Good Dialogue, Protocol Keys To Effective Service
February 08, 2011
In many communities across Maine, new selectmen and councilors will take office this month. Meanwhile, veteran managers are retiring while younger ones are just starting or still building their municipal careers.
The Townsman recently questioned three veteran municipal leaders about advice for new elected officials and managers with the hope of sharing insight about common problems and ways to resolve them.
Those interviewed include: former Oakland Town Councilor Dennis McLellan; former Portland Councilor and Mayor Pam Plumb; and former Town Manager Don Gerrish, who now helps municipalities as a private consultant.
Q: Do you have any advice for councilors and selectmen in dealing with the manager and other municipal staff?
Gerrish: (As a former manager), ethics is a place to good start. I think a manager needs to understand that there are the elected officials and they have their roles and managers have their roles. The No. 1 priority should be communication to understand each other’s roles. For managers, they should communicate with all their board members all the time – not just the chairman – and communicate with them at the same time. If you don’t communicate and deal with issues, you’re going to have a lot of problems.
McLellan: If someone comes to you with a problem, go to the town manager and put it down the chain-of-command. Don’t act on it; wait until you find out from the town manager exactly what the facts are. Then you can go back to the person (with the problem) and have good information on the matter. Some councilors think they’re going to change the world, and they go directly to the public works director, for example. That’s not the way to do it.
Plumb: Be very clear about what your role is and how that role is different from the staff’s role. Your job is to listen to your constituency, understand (the public’s) needs, gather the data (from staff) you will need and then make the most reasoned judgment you can make. That brings together what your public wants with what is realistic and financially feasible, and in the best interest of the community as a whole. In the broad brush, I think that’s the largest responsibility of the council.
Q: What is the appropriate or most effective way for councilors or selectmen to conduct themselves?
McLellan: Sit back and listen to both perspectives before you act on the issue or problem you’re looking at. What I did was look at the paperwork and then a person could go back and look at the (same) paperwork and have a better idea of the facts and what is the best way forward.
Plumb: There are two things to remember: The council makes the decisions collectively, so you don’t, as an individual councilor, have the power or the right to say that I want (a) road repaved in the part (of the city) and go (directly) to the public works director. That’s a decision of the entire council based on what the staff and the public works department determines should be paved and when. Secondly, the manager is hired by the whole council to manage the town’s government and that you as a councilor need to let your manager do that. If you have a disagreement with the manager about something, you, individually, aren’t in a position to tell the manager what to do differently. Again, it’s the entire council that makes the decision about whether to do something differently. It’s intimidating if councilors (go) to staff and tell them to do this or that. I have never met a department head who has enough time to do all that has to be done.
Gerrish: My advice (for elected officials) is to really understand your role and your charter. Most charters and state statutes are pretty clear that elected officials go through the manager, not directly to (staff). That doesn’t mean you can’t have questions about the operations of a department. We work under an informational system; you have to make sure you communicate and follow the chain-of-command. As elected officials, you need to be sure you don’t surprise people or surprise the manager. Communicate.
Q: Do you have an anecdote about something that surprised you in dealing with a manager or peer?
Plumb: I’m not sure any one thing surprised me. I found having (an) open and easy relationship with the manager was very helpful to me. Almost none of us come to (elected office) with experience running a town or city. We’re milkmen, insurance agents, housewives, but we almost never have municipal (work) experience. It’s sort of a symbiotic relationship in that councilors are very dependent on the expertise of the manager and the manager is very dependent on the council for his or her job. And so the council can’t get very far without being able to get support and information from the manager and the manager is going to end up without a job if he or she gets too far out of sync with the council, and that’s a fine balance. The general public doesn’t get that. Some say ‘Let’s run government like a business,’ but (government) has a whole different purpose. It’s not the same creature.
Gerrish: Nothing surprises me after 37 years. I have confidence in the manager/council/selectmen form of government. I think it works if people are working together and communicating. If the manager and the board understand their separate responsibilities and roles, the process works pretty well.
McLellan: One of our town managers resigned and took another job at a much higher salary. I was very surprised. I didn’t know it was coming. If there’s an opportunity for someone to better themselves, they should take it; I don’t blame them at all for doing that. But this time I didn’t hear (of the manager’s impending resignation) through the grapevine. The grapes weren’t good that year.
Q: What makes a good councilor, selectman or manager?
Gerrish: A good manager is one who clearly understands how government works, how the process works and can communicate and talk with their elected officials as well as their department leaders and the public. The process of communicating is what the council wants and the public wants. Be upfront about decisions… Elected officials and the public want answers; they may not always like the answer, but most of the time they will understand it even if they don’t agree with it. The manager has to have a sense of humor. It’s a tough job and I think you need to be able to do a lot of hard work but to have a little fun, too. That’s something I feel strongly about.
McLellan: Listening is the key one. Listen to the people. Get their opinions and then go to the town manager and ask if he’s aware (of the issue). The people have to have confidence in their councilors; they look to them as the people who represent them. But you need to follow the rules. Some people have their own agendas and you can’t sway them from it, but the council and the town employees are trying to better the town and do the right thing.
Plumb: I think people often are cause-driven when they run for council and that’s the horse they ride through the election and they can openly have an impact on that cause if they find they have all the facts and information. Yes, they can convince the rest of the council that’s something important to do, but you can’t go in there willy-nilly and just make everyone do what you want.Dennis McLellan
Q: What was your favorite aspect of public service?
Plumb: There are two. I love problem-solving and public service provides a problem a minute that needs solving, so I got problems to solve to my heart’s content and that was great. Also, there are often very small ways in which you can help people. Sometimes it’s not even a city issue. So it’s extra rewarding to be able to (help people). We can’t help everyone, but we can always listen. Even if they’re off the mark with a problem, the reality for them is far different.
Gerrish: Local government is where it happens. People can see and feel a sense of accomplishment. I used to speak to third-graders and would say, “It’s good to study the federal and state governments… But you’ll have more interaction in your lifetime with local government.” I think it’s important for kids to understand the value they’ll get from local government. I also enjoyed the diversity of what we did.
McLellan: Being involved. I knew what was going on in town. I miss it a little but at least I don’t have the headaches. Some people think you can snap your fingers and solve a problem. I just listen to them and tell them I have to get back to them. They might say they don’t agree, but you have to tell them, “That’s the way it is right now.”
Q: Who is one of your heroes and why?
Gerrish: I had two mentors: John Bibber and Osmond (Oz) Bonsey. Both John and Oz were senior (Brunswick) managers and very successful in the profession and they really were able to help me as I grew and became a manager. These two people really helped mold my career and gave me someone to look up to and emulate.
McLellan: (Current Waterville City Manager) Mike Roy, who was able to get First Park (an industrial park sited in nearby Oakland). We couldn’t have gotten it without Mike.
Plumb: Internationally, Desmond Tutu, a person who lived through an astonishing change from a government that totally devalued him as a person because he was black to a government run by (the people). He never lost his optimism or his ability to empathize with people. (Locally), Julian Orr (now deceased) was a fine, fine public servant, a thoughtful man, a creative person and a person who really reached out and did unusual things with his life.
Courtesy of The Maine Townsman
By Liz Chapman Mockler