The Abdication of Responsibility

I served as a city manager in several cities and one county from the early seventies until 1995. I never experienced a situation where the Mayor and City Council had abdicated their responsibilities as much as the present and former Councils have in Northglenn.

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Our Charter is not much different than those of other cities. The City Manager is the chief administrative officer of the City. The Mayor and Council are required to deal with the administrative services solely through the City Manager. They are also prohibited from directing or interfering with the work of any of his employees. The Charter does not prohibit the Mayor and Council from establishing rules or procedures for the Manager to follow in carrying out his responsibilities. The Mayor and Council are vested with all legislative affairs of the City. (Sections 3.1, 3.10, 6.1a)

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The Manager does not have the right to create new staff positions, hire the grown children of friends, establish the compensation of employees or terminate them without just cause, but this Manager does.

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He should not be allowed to spend $50,000 for any reason without Council approval as often as he pleases but the Mayor made sure this Manager does.

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He should not be allowed to submit a budget where the smallest amount of financial detail for each area is listed as: Personnel Services, Commodities, Contractual Services and Capital. The following is the total financial detail the Council received when considerating the 2006 Police budget: Personnel $5,810,236; Commodities $125,716; Contractual $1,020,522; Capital $37,200. The detail the Council receives for all departments is in the same format and detail as the Police example. It is no wonder the Mayor and Council have to ask him if a item, program or service is budgeted.

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YOU, through your elected representatives should: Determine the level and type of services; know if your staff has your interests foremost; require justification for consultants; establish the priorities of City operations and have a representative that will work for you and not the staff.

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You need residents on the Council which will start setting the agenda because they know the meetings are the end product of their hard work on a daily basis; not the reason they were elected. You already have a frustrated minority on the Council. They could use some help come January First.

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Please review the oldies but goodies in the September and August archives.