Can’t we just make the deadline, people?

EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK

Way to go, Bambi.

Fledgling Councilwoman Jill Hardy, whom I once referred to as

Bambi-esque, stepped up to the plate Monday night with a

well-intentioned motion meant to lend support to city administrators

and streamline the City Council process.

In true teacher form, Hardy asked that reasonable deadlines be set

for council agenda items and that those deadlines be kept.

Sounds easy and reasonable, right? You’d think so.

Unfortunately, this housekeeping item was drawn out into a

tiresome debate that made those watching it want to scream. Trust me.

Let’s back track.

Agenda items come in as late as 5 p.m. the Friday before the

Monday night meeting. Staffers in the city clerk’s office then stay

late on Friday night, sometimes coming in on Saturday, to put the

agenda together and get it out to council members. This gives council

members limited opportunity to go over the material, and the public

virtually none.

So Hardy is right. It’s unreasonable and a waste of taxpayer money

on the unnecessary overtime we’re paying these people in the city

clerk’s office -- not to mention making their jobs miserable -- and

on the cost of hand-delivering agendas to the council.

Why this couldn’t be fixed in City Hall without council

intervention is beyond me. But apparently, it couldn’t, because City

Administrator Ray Silver and City Clerk Connie Brockway said it has

been a decades-long problem that they’d love to have fixed, but

haven’t been able to.

It’s astounding to me that everyone down the line would balk at

meeting deadlines and that managers Silver and Brockway have a

problem getting their people in line.

How did any of these people make it through school if they

couldn’t get their homework in on time?

Managers have to set limits and ground rules. C’mon guys. Take a

page out of our book here at the newspaper. If reporters don’t get

their stuff in by deadline, it doesn’t get in the paper.

Just say no.

As for the council members, they all seemed to support it as long

as it didn’t apply to them, with the exception of Hardy.

“If I can’t get an item in on time, it can wait,” she said.

Bravo.

If only it had ended there. Nitpicking and bickering led to

micromanaging until Councilwoman Debbie Cook pulled out a “Star Trek”

reference, asking that the agenda come two days earlier and telling

staff to “make it so.”

I think it was her way of calling the question, a meeting tactic

I’d use on a regular basis if I were up there.

In the end, they all voted in favor of a motion that had been

amended so many times not even they were sure exactly what they had

just agreed to.

It might have required all ducks to wear long pants, who knows. I

guess I’ll have to wait until the next last-minute agenda to find

out.

* DANETTE GOULET is the city editor. She can be reached at (714)

965-7170 or by e-mail at [email protected].