Pages

Friday, January 13, 2012

Separating Ralph Brauer's constructive ideas from a post criticizing detail.

The Brauer statement is analytical and positive in its assessments. It looks at things that were done over a long timeframe. To the extent things in Town Center will be built, it will take time and flexibility. And a stable community.

Suggesting precipitous things with short notice works against that. Ralph's statement stands on its own, but reading it in the context of thinking to create a stable, flexible, but deliberate and not precipitous decision making style of government will be a long term plus - in any event, growth or no growth.

And if the goal is to foster beneficial planned growth in place of haphazard growth, then stability takes on an even greater appeal. Putting Ralph's statement with critical commentary was unfair to Ralph and others thinking as he does. I was wrong to have done that.

Here is the statement:

January 10, 2012
To Mayor Ramsey and Members of the City Council,

As a long time member of the Planning Commission and the facilitator for the Ramsey3 process that created the city vision statement that emphasizes “citizen driven, collaborative processes,” I feel compelled to comment on the organizational changes proposed by the mayor. This letter is being sent through my councilmember Sarah Strommen. I have asked her to read it aloud into the record because I am unable to attend the city council meeting because of a prior commitment. Obviously to have sent it directly through the city manager or staff would have created an awkward situation.

Over the past few years in the midst of the most serious national economic crisis since the Great Depression we have seen our city weather this storm with remarkable seamanship. Perhaps no better symbol of that can be found than the phoenix-like recovery of what used to be known as the Town Center. As one of the few city commission members still left from the days when the Town Center was still an open piece of land with a dream and who helped to craft the master plan and its zoning codes, it has been the highlight of my career on the Planning Commission to see the rebirth of the Town Center as the COR. Now instead of weeds and empty dreams we have the VA Center, the Allina clinic, Coborns, Acapulco and numerous other establishments along with a city hall, an amphitheater and park that would be the envy of any comparable city. Most of all we will soon have what everyone worked so hard for all these years -- a rail station.

This has been the result of a team effort that has involved citizens, businesses, consultants, staff and council. Jim Deal stuck with the city and the COR even when others were jumping ship. Without his work there would be no VA Center. Consultants have also helped to attract new businesses to the city. Much of the credit for this rightly belongs with council. Mayor Ramsey has worked tirelessly for the city and through his open houses opened up the process of city government in fulfillment of the city's vision statement. Council member Elvig, who has been with this process longer than anyone, has provided continuity and wisdom. Council member McGlone has served as a critical voice whose candor and willingness to stand by his principles has been a breath of fresh air. Council members Wise, Tossey and Backous have each brought important and much-needed independent perspectives to the city. Although this council has had its differences it has operated relatively free of the personal rancor that once characterized Ramsey. More important, when the sailing has gotten rough, council has pulled together.

But city staff is also to be commended for their work in the face of budget and personnel cuts. Without their efforts none of the resurrection of the COR would have occurred. They put in the long hours gathering documents, putting together grants and presentations and mustering the evidence needed to make all this happen. From the perspective of one planning commission member, this is as good as staff as we have ever had.

Perhaps some of you have forgotten how things were under the former city manager. Ramsey was torn by conflict, suspicion and questionable decisions. Some of you sitting on Council today ran on a pledge to change a climate where citizens had little trust in their government.

Council has begun to re-establish that trust, but we also cannot overlook the role Kurt Ulrich has played in restoring it. His inclusive, collaborative and above all, professional leadership has been a key element in rebuilding trust in the city and its staff.

As one who worked directly with Kurt throughout the Comp Plan and Ramsey3 process, I grew to respect his counsel. But more than that I grew to admire his values, especially his sense of fairness. The problem with fairness is that some people who do not hear what they want to hear would rather have someone who would always say “yes” to their personal agendas.

There is also an economic dimension to this proposal that should not be overlooked. Regardless of what happens to Kurt Ulrich, the move makes little financial or organizational sense. Council is to be commended for its attempts to keep taxes low while not jeopardizing city services, but if the move to eliminate a senior-level staff position is being made for budgetary reasons it is a questionable decision.

As most of you know my background is in strategic planning and policy analysis. You also know I am someone who insists the numbers add up. I could supply you with details of why eliminating a senior staff position is ill-advised, but instead I would quote my colleague Jay Forrester -- the man who invented system dynamics and the airplane flight simulator -- who said you don't pull someone out of the cockpit in the middle of a flight.

This leads to the elephant in the room which is the city's increasing reliance on outside consultants. Our fees for consultants are becoming a major budgetary concern; our over-reliance on them a potentially serious policy problem. Should Council choose to eliminate a senior staff position, the work will have to be done by someone, most likely an outside consultant.

This is not a sound fiscal or policy decision. To provide one example, we hired a planning consultant at a rate of $93 an hour -- a salary I am sure current staff would love to be paid. While consultants can be valuable, at the senior staff level it is especially important that someone be there in the office every day to deal with sudden problems that come up and to build the personal relationships that are most important to a city. From a systems point of view this is not a task that can be handled by one person in a town of this size and complexity during a critical crisis. As Jay Forrester might say, you need both a pilot and copilot to fly an airliner or you put the passengers in jeopardy. Most of all, as we found out during the comp plan process, consultants are not accountable to the citizens.

Council has commendably advocated an open government that has stressed citizen input, accountability and cost-effectiveness. To terminate the city manager's contract in this fashion and eliminate a position follows none of those principles. There is an old truth we would be wise to consider -- don't change the coaching staff when you are on a winning streak. My hope is Council will reconsider its position, retain Mr. Ulrich and the senior staff position and keep intact a winning team.

Sincerely,
Ralph Brauer