20131005 Late CorrespondenceRancho Palos Verdes
Council Leadership Training
Summation
October 5, 2013
Guidelines for Good Governance
• Be cognizant of the Legacy exercise and mindful of where each other is coming
from
• Avoid negative and focus on positive
• After a vote, move on
• Continue to work as a team
• Set good examples
• Serve honorably
• Ensure that facts and figures are vetted and avoid attacks or negative comments
against other Council Members or City staff.
• When dealing with misinformation decide as a body to either respond correcting
the facts or decide to ignore the issue.
• As policy issues arise the council as a whole need to discuss and come to a
consensus on how to proceed.
City Council Consensus Items
1. Council Members may contact the City Attorney directly with questions
regarding potential conflict of interest issues.
2. All other matters of City business and agenda related items are coordinated
with the City Manager, who will disseminate a response to all Council
Members.
3. Council Members may contact the CA when requested to do so by the City
Attorney.
4. When City Manager receives last minute items via email or phone call just
prior to a Council Meeting, the City Manager will share with all Council
Members if it is practical and appropriate. City manager will share
presentation material with all Council Members upon receiving a request for
additional information.
Actionable items
1. Council tasked with building a consensus when approaching issues
2. Council and City Manager to develop their Mission Statement for the City -Jerry
Duhovich made a suggestion for the mission statement during the discussion.
3. Council and City Manager to revise their Vision Statement
RECEIVED FROM-J.~O:.w.,..i..;.:;=6--':I
AND MADE A PART OF T~ RECO D AT THE
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OFFICE OF THE CITY CLERK
CARLA MORREALE, CITY CLERK
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4. Council and City Manager to revise their goals and objectives
5. Council to give clear direction to the City Manager
6. Direct questions regarding City business and agenda items to the City Manager,
who will disseminate the response to the entire Council thereby improving
communication and becoming more efficient.
Exercise 1: Legacy Outcome
How the group would like to be remembered.
• That they were trust worthy
• Focused on the residents and their needs
• Governed with transparency
• Served honorably
• Fair decision maker
• Accessible and responsive to the residents
• Engaged and provided feedback
• Practiced fiscal conservatism
• Set high expectations
• Took care of little stuff as well as big issues
• Preserving quality of life
• Collaborative style
• Demonstrated principled leadership
• Relationship builder
• Developed teamwork
Exercise 2: Common Themes that Cause Organizational Conflict Outcome
• Breach of attorney client privilege
• Failure to understand Council/Manger form of government
• Need to debate without personal attack/offense
• Lack of respect towards staff publicly
• Unwilling to Communicate
• Outside parties & Special Interest Influence
• Need for a clean slate
• Disingenuous behavior /two-faced
• Hidden agendas
• Providing misinformation to residents
• Lack of participation and acceptance of responsibilities adherent to Council
Members; i.e., council meetings, commission meetings, etc.
• Unwilling to communicate with City Manager
• Need to help one another be effective
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Exercise 3: Common Themes that Cause Council Conflict Outcome
• Spinning facts to the detriment of Council/City for one's own perceived benefit
• Ambushing fellow council members in public
• Unwilling to participate at meetings and assume the responsibilities of a
councilman
• Failure to disseminate accurate information outside of Council Meetings
• Lack of respect to fellow Council Members & staff and staff back towards Council
• Intolerance of persons with conflicting views
• Badmouthing Council decision to public after the fact
• Allowing outside special interest groups to have undue influence
• Embarrassing and criticizing staff in public
• Hidden agendas to the detriment of Council/City
• Disagreeing by being disagreeable
Exercise 4: Causes of Public Perception of Ineffective Governance
• Failure to conduct business respectfully and professionally
• Inability to communicate effectively
• Council's lack of civility and public bickering leads to perception of being
ineffective
• Politics are involved
• Public hears/receives conflicting information
• Public blames staff which leads to