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Will O.S. have a new mayor, tonight?
Who will it be?: a) Crumpacker; b) French; c) other; d) no decision.
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on Monday, February 22nd, 2010 at 11:16 am and is filed under North Coast News.
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Lorraine, you hit my button. (And let me say this comment has nothing to do with O.S. that I know of.) The reason a company fails is poor management. If a company fails in timely delivery of quality products at expected cost, it is because management has failed in one or more of its responsibilities. Never think of yourselves or your coworkers as the problem. I’m pretty sure you don’t, but sensitive souls are undermined by that kind of assessment from authority. It is true that the strike had some effect, but lets be fair about the blame. You can only do what your management allows. “Work faster!!!” is not an appropriate management dictate.
The main problem when I left ten years ago was an equivalent problem to one in government (again, I don’t know if this applies to O.S.). The problem was (among others) the trend to move procedurally away from the office version of common law (everything OK unless it is specifically not OK) back to Napoleonic process (nothing is OK unless it is approved) also called the positive list method in law. Maybe this happens when management is top-heavy. In my office innovative process improvements were stopped when management refused to allow groups to work in new ways, even as a test, because every possible uninvolved manager in the department had not yet agreed it was a “best practice” for every model. They were not models of the collaborative management style.
If a person operates a business under certain conditions, no state tax ID number is required. It doesn’t mean you don’t pay federal or city tax, or that you don’t fall under other county requirements. I think it just means that you aren’t worth it to the state to keep track of because you don’t generate sales tax. http://dor.wa.gov is where I got the info. in a .pdf file.
OMG I had to go read his resume on the os gov webpage to see what his former job was, now I’m extremely grateful that we won’t start building until he’s near end of his term! Get ready to hear lots more of union blaming, we are still hearing about our strike every time they mention the over two year delay of the 787 on the news…never mind that our strike was only 2 months, not 2 years, it’s still all our fault.
Washington State tax ID exemption? Want to explain further? Are you speaking of sales tax exemption when you resale something? Please be more specific.
Oh, and here’s a thought about where some money could come from. I was reading an article about how an eighteen-year parks department employee, after taking a layoff from her position, started a new business in a recreational niche market (deja vue!) How about we do a Hong Kong and invite business to start here without city fees until profitable?
I made another suggestion to mayor Bunkers, but never heard any more about it. Maybe it was implemented, I don’t know. It was to give a business license to consultants working under the Washington State tax ID exemption. I was denied an O.S. business license because I would not give up my exemption. I now work only from my home in King Co. This seems very short-sighted to me, when consultants are the one professional group that prospers (therefore, pays taxes and fees) during a recession.
Yes, Citizens’, I like your analogy. Taxpayers are equivalent to owners, council and mayor are equivelant to our managers and everyone else in the city is an employee. Ah, another twist, as opposed to private enterprise, government management is union labor? By definition, ya don’t have that in private business. Managers are the agents of the owners, always able to see the enterprise big picture and make decisions on its behalf. I don’t think one can rightfully call them managers if they are union. The union works on the employees’ behalf against the owners. That would be a conflict of interests.
LOL. On the other hand, if the training programs go up to that level, he should have received a substantial amount of education in process analysis. At least those of us in engineering ops sure did.
I just wonder where the money is to come from if all the taxes and fees other than property taxes, which go up automatically every year, do not increase. We keep hearing the old them vs. us union talk. Let’s just call it what it is. Employees vs. Management. However here Management includes employees too. So in a city it is Tax Paying Citizens vs. Employees. Does that change the picture? Probably not. However, the city is just like those Tax Paying Citizens. They can’t pay Employees without money. If the Tax Paying Citizens do not want to pay more taxes or have no more money in their personal budgets to pay more taxes, no matter how small it seems to some, then you have to lay off Employees. There are very few other expenses in a city. Vallejo, CA is a good example. They have a General Fund shortage also. Yes, the utility is flush with money, but the laws say what you can and can’t do with that money too.
