The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Here's my recap of last night's BOMA meeting.
The Good
The BOMA declined to annex about 40 acres of property east of Wilson Pike. I advocated against the annexation primarily because the annexation would beget an otherwise unnecessary waste water pump station. I hold myself out as the canary in the coal mine when it comes to pump stations because of the fish-kill tragedy of a few years ago. The BOMA also discussed de-annexing other land in the area to prevent the proliferation of otherwise unnecessary pump stations. Portions of land already in the city and under consideration for annexation last night would drain by gravity to the Brentwood wastewater treatment system, thus eliminating any need for pump stations. I have advocated and will continue to contend that good planning should recognize that gravity works always when it comes to waste water. I hope to have further progress on this epiphany in the near future.
The Bad
The BOMA, on a vote carried by Aldermen Bacon, Burger, Kriebel and Phillips, decided to retain the power to hire and fire department heads. In my view, this unnecessarily exposes the department heads to the vagaries of politics and permits or even encourages department heads to pay more attention to impressing the politicians than the city administrator, who remains their day to day boss.
In my opinion, department heads should be focused more on the city administrator's evaluation of their work than on the politician's evaluation of their work because the city administrator is a professional administrator of department heads whose job is to oversee the day-to-day operations of the city. The politicians should be focused more on creating policy and giving direction, in more general terms, to the city administrator and through the city administrator to the department heads. I consider it sufficient accountability over the department heads that the BOMA can fire their boss if the BOMA feels that strongly about the city administrator's supervision, or lack thereof, of the department heads.
None of this is to suggest that the department heads should be alienated from the BOMA; nonetheless, that relationship should be apolitical, or as close to that as possible. Alderman Randolph succinctly hit the nail on the head: we should have divested the BOMA of the power to hire and fire department heads for the same reason that the school board does not hire and fire principals. It was a mistake to retain this power, and I hope the occasion never arises when I could say to my honorable peers, "I told you so."
The Ugly
Mrs. McLendon taught me that if I have nothing nice to say, say nothing. I try to honor my mother, though sometimes I fail. Not tonight.
The Good
The BOMA declined to annex about 40 acres of property east of Wilson Pike. I advocated against the annexation primarily because the annexation would beget an otherwise unnecessary waste water pump station. I hold myself out as the canary in the coal mine when it comes to pump stations because of the fish-kill tragedy of a few years ago. The BOMA also discussed de-annexing other land in the area to prevent the proliferation of otherwise unnecessary pump stations. Portions of land already in the city and under consideration for annexation last night would drain by gravity to the Brentwood wastewater treatment system, thus eliminating any need for pump stations. I have advocated and will continue to contend that good planning should recognize that gravity works always when it comes to waste water. I hope to have further progress on this epiphany in the near future.
The Bad
The BOMA, on a vote carried by Aldermen Bacon, Burger, Kriebel and Phillips, decided to retain the power to hire and fire department heads. In my view, this unnecessarily exposes the department heads to the vagaries of politics and permits or even encourages department heads to pay more attention to impressing the politicians than the city administrator, who remains their day to day boss.
In my opinion, department heads should be focused more on the city administrator's evaluation of their work than on the politician's evaluation of their work because the city administrator is a professional administrator of department heads whose job is to oversee the day-to-day operations of the city. The politicians should be focused more on creating policy and giving direction, in more general terms, to the city administrator and through the city administrator to the department heads. I consider it sufficient accountability over the department heads that the BOMA can fire their boss if the BOMA feels that strongly about the city administrator's supervision, or lack thereof, of the department heads.
None of this is to suggest that the department heads should be alienated from the BOMA; nonetheless, that relationship should be apolitical, or as close to that as possible. Alderman Randolph succinctly hit the nail on the head: we should have divested the BOMA of the power to hire and fire department heads for the same reason that the school board does not hire and fire principals. It was a mistake to retain this power, and I hope the occasion never arises when I could say to my honorable peers, "I told you so."
The Ugly
Mrs. McLendon taught me that if I have nothing nice to say, say nothing. I try to honor my mother, though sometimes I fail. Not tonight.
posted by Alderman Dana McLendon at 3:06 PM
8 Comments:
For the benefit of your readers, I would offer the following:
There are three basic forms of city government.
(1) The Strong Mayor system. Here a full-time mayor runs the city directly and is responsible to the voters. It was the predominant form of city governance until scandals and corruption in big cities led small towns to adopt a less corruptable form:
(2) The Weak Mayor system has a full time city manager (administrator) who runs the city day to day, and the departments are free of political influence. The city manager--and only the city manager--is responsible to elected officials (BOMA) who provide oversight, policy direction and make the "big decisions" in public meetings.
(3) The "Good Ole Boy" system. Here, there is a city administrator, but it's only a figurehead position. The mayor and aldermen are free to exercise ad hoc management on an "as needed" basis. When is it needed? When a relative needs a job, when a supporter needs a favor, when a friend needs a contract.
Guess which system Franklin now has...
where was the JAP during the last BOMA meeting???
MR MILLER'S mother is gravely ill. He was with her, as they were probably removing her life supports.
I believe things got real quite real fast.
real "quite"? What is that?
you're not from around here are you? some body help this soul find all of the information.
Thanks for your thoughts about services to the land east of Wilson Pike at the last Boma.
We were told that it was to be a golf course by many folks for years.
That might expain why it was included to begain with.
Club House needs are a little different then developments.
"real quite" grew up with too many focus days.
The mayor's mother died. Show some respect and "be quiet".
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