of any severance pay in the event of violations of law, financial or moral terpitude, and the fact that the $80,000 severance has been paid, we need to look for other possible reasons for the termination.
Is it, perhaps, that Lombardo "doesn't play well with others"? No, that can't be the reason either; not if local leaders are to be believed.
Given the City Council's pro-business positions (see above), one would assume the Chamber of Commerce would tend to back the Council's decision -- indeed, that it might even have dictated it. But no. Chamber President Nancy Quellhorst is quoted in Rhatigan's story as saying, "I enjoyed working with him very much, and I'm disappointed to no longer have than opportunity."
Lombardo's counterpart in neighboring Coralville, City Administrator Kelly Hayworth, is quoted as saying, "I thought he was an excellent leader. We worked a lot together . . .."
Johnson County Board of Supervisors Chairman Terrence Neuzil said Lombardo was a "strong leader" and that he was "surprised he was fired." Neuzil said of his trip to Washington with Lombardo, "Where he will be missed is his ability to bring in dollars into the community. He certainly knew the D.C. game very well."
So even by a process of elimination that's why I think the problems may relate back to the Council's failure to do what should be every board, commission, committee or council's "job one" -- understanding, addressing, and articulating its basic governance principles.
What is the role of the council as a body? How does it intend to respond to the temptations to either micro-manage or rubber stamp staff decisions and actions? What does it view as acceptable, and unacceptable, relationships and behavior between and among council members? What self-imposed limits is it prepared to abide by in terms of actions by individual council members, as distinguished from actions taken by the council as a body? What does it believe to be the highest priority measurable goals for the city government, and what are their metrics?
How does the council propose to interact with the city manager? What, and how much, is it expressly delegating to the manager's discretion (and is this a negative grant -- "stop until we say 'go'" (come to us with everything first) -- or an affirmative grant -- "go unless we've said 'stop'" (i.e., articulated prohibitions))? Will it only communicate with the staff through the manager? What does it believe to be the manager's "job description"; what are his or her goals and how are they to be measured (if they are different from the council's institutional goals)?
There's a significant body of literature about board governance. I happen to prefer the John Carver model -- primarily because I've worked with it and know it best. There will always be some who don't like it. Fortunately for them there are many more to choose from. And, as I've itemized above, and "John Barleykorn" put in a comment this morning on last Saturday's blog entry [Nicholas Johnson, "River City's Problem: Council-Manager Governance; The Necessity of Governance Theory and Practice," April 18, 2009], "You don't need to have a specific model, you just need clearly defined roles and expectations."
Governance models, or "expectations," are of necessity the personal responsibility of individual board members (in this case city council members) not the CEO (in this case city manager). Their drafting cannot be delegated to a "consultant" or staff member.
My guess is that the Iowa City City Council -- with this responsibility for Council-City Manager governance models, or defined roles -- provided neither.
There are hundreds of adverse consequences from that failure by any council or board; unfortunate, costly, petulant dismissals of competent CEOs (or city managers) are only among the most serious.
And why does Lombardo think he was terminated? He hasn't a clue -- at least none provided by the Council:
Former city manager Michael Lombardo said the Iowa City Council didn't tell him why they chose to terminate his contract at a closed-door meeting Friday [April 17] afternoon.
"There wasn't any discussion. They have their reasons, and they chose not to share those reasons with me," he said.
The only reason they provided him with was that he was "not a good fit," he said.
And that for someone who came out on top in a rigorous nationwide search, was described by Council members at the time as "a very good fit," and who received, we are told, very positive performance reviews three months, and six months, into his nine-month's of service.
I don't think this story is going to evaporate -- even if it's not on the Press-Citizen's Web site.
8:11 a.m. Full texts of the stories are now available on the Press-Citizen's Web site, Rhatigan's and Morelli's. _______________
* Why do I put this blog ID at the top of the entry, when you know full well what blog you're reading? Because there are a number of Internet sites that, for whatever reason, simply take the blog entries of others and reproduce them as their own without crediting the source. I don't mind the flattering attention, but would appreciate acknowledgment as the source -- even if I have to embed it myself. -- Nicholas Johnson
The Iowa City City Council has peremptorily fired its city manager -- the one it said last April, after its nine-month search, was "an absolute great fit for Iowa City . . . [who] had all the qualities we were looking for." Gregg Hennigan, "Council Fires I.C. manager; Mayor: It's a Personnel Matter," The Gazette, April 18, 2009, p. A1 (quoting Council Member Mike O'Donnell). I hadn't noticed that he'd gained any weight over the last 11 months, but apparently he no longer "fits." Lee Hermiston and Brian Morelli, "City Council Fires Lombardo; Ex-City Manager Says Fit Wasn't Right,"Iowa City Press-Citizen, April 18, 2009, p. A1.