The city, although late, has started to make cuts. They have started to look at things. I can only hope that it continues. At the same time, they need to look at where they can get revenue from services they provide.
Wow marymary! That will surely be a difference from our former form of government! Oh wait, never mind. More of the same, let’s see how long it goes before the mayor blames the unions for not working with the city before he starts to lay them off! The more things change….
Our new mayor was middle-management in a company that is notorious for getting rid of people to solve its financial problems.
E.
The only council member that made any sense to me tonight was Crumpacker and that surprised the poop out of me. He suggested that we wait and look at all comers.
Maybe just his way to stall and hope.
WOW is all I can say. City council does not listen to the citizens. Best of luck to Mr French. I really feel for you. YOU have a tough road ahead.
I wonder why the city council does not feel like they need to listen to the citizens. I just do not get it.
b. which is the worse case and will bring chaos until a Mayor can be elected and he can hire an administrator. No one can run any government without the consent of the governed and raise taxes for the budget shortfalls coming for the next 2 and one half years.
The city can not go back to a city manager without another vote to change the form of government and there is a time interval that must pass before that can even be attempted. An elected mayor who can hire and fire a city administrator is the only good idea.
Since the mayor is to be appointed and not elected, the battle lines may already be forming to fight any non-elected mayor who has no consensus to raise taxes to pay the unions. The taxpayers will fight higher taxes and the unions will fight more layoffs. Nevertheless an appointed mayor will probably take the job just because the pay and benefits are so abnormally extravagant.
I think the meeting tonight will be “all show” to attempt to bluff the citizens. I am sure that the decision has been made, and I am also sure that the Mayor Protem will be named as the interim Mayor.
There has not been enough time for the City Council to act in the approriate manner and solicit resume’s from qualified persons to be Mayor and conduct a thorough interview with these individuals to select the best person for the job that is familiar with City government the laws that govern a municipal entity and will not be a “yes” person to the existing City Council and the department heads that continue to over spend to the point of putting the City near bankruptcy. The task of selecting a Mayor based on qualifications that will heed to the voices of the people he or she serves and strive to resolve the financial budget shortfalls that loom over this City – is beyond the majority of the current City Council members abilities.
It is time to clean house and this should not start by selecting a new Mayor from within the City Council board.
CAC, the process took place before Dennis Morrisette was named City Manager. Dennis gave an opening statement and then answered questions until all were answered. This was the time period between McEachin and the change in form of government.
Walrus, Which city manager two years ago? Are you speaking about the time period when McEachin left and Dean took office?
I’m betting (b) has a four vote majority for tonight. How long it takes to get there is a question.
Hopefully the citizens will demand the open and public vetting like what was done when a new city manager was vetted in a public meeting two years ago!
Has anybody got an official reading of the RCW’s concerning is the mayors salary tied to the mayor or to the term. I’ve seen it interpreted both ways. One way we are stuck with what we get. The other way would allow us to hire an administrator.
Of course even if it can be changed, I’m confident that WE won’t know until after it’s too late to do anything about it.
when i lived in tacoma they had a mayor and a city manager. it was a total power struggle situation. it got so bad that they demanded two cars to transport them to city functions. we need either a mayor or a city manager………but not both. not saying we are a world class city like tacoma. just using it as an example.
We really do not have a choice here. We can only appoint a mayor. We can work for a future city administrator who is managed by the mayor. That would take an ordinance. The problem is that you also have to pay the person. We have no money. Therefore, we have to wait two years and then start with the dual titles running the city. Washington Law is really poor when it comes to allowing a mayor of a small town to form his or her own executive branch of the government. You have to decide before you are in the title and keep it for 4 years. Maybe they need to talk to Olympia.
I vote for c; think they should heed the advice of other mayors in area and opt for seeking and hiring a city manager, then re-consider the “strong mayor” in favor of a mayor with supervisory duties while the “guts” of the work is left to the professional.