Mayor and Council Retreat
April 2023
Hayward,
California
Agenda
• Introduction and Expectations
• Governing Together
• The Council Staff Partnership
• Expectations
• Validating the Roadmap
• The Council Handbook
• Parting Thoughts
Introductions
4 Name
Role – How long
Expectation for
today’s conversation
5 Governing Together
Governing Together
• What does good governance look like to you?
• What values are important to you in governing?
• What is important to remember when your position is the prevailing decision, and what is important to remember when your position is not the prevailing decision?
• What type of relationship do you hope to have with your colleagues on the governing body?
• What type of relationship do you hope to have with the City Manager and her team?
• What do you hope this governing body will be known for? 7 8
Bridging the Gap:
The Council and Staff in
Partnership
9 10
13 The Politics/Administration Dichotomy
Mission
Policy
Administration
Management
Manager’s Sphere
Determine “purpose,” scope
of services, tax level,
constitution issues
Pass ordinances; approve
new projects an programs;
ratify budget
Make implementing decisions
(e.g., site selection); handle
complaints; oversee
administration
Suggest management changes
to manager; review
organization’s performance in
manager’s appraisal
Advise (what city “can” do may
influence what it “should” do);
analyze conditions and trends
Make recommendations on all
decisions; formulate budget;
determine service distribution
formula
Establish practices and
procedures and make
decisions for implementing
policy
Control the human, material &
informational resources of
organization to support policy
and administrative functions
Source: Jim Svara, Dichotomy and Duality: Reconceptualizing the Relationship between Policy and Administration in Board-Manager Cities, Public Administration Review, Vol. 45, No. 1, pp 221 – 232)
Council’s Sphere
16 17
Public Service
Values
Values (Values video and case study)
Responsiveness =
Representation/
Participation
Efficiency and
Effectiveness/
Professionalism
Social Equity,
Diversity, and
Inclusion
Justice and
Individual Rights
Who is obligated to speak to the unspoken value?
19 Expectations
Expectations Gives
Articulating Expectations
• What do you need and expect from
your City Council Colleagues?
• What do you need and expect from
the Mayor?
• What does the City Council need
and expect from the City Manager
and her team?
• What are you willing to give your
City Council Colleagues?
• What are you willing to give the
Mayor?
• What is the City Council willing to
give the City Manager and her team?
20 21
Validating the
Roadmap
Hayward’s Strategic Roadmap
• Enhance Community Safety & Quality of Life
• Confront Climate Crisis & Champion
Environmental Justice
• Grow the Economy
• Preserve, Protect & Produce Housing for All
• Invest in Infrastructure
• Strengthen Organizational Health
22 23
The Council
Handbook
Areas to Discuss
24 Cups Video
25 Questions/Comments
27 Julia Novak
[email protected]
28 Quasi-Randomly
Called For
Resource Slides
Council-Staff Dynamics
29 High-Performing
Council Dynamic
Underperforming
1. Collaborative, inquiring,
community-minded, and
cups-sensitive; gets things
done; sees itself as a
governing body and values
staff work
2. Collaborative and functional,
but not very skilled;
community-minded but naïve
about translating needs to
action; sees itself as a
governing body but unsure
and hesitant about how to put
that view into practice
3. Moderately functional;
focus is narrowly district or
issue oriented; respect for
other council members more
expressed than
demonstrated
4. Dysfunctional; personal
attacks, narrow and possibly
partisan focus; speaks to
own audience; failure to
acknowledge and
incorporate other views into
decision making
Staff Dynamic
1. Staff advances
community interests; speaks
to the unspoken value;
respects council members
and values governing body’s
role
2. Staff cautiously advances
community interests; mindfully
and respectfully assists
governing body’s desire to
work together
3. Staff cautiously advocates
for community-wide
perspective and unspoken
values; supports district or
issue orientation of the
governing body, creating
some tension about staff
roles and responsibilities
4. Staff very cautious in
relationship with governing
body; prudently advances
community goals/values;
easily becomes defensive
30 The BRAVING
Inventory
Boundaries
Reliability
Accountability
Vault
Integrity
Nonjudgement
Generosity
32 Trust
• Where does it fit in your governance culture?
• If trust is so important, why does it seem to be a continuing issue? In other words, what is the value of not trusting? • What are the elements of a trusting relationship?
Characteristics of Politics and Administration
34 Characteristics Politics Administration
Activity Game/allocation of values Problem Solving
Players Representatives/trustees Experts-trustees
Conversation “What do you hear?”
Passion
Dreams
Stories
CAO,
Senior Staff and Third
Parties in the
GAP
Electeds*
“What do you know?”
Data
Plans
Reports
Pieces Intangible:
Interests and symbols
Tangible:
Information; money, people,
equipment
Currency Power (stories), loyalty, trust Knowledge (deeds) Dynamics Constructive conflict, compromise,
change
Predictability, cooperation, continuity
Political Acceptability Operational Sustainability Bi-lingual
• Understands that no value profile is the “best”
• Politics and administration are more than different
roles, behaviors, and responsibilities. They are
mindsets.
• Understands the difference between the power to
convene and the power to decide/authorize
36 Trust—A personal challenge
• Are you willing to share information?
• Are you willing to be persuaded?
• Do you feel a need to control the other?
• Dale Zand, Administrative Science Quarterly, June 1972 Trustworthiness: A Personal Challenge
Ability to build positive relationships by focusing on the other person; being self-confident; possessing good ego strength*; and being curious, inclusive and professional. 38 *good ego strength allows you to focus on the matter at hand, or the goal, and not on who gets the blame or the credit for get ting there. Just as wanting all the credit or none of the blame is self -focused, so too is taking all the responsibility.
After Maister, D et al (2002) The Trusted Advisor
SOT=
(C + R) x I
Where
T = Trustworthiness
C = Credibility
R = Reliability
I = Intimacy
SO = Self-orientation
Leadership Attributes
Meaning and Purpose
Empathy
Humility and Will
Agile and Adaptive
Incremental Revolutionary
Diversity and
Inclusion
Connect Story
and Data
Symphonic Skills
Decisive
Courage
44 Paths to
Reconciliation
Develop bridge
building roles &
responsibilities
Networked
problem-
solving
structures
Engagement
processes in
the community
and in the
organization
Paths to Reconciliation
Roles and
Responsibilities
Political and administrative
actors moving into the gap
Structures
Developing skills/mindset
where the problems to be
solved drive the work and
boundaries adjust –
acknowledge identify/issues of
loss
Processes
Imperative for engagement
that incorporates public values
and deliberative processes
Roles and
Responsibilities
46 “…if the manager is expected to be more outward
facing and more attuned to the elected body and
the community, assistants and department heads
need to understand this expectation. They are now
expected to take on more of the interpretation
and bridging role that the city/county manager has
in order to assist the manager to effectively execute
council and community goals. This is a new twist on
the concept of delegation—what’s being
delegated is ways of ‘being’ more than tasks of
‘doing.’”
› Retired City Manager, Northern California
Structures
47 “I think there’s a recognition that solving the ‘wicked problems’ of government—from homelessness to economic equity to
sustainability—demand leadership across functions and teams both inside and outside of government. This requires far more than the technocratic expertise of ‘managing’ a function”
› City Manager, Michigan
Structures
48 “There is a need to cultivate meaningful relationships with the durable partners in the community across government, schools, the private sector, and non-profits.
› Former City Manager, Colorado Front Range
› Who are the durable partners in your jurisdiction?
› Are you reinforcing their role/value? What could you be doing more of? Less of to convey “partnership?”
Processes/Engagement
49 “Traditional engagement with residents is complicated by public access to information and data bases that can truly create resident experts. In the 20th century staff were experts and had sole possession of most of the information required to address community issues. Today, one could argue that the role of staff is more about validating good information and working with ‘community experts’ to reach decisions.” www.saveourschools497.org
“With such accessible information, engagement has gone beyond the standard function of providing information to residents. It has now moved into the “consultative” and “empowering range of government/citizen relationships.” › Bob O’Neill, Local Government Guru
50 Equity Resolution
Questions asked in budget and CIP processes:
› Equity in Budgeting (Operations and CIP)
Who benefits?
Who is burdened?
Who is missing?
How do we know?
What do we do?
59