Austin Constituents Hearing on City Manager Performance
Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2016 6:05 pm
CM Colleagues:
I've heard from numerous groups throughout the city that such constituents groups would like to be heard regarding Council's assessment of city management.
The following is from ChangeAustin.org (Brian Rodgers), but it reflects a much broader viewpoint.
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What Austin deserves in Council’s Review of the City Manager
1. Hold the Council discussion with the City Manager on his evaluation in public. There is no legal reason Council cannot do that. At a minimum, if there are some truly confidential issues that need to be discussed, the Council can retire to executive session just for that, and return the public session.
2. Require the City Manager to complete a written performance evaluation and have Council put it's individual and collective evaluation of his performance in writing. Make it available to the public for comment.
3. The citizens of Austin deserve a chance to review the manager of the city, a city in an affordability crisis. A time certain is guaranteed by a public hearing.
4. Performance metrics should be tied to the outcomes laid out in Imagine Austin.
5. A major responsibility of the City Manager is to inform the council on major projects. How has he had the City Council’s back on protecting Austin’s affordability related to major expenditures on projects like Biomass ($2.3B), Water Treatment Plant #4 ($0.5 - 1.0B), Waller Creek, Seaholm, and just recently, Pilot Knob ~$80M and a slew of smaller projects involving millions of public dollars.
6. The city is a $3B per-year corporation. Most corporations in America, this size or larger, routinely evaluate their chief executive officer with a 360-review. The same can be said for many public institutions including our own Huston-Tillotson University. We want a 360-degree review of the City Manager so that people who work under the CM can – anonymously – comment on his performance, just like HT students do of their faculty.
7. What does the City Manager do to enhance the city’s relationship with other government entities and other civic organizations?
8. Is the City Manager providing information to the council requested of him in a timely manner for making decisions?
I've heard from numerous groups throughout the city that such constituents groups would like to be heard regarding Council's assessment of city management.
The following is from ChangeAustin.org (Brian Rodgers), but it reflects a much broader viewpoint.
----
What Austin deserves in Council’s Review of the City Manager
1. Hold the Council discussion with the City Manager on his evaluation in public. There is no legal reason Council cannot do that. At a minimum, if there are some truly confidential issues that need to be discussed, the Council can retire to executive session just for that, and return the public session.
2. Require the City Manager to complete a written performance evaluation and have Council put it's individual and collective evaluation of his performance in writing. Make it available to the public for comment.
3. The citizens of Austin deserve a chance to review the manager of the city, a city in an affordability crisis. A time certain is guaranteed by a public hearing.
4. Performance metrics should be tied to the outcomes laid out in Imagine Austin.
5. A major responsibility of the City Manager is to inform the council on major projects. How has he had the City Council’s back on protecting Austin’s affordability related to major expenditures on projects like Biomass ($2.3B), Water Treatment Plant #4 ($0.5 - 1.0B), Waller Creek, Seaholm, and just recently, Pilot Knob ~$80M and a slew of smaller projects involving millions of public dollars.
6. The city is a $3B per-year corporation. Most corporations in America, this size or larger, routinely evaluate their chief executive officer with a 360-review. The same can be said for many public institutions including our own Huston-Tillotson University. We want a 360-degree review of the City Manager so that people who work under the CM can – anonymously – comment on his performance, just like HT students do of their faculty.
7. What does the City Manager do to enhance the city’s relationship with other government entities and other civic organizations?
8. Is the City Manager providing information to the council requested of him in a timely manner for making decisions?