8/23/2007

Mayoral Forum-More Questions

One of our local County Commissioners, Joe Briggs, has offered some more questions for discussion. It's nice to know that at least our County officials are paying attention to the discussion. His questions are good ones. Hopefully the candidates can respond, even if informally:

1) How much time PER DAY will you be able to devote to the commission should you be elected?

2) What experience do you have in the analysis of complex situations and what problem solving techniques do you employ?

3) Can you read and understand financial statements?

4) What experiences do you have that you believe have prepared you for this position.

5) Would you vote to set a maximum contract term for the new city manager? Why or why not and if so, what length of time would you set?

6) Would you support City Commissioners having a shared office and scheduled office hours within the Civic Center? Currently, no office space is being made available for use by the commissioners.

7) Would you support the creation of a single staff position reporting directly to the commission rather than the city manager to assist in research and responding to citizen concerns and complaints?

8) What do you believe is the role of the City Manager in the policy setting process?

9) What do you believe is the role of each Commissioner in the policy setting process?

10) As a Commissioner, what methods would you employ to monitor whether or not city policies are being enacted correctly, consistently and effectively?

11) If elected would you be willing to step back and review the initial assumptions involved in the city’s decisions regarding ECP and SME to examine whether or not they remain valid today? If yes, can you do so in a balanced and unbiased manner based on standard business practice and models?

12) The city’s charter grants broad power and latitude to the city government. Please describe any areas where you feel there needs to an adjustment made to the powers granted by the charter.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just posted under wake up...

I am very curious what level of education our present commissioners, mayor and candidates have achieved? Mr. Lawton and his staff?

Would the candidates please list business background & higher education that prepares them for this position?

Geeguy, can you fill in any blanks from current sitting commission?

Anonymous said...

Gee Guy,

Could you please put the questions and answers for the mayors race forum under a label like you did with the coal plant?

It would be easier to follow the trail.

Treasure State Jew said...

I think that these are extremely relevant questions. They really get to the heart of some of the problems that, IMHO, we the people have with our city commission.

Anonymous said...

The Questions from Joe Briggs....

Gee Guy has often suggested temperance in how we look at at what appears to be....

These questions offer a reminder to candidates to carefully consider personal issuses vs. commissioners/mayoral issues - the old first pull the beam out of your eye before you attempt to pull the mote out of someone elses.

Candidates run the risk of becoming blind and easily blindsided if they don't adequately address their own shortcomings.

Thanks, Joe!

Anonymous said...

Excellent questions!


JWC

Anonymous said...

Good questions indeed, Joe. You have keen concepts and because of that (and surely other reasons too), you are doing a good job in your role as a County Commissioner.

Citizens can only hope that analytical questions will also be presented to the candidate(s) during the 2008 County Commission election. We should have the expectation of a certain level of ability from re-elected or newly elected local government officials that are actually paid a full time salary from the tax payers.

Anonymous said...

Very pertinent questions for all leaders, especially those in public service. I also suggest staff reports to the city commissioners INCLUDE the advantages AND disadvantages of staff proposals...many of the city's staff reports do not address consequences of motions, and leave the city commissioners with nothing to weigh in the balance. Staff studies and reports by business and military staffs do often address pro/con perspectives IF the decision makers set the standards.

Anonymous said...

Question 10:
10) As a Commissioner, what methods would you employ to monitor whether or not city policies are being enacted correctly, consistently and effectively?

What is meant by "enacted?" Are you talking about how policies are set or executed?

Ed Mcknight said...

Here we have an example of the strength of this forum. Anyone can ask anything and when someone hits the nail on the head we can agree, wow, what great questions! I'd like to suggest though that all candidates submit their answers to Greg so he can post them at one time.

My formal education is posted on my website under “Documents” on my ”Background” page.

Ed Mcknight
Quality Leadership in City Government

Anonymous said...

Anonymous

Question number 10:

The intent of the question was to deal with the implementation of policies. "Enacted" was a poor choice of words on my part.

Sorry for the confusion.

Joe