The Press-Citizen's Editorial Board, which tracks the City Council's personalities and actions much closer than I do, editorializes this morning, "in recent weeks, we've seen Lombardo and the Iowa City Council publicly debate who is responsible for setting priorities, who is responsible for implementing those priorities and where does the buck actually stop." Editorial, "City Left With No Manager at a Very Bad Time,"Iowa City Press-Citizen, April 18, 2009, p. A12.
That language is a description of a "governance" problem.
A letter writer (who must have written before the firing) even uses the word. "What I expect from local government is a prioritization of needs . . .. Please, then, keep funding the library -- perhaps even go check out some books on governance." Steve Radosevich, "Council's Skills Leave a Lot to be Desired,"Iowa City Press-Citizen, April 18, 2009, p. A12.
This is something with which I've offered to help the City Council in the past -- for free, of course. No interest was expressed.
Two years ago I sensed a similar problem with the Iowa Board of Regents, and offered them the blog entry, Nicholas Johnson, "An Open Letter to Regents on 'Governance,'" April 17, 2007 -- much of which would be directly applicable to the City Council-City Manager relationship.
Earlier, as a member of the Iowa City Community School District Board I worked with my fellow board members in actually implementing the approach of one of our nation's leading governance gurus, John Carver. The history of that effort is available on the Web page, Nicholas Johnson, "Board Governance Theory and Practice," April 28, 2000. That site also contains a link to a summary article of his that lays out the basic principles for those who would prefer not to read through his books.
You may have seen this poster about "Meetings," with the caption: "None of us is as dumb as all of us." [Credit: Despair, Inc.]
As John Carver says, "boards are incompetent groups of competent individuals." Or you may have heard the definition of a camel, as "a horse built by a committee."
Carver has successfully applied his principles to everything from the nation's largest Fortune 500 corporate boards to some of its smallest non-profits and school boards. His approach works with any institution governed by a group rather than a single administrator.
Carver contends that most boards -- or in this case city councils -- find themselves somewhere along a continuum from "rubber stamping" at one end to "micro-managing" on the other end (when they shouldn't be anywhere on that continuum), and that most instruction for boards only teaches them how to do the wrong things better.
Most of us enter into our roles as members of corporate or non-profit boards, multi-member public bodies (such as school boards or regulatory commissions) with some notion of substance (such as "education" in the case of a school board or the Board of Regents, or a city government's functions in the case of a city council) but little to no thought about governance process.
It's something the group has to perceive as an individual and group benefit, something each member wants to do. Otherwise it won't work. Carver has walked away from what would otherwise have been very lucrative work sessions once it became obvious that there was not that kind of commitment on the part of every member of the group. (Speaking of which, there's no need to hire Carver; the school board went through the process all on its own, relying on the books.)
Thinking through what that process should be, understanding and implementing a "governance" model (there are others besides Carver's), are among the most difficult jobs a city council member will ever undertake -- and given their responsibilities that's saying a lot. It takes individual study, research, hours of analytical thought and hopefully writing, the kind that causes little drops of blood to form on your forehead and drop onto the keyboard, before you are even ready to begin the group's discussion, agreement, and drafting that can produce your own specific application of basic governance principles. Although the process can be facilitated by an outsider, the end product is not something that can be delegated to a consultant or to staff. It has to be done by each individual council member.
No wonder most city councils and boards of all kinds aren't enthusiastic about undertaking such a task.
But there's a word for those who do. They are called "successful."
And their city managers tend to stay on the job for more than 11 months. _______________
* Why do I put this blog ID at the top of the entry, when you know full well what blog you're reading? Because there are a number of Internet sites that, for whatever reason, simply take the blog entries of others and reproduce them as their own without crediting the source. I don't mind the flattering attention, but would appreciate acknowledgment as the source -- even if I have to embed it myself. -- Nicholas Johnson
