During yesterday’s debate on whether additional money should be diverted to the Economic Development Department’s advertising budget, city council member Alex Villalobos asked department director Diana Torres why she needed the additional funds. She told him that back in February, her department had concocted the grandiose outreach plan that loosely revolved around the department’s 15th anniversary and was designed to reach those decision makers involved in business locations. “I wish I had known about that earlier,” Villalobos replied and I immediately realized “He’s absolutely correct. He should have known about that. And what’s more, we, the tax-paying citizens of Kyle should have known about it as well.”
Allow me to backtrack a bit. I’m a big fan of Kyle City Manager Scott Sellers. During my (thankfully) long (and some may say “notorious”) professional career, I’ve worked alongside, consulted, advised between three and four dozen city managers around this country. I’ve been up close and personal with the good, the bad and the ugly of city managers — from the excellent to the utterly incompetent — and, you’re going to have to trust me when I say this, but Sellers is one of the best I’ve ever seen.
But one thing Sellers could really improve on is keeping the council — and in the process, the taxpaying residents of Kyle — better informed on what’s going on within the various city government offices and departments. The most-often asked question I hear from citizens revolves around the central idea of “How are the folks at City Hall spending our tax money?” There’s an easy, efficient way Sellers can satisfactorily answer that question and that is to regularly schedule formal departmental briefings for the city council.
Which brings me back to the “I wish I had known about that earlier” comment from council member Villalobos. Back in February, when Torres conceived her outreach plan, Sellers should have prepared her to make a formal presentation to the council — and hence to the rest of us great unwashed — to announce this project, and, incidentally, lay the groundwork for the next budget discussions.
In fact, Sellers should schedule at least one formal council presentation per month by a department head, either during the first or second council meeting of each month. In the almost six years I have been following this council, the only department head I see regularly briefing council is City Engineer Leon Barba, who will briefly describe the latest reasons for delays in the road bond projects. And every once in a while, Assistant City Manager James Earp will talk about a pending development agreement, but that’s only because council action is needed on the subject. No one conducts public briefings to the council during the regularly scheduled council meetings just for the sake of keeping council members, along with those of us who supply the funds that keep them in business, informed — up-to-date — on what’s going on inside City Hall.
Following yesterday’s discussion of the upcoming budget, the council weighed in on proposed changes to the city’s charter. During those conversations, Mayor Travis Mitchell expressed his desire to somehow, some way, change the charter language in such a way as to promote a higher percentage of Kyle’s registered voters to actually cast ballots during city elections. Council member Robert Rizo mentioned the fact that just a few hours earlier the council had voted to add two more employees to the Communications Department and perhaps those folks could get the word out. At that moment, alarm bells should have sounded in the office of the city manager and in the head of Samantha Armbruster, the city’s director of communications: “We need to get to work immediately to develop a crackerjack measurable get-out-the-vote communications plan.” And once that plan is developed, but before it is launched, Sellers should schedule Armbruster to announce the plan during a formal council briefing, a complete dog-and-pony show with slides and any other audio/visual material that would aid in selling the concept. Give council members the opportunity to ask questions about the plan, offer advice, to become a part of the project and, perhaps even more importantly, give Kyle residents a preview of what’s in store.
This is just one example of a possible subject for a monthly formal council meeting from a city department head. I trust the inventive minds of Sellers, Earp and others to think of others. Charge the individual department heads with the responsibility for developing subjects on which the council and the rest of the us, should be briefed and then prepare those briefings.
One bit of cautionary advice: prior to these department heads delivering these briefs to council, they should conduct a dress rehearsal to a small group to top city administration officials consisting of, say, Sellers, Earp, and Jerry Hendrix (listed as the city’s chief of staff, but the upcoming budget completely defunds the office of chief of staff and I have no clue what that means for Hendrix or the higher-echelon of the city’s administration). They could possibly anticipate the questions council members might pose about the plan during the presentation and then develop the best responses to those questions. But even more important, they could spot holes, weaknesses in the presentation and make recommendations for improvements before it goes to council.
These once-every-month council briefings could go a long way to not only satisfy the “I wish I had known about that earlier” concerns of Villalobos and other council members but answer that “How are the folks at City Hall spending our tax money?” question posed in one way or another by residents.
A little knowledge can go a long way.
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