This Needs To Get Done

Normally when we go to the ballot box to cast votes for candidates for the school board, city council, state legislature, Congress, the White House, or whatever office is being contested, we expect the winner to have an impact and possibly make needed changes in the entity’s bureaucracy.

Oh, if that were only the case in the structure of the City of Lubbock. 

Because our City Charter, writen almost 100 years ago, established that the city would be governed by what is known as the “council-manager” form of government citizens are powerless.  Under a council-manager government, the mayor is a first among equals on the city council, analogous to a head of state for the city. The mayor and city council serve part-time, with day-to-day administration in the hands of a manager. 

This system is popular in rural areas because at the time cities were being created local folks were busy trying to build their businesses and city government was small.  Even today in some West Texas communities operating under the council-manager form, the city manager runs the city and may even drive the garbage truck.

That scenario is similar to how it was when Lubbock was formed.  We were a small community trying to get on our feet; we didn’t really need a lot of government.  A few police officers, firefighters and clerks were all that we needed to make our city run.

When our charter was written, Lubbock was a smaller place.  And the city fathers really didn’t want to run the town.  That’s why they set up a structure that resulted in giving all the power of the citizens to one lone city manager who only had to keep a simple majority of the council happy in order to keep the job.

Today, though, look at what we have–a city bureaucracy with the number of employees that rivals the city’s largest private businesses and may be among the top five largest employers in the county.  And, the manager is accountable to only four citizens (and, because of the wily politics of city managers, those four change every day)!

Now comes John Leonard, a city council member from the southwest-south portion of Lubbock, who has become extremely frustrated by the fact that he was elected to serve his district, but his hands are tied by the bureaucracy. 

He has learned what veteran council members also learned after being elected:  Making changes in City Hall when you have key city staff that care only about their jobs and not the citizens is impossible.  For example, say some particular department, maybe the water department, isn’t doing its job and the leader of the water department is not being truthful about the city’s water resources (maybe even lying to the council).  (Editor’s note:  Using the water department and its leadership is only an example and nothing should be read between the lines).

So now council has a department manager lying to it, but, because the water manager is a special “pet” for the city manager nothing ever gets done and the city runs out of water (just saying, as an example).  Who’s to blame?  And, what could have been done?

As long as the appointed city manager is able to dole out projects to enough council members, nothing could have been done, even if an elected official knew a screwup was happening.  Remember, under the Lubbock form of government, elected officials can not do a damn thing about City Hall and the folks that run it unless they have the support of a council majority.

Leonard now wants to go back and look at the City Charter that was written and approved by the voters more than 90 years ago.

Leonard wants to remove some of the antiquated rules about free trolley rides and movie tickets for city employees and also take a look at how the charter requires governance of Lubbock Power and Light.  This LP&L issue, since it is in the process of acquiring SPS customers through a buyout, is critical to ensure that bureaucrats and elected officials don’t bankrupt the utility and community like they almost did a decade ago.

I say, good for Leonard.  But let’s go ever farther down the road and give the citizens of our fair city the opportunity to vote on dumping our council-manager form of government for a system that will allow the citizens to run our town instead of bureaucrats from elsewhere who are here only to pickup their check.

From Wednesday’s KCBD newscast http://www.kcbd.com/Global/story.asp?S=11652651

From Friday’s Avalanche-Journal http://lubbockonline.com/stories/121109/loc_534414232.shtml