Who Runs the City?

The November issue of Looking@Lakewood included a column reflecting on Lakewood’s style of government. Lakewood’s city charter set up a council-manager form of government. Per the article, this form involves hiring “a professional city manager who puts those [city council] policies into action by directing and overseeing the day-to-day operations of the city’s departments and staff members.”

                As pointed out in the article, the advantage of the council-manager form is to minimize the potentially unethical influence of elected officials. It relies on an experienced and non-political manager to oversee operations. Not discussed in the article is that the disadvantage of the system is the development of an entrenched bureaucracy.

Mayor Adam Paul also chose the November issue of Looking@Lakewood to write about the council-manager form of government. He writes, “My role, in combination with council members, is to work together, as no one council member can direct staff.”

Mayor Paul notes two different actions: directing staff and working together. It appears that Mayor Paul meant that council works together, and staff work together…. Separately.

Council Member Olver asked to work with staff and describes running into “roadblocks”. In this same November issue of Looking@Lakewood, Olver writes, “… after I asked to be included in staff discussions about a topic in which I’m an expert [a department director said]: “It would not be best practice to invite an elected official to join an internal staff meeting.”

Apparently, city employees may feel that discussion equals direction and will enforce working separately.

However, there is another explanation when viewed from a stakeholder perspective. According to ProjectManagement.com, “When you plot your stakeholders on a power/interest grid, you can determine who has high or low power to affect your project and who has high or low interest. People with high power need to be kept satisfied while people with high interest need to be kept informed” (see chart below from same source).

Using this chart, we can assume that Council Member Olver is low on the power scale, so no one on city staff thinks he is in the “keep satisfied” category. This theory is further proved by the simple observation that Council Member Olver’s column totaled 164 words, similar to other council members, while, coincidentally, there appeared to be two rebuttals to his remarks, spread over two columns totaling about 600 words.

Council members have zero power in day-to-day decisions, and according to the column example, get told so regularly. Council members do not have the power to hire and fire or spend funds. They cannot self-publish a city-wide publication like Looking@Lakewood. City management has that power. So the question to ask is, does the city use that power to bring you all the information, or only the information it wants you to see. For example, did the city tell you about the possible formation of an entrenched bureaucracy?

Calvin Coolidge warned about bureaucracy overwhelming democracy in a speech he gave in 1926:

No plan of centralization has ever been adopted which did not result in bureaucracy, tyranny, inflexibility, reaction, and decline. Of all forms of government, those administered by bureaus are about the least satisfactory to an enlightened and progressive people. Being irresponsible they become autocratic, and being autocratic they resist all development. Unless bureaucracy is constantly resisted it breaks down representative government and overwhelms democracy. It is the one element in our institutions that sets up the pretense of having authority over everybody and being responsible to nobody.

https://blog.acton.org/archives/70151-calvin-coolidges-warning-entrenched-bureaucracy.html