Competent Government

By Jim Gardner

A city council needs to have competent members

In mid 2008 the city decided to gather bids for a "transitional housing" project, with projected expenses of $500,000. When asked to define the term "transitional housing," city staff demurred. They didn't have an explanation. In the course of the debate. Council woman McCullough asked the staff about the results of the hundreds of thousands of dollars that had already been spent on "affordable housing." Had it been spent wisely? Had the people who used the program, at tax payer's expense, been able to graduate from subsidized housing and live independent lives? There followed a symphony of blank stares. No one on the staff had ever considered evaluating the results of the hundreds of thousands of dollars that had already been spent, and here they were proposing to spend hundreds of thousands more, and no one could define what they were going to spend the money on. Is that the way to run a city?

The city council is reactive. They respond to problems, but do not anticipate them. And because they approach problems in a piece meal, reactive style, they are not able to respond quickly or adequately to many situations. For example, in 2003 they were approached by citizens with a problem of too many cars being on the streets. It took them 4 years to investigate this issue, even though the issue has reared itself in other areas, and each time the city treats this as if it were a separate incident. In fact, our city faces the problem of urban blight, and this problem manifests itself in many forms, including the parking problem.