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HomeMy WebLinkAbout12-14-1999 Meeting I ADMINISTRATOR'S EV ALVA TION SUBCOMMITTEE COMMITTEE ROOM - December 14, 1999 4:00 P. M. PRESENT: Hons. Bob Young, Mayor; Kuhlke, Bridges, Colclough, Mays, H. Brigham, Commissioners; Randy Oliver, Administrator; Lena Bonner, Clerk of Commission. ABSENT: Hons. Powell and Handy, Commissioners. ;.":1 . " :-1 .i Mr. Kuhlke: What I was hoping that may come out of this is for the Administrator to present this subcommittee with some proposed goals and objectives that through his discretion he can take of and would like to see done in the year 2000. These would be things that he can do and has the authority to do as a result of his position. Then also some things that he would like to see done that would require the Commission's approval. From an evaluation standpoint, things that he sets forth to do and has the latitude to do, it's pretty easy to write those down and evaluate them on a six- month basis. On the other hand, things that must come back to us for approval on, those that have been approved, you can evaluate them. Those that are not approved by us, he can't be held accountable for those things. Ifwe approach this the right way, I think we could then have an evaluation situation that would not only be for the Administrator, but we would have a situation where we evaluated our performance on specific things. And these may be things outside the routine things that we do. Randy, have you had a formal evaluation in the three years you've been here? Mr. Oliver: No. Mr. Kuhlke: What sort of input would you like to share with us as far as going through this process? I Mr. Oliver: It would have been pretty difficult in the past in that there were a lot of things to be put together and there were a lot of demands in that vein. There are goals and objectives in the 2000 budget for each department and each constitutional officer which had never been there before. I was trying to do that this year because it will give me the benchmark for performance for them at the end of the year. There are great disparities within some areas. Some of them are very forward thinking; for example, the Fire Department, Purchasing, the Finance Department and Public Works have done a very good job in preparing their goals and objectives for 2000 and 2001. Some of the other areas will need a little more work which will take some time. There are some pros and cons into throwing out the goals and objectives. It is very difficult sometimes to get the unanimous consensus often people to do the same thing. Consequently, if you set something up as a goal or objective and somebody is very much opposed to it, it gives them a greater opportunity to see it defeated. That's one of the downsides to it. But the advantage to it is if everybody will do it and adopt those as goals and objectives on the front end and say this is where we want to go and do this in a cooperative spirit and say this is the will of the group and pledge not to do that, then I think it's a very useful tool because everyone is pulling in the same direction and has the same expectations and time frame for accomplishing it. And that's probably one major shortcoming of most governmental entities and it is something that is commonly done in the private sector. If we can do that, that's a wonderful thing. I Mr. Colclough: I think once you establish your goals and objectives, then you can see where you're going. Mr. Mays: I think the Administrator needs to know that we will be supportive of those things that need to be accomplished. ".. "' ,~.. Mr. Kuhlke: I had asked Randy how many departments were under him and he said about 20. Then I asked how often does he get with them and he said that they have staff meetings once a week But what I meant was often does he visit those departments and he said not nearly enough. So from his standpoint, part of his job is knowing what is going on in each one of these departments and communicating with these departments. But that may be one of his goals that he can do. Another goal he may come up with that means we may become involved is do we in the year 2000 revisit the space study and decide what we're going to do about it. That's something that he can take the ball with, but we're going to have to make the decision on that. Once we come up with a list of things, then we present it back to the Commission and they need to buy into it. The danger that Randy talked about is that somebody may be opposed to one of the goals, but if we've got consensus or at least six votes in favor of what goals or objectives we set up, it's something we can work on. For him to effectively get out, he's got to be able to delegate responsibility. Can he delegate responsibility with just Walter sitting there or do we need somebody else in addition to Walter to delegate responsibilities to do some stuff to give him the freedom out? That's a decision that falls back on us. I Mr. Mays: It also gets back to how we set the government up. This was a new situation for us and perhaps we should have had two assistants established early on. If he needs a different structure in his area, then maybe we should listen to that. Mr. Oliver: We're trying to consolidate some of those departments and we've proposed some of those consolidations in the budget. I would ultimately like to be in a position where I can get out to a department and drop in for, say, one day every six months or something like that just to have a little bit more "hands on". I think there is a lot of benefit in getting out in the field and I would like to do that. .,;..",.~ Mr. Kuhlke: Mr. Mays, if Mr. Oliver comes up with some things he wants to do and if what he wants to do means that we may have to create an additional position and obviously, we have to justify it, would you want to express it that way? Mr. Mays: He would have to determine what he wants to do. Mr. Kuhlke: My concern for this government is that if Mr. Oliver were presented an opportunity and he left us, in my estimation we would be floating without a motor for I about six to eight months and I have a problem with that. We're doing some things but .. j we're not in a very comfortable position right now in this government. I would like for Mr. Oliver to come back to us with a list of things that he as the Administrator would like to try to accomplish. These would be things that he has control over. Then he would come up with another list of things that need to be done but would take the ratification of the Commission to do. I'd like to let each Commissioner know through correspondence through the Clerk that we're going through this process and trying to develop some goals and objectives for the Commission and ask them to submit some things that they might like to see done. In a. second meeting, perhaps in early January, we can digest what Mr. Oliver comes back with, what we have from the other Commissioners and see if we as a committee can come up with a list of things that we can present to the Commission at the second meeting in January and see where we go from there. I Mr. Mays: I am also concerned about the millions of dollars being spent by the personnel who manage the various departments. Mr. Kuhlke: Randy, does this provide you with any direction on what you may come back with? .'1 .:i , , Mr. Oliver: Yes, I can do that. I would note a difference between the public sector and the private sector. With a Board of Directors you frequently come in and tell them what you're going to do. In a governmental entity the job of a good administrator is to provide the Commission and the Mayor the options and to try to build a consensus and to provide your best professional recommendation. I think we can do it and we're putting together a list of accomplishments for the year so we've got that to build on and where we'd like to see us go. Mr. Kuhlke: And we would present our recommendations to the full Commission. Is that correct, Bob? Mr. Mayor: That would be my understanding. Mr. Kuhlke: We are then establishing how we will do the evaluation, what we perceive as goals and objectives, provided we've gotten some input from the other Commissioners, and then we make a presentation to the Commission. If we can get unanimous consent here, then it's sold to the Commission. Mr. Mayor: Right. Mr. Kuhlke:We will decide what we will accept that Randy presents to us, decide what we want to try to get accomplished as a Commission, try to get this approved in January, publish that and at the end of the year we'll give a report on how well we did. It was the consensus of the sub-committee that they proceed in this manner. I Mr. Kuhlke: Lena, would you develop a letter to the Commissioners outlining what we are trying to do and get that out to them for a response back? The Clerk: Yes, sir. I Mr. Kuhlke: We'll probably need to try to set up a two-hour meeting for our next meeting since we'll have some things to discuss. If it's posssible, I'd like to do it the first week in January probably late in the afternoon around 4:00. ADJOURNMENT: There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned. Lena J. Bonner Clerk of Commission NWM '.'! . . ; ~ I "j I