When it comes to running a government it’s not as simple as hitting an autopilot switch.
For 22 or 23 weeks out of the year a group of five duly elected citizens meet for a couple hours and take up and vote on decisions that could and will effect our city for years to come. These people are not full-time council members, it is a part-time position. Many of them have “real” jobs outside of City Hall.
That’s how the system is designed and should work.
Citizens from all walks of life and with various backgrounds and skill sets come together a few times a month to work together to decide what’s best for the city and the folks they were elected to represent. They decide everything from if we should buy a fence to go around a pavilion, to big things like if we need more police officers or fire fighters. They are responsible for granting variances, working with developers to ensure they choose East Ridge, and also hiring the next City Manager responsible for running the day-to-day operations of the city.
As I see it, the problem is that they have a LOT on their plates. There are many things in this city that have been pushed back or pushed off for years. Lots of cans that have been continually kicked over and over down the road. The wheel of progress has many cogs and gears that can easily be thrown out of alignment causing the wheel to slow down or even stop.
For the last year and a half I have attended council meetings on a consistent basis. During this time one thing has become clear to me, many times our elected officials are waving in the breeze with little information and direction to go on. Things that are discussed or questions that are asked rarely receive follow-ups. This causes a lot of things to slip through the cracks. A lot of decisions are put off because the information required isn’t readily available, and is in some cases never received by the councilman requesting it.
We have a contract with the City of Ridgeside with an automatic renewal clause. We provide fire and police protection for a set fee. We send a patrol car over there for 10 – 15 minutes, three times a day and respond to any emergencies they may have. This contract is one that’s been in place for a long time. Changing it or canceling it requires six month notice. For two years our council has questioned if this is a “good deal” for our city. Are we spending more to provide these services than we are charging?
Fair question and one that should be easy to determine. If we are under-charging, we may need to cancel or renegotiate. If we are making a profit, we renew the contract. Councilman Jacky Cagle had asked for information for weeks regarding exactly what we are spending to honor this contract. To my knowledge he never received this information and the time to provide Ridgeside with notice has passed so the contract will again be renewed with no changes.
Our employees have been working for years without a personnel policy that is correct or up to date. According to the last available set of ordinances employees should receive X number of weeks of vacation time per pay period. However, when the pay period was changed from weekly to bi-weekly this number wasn’t adjusted. Technically, every employee is being given twice the vacation time they should receive because that ordinance, to my knowledge, was never amended.
We have a firm ordinance on the books that prohibits more than one business located at the same address with the same owner from being on the wrecker rotation. Yes, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation looked into our “Wrecker Ordinance” conducting a months-long investigation. Yet, we still have Broome’s Wrecker Service and East Ridge Auto Electric both on our wrecker rotation in direct violation of our own city ordinance.
We have had the proposal to fill an administration position on the weekly agenda for three meetings. For two of those three meetings nothing has been done because the information the council needed to reach an informed decision was unavailable and not provided them.
It is apparent that the council is at times making blind decisions and at other times unable to take any action due to lack of information. This is causing the whole process to grind to a near halt. It causes items to take way longer than they should to push through the council and continuously holds up decisions.
Last year, two business people trying to open a Mexican restaurant at the old Ryan’s location came before the council seeking a beer variance. See, they could get a liquor license from the state but the building was too close to a nearby church and needed a variance. The council asked Andrew Hyatt, the City Manager at the time, to reach out to people at the church to see if they opposed the variance. For whatever reason, for meeting after meeting, Mr. Hyatt was unable to provide any information. The couple reached the lock-in date for their lease and decided to back out.
So what can be done? Well, ultimately whatever is done will be the will of the council. What I would advocate is the creation of a position within city hall that would act as a liaison or assistant to the council. Let this person be responsible for attending meetings and taking notes of things that need followed-up on, or information that may be required before the next meeting to inform the council member. They can help set the agenda and ensure that when the council discusses having a workshop to address the personnel manual that the workshop actually happens.
This person could reach out to each council member and provide them with the upcoming agenda and resolution language. This person could also, perhaps, gather any information a council member may need for the meeting so they will feel prepared. They could also field questions council members have about an upcoming resolution or budget item and provide feedback to help them better understand what the councilman will be asked to decide. They could also help council get answers to any other question or item they feel needs addressed.
Traditionally this function would be preformed by the City Manager. However for years our City Managers have been so busy actually running the city that they didn’t have time to adequately assist the council in these matters.
With all the things going on in our city its time the council got the help it needs. Let’s do whatever we can to assist these elected officials in having everything they need to make informed decisions and to quickly and efficiently handle things that come before them.
Serving this city should not place an undo burden on those citizens elected to make these decisions.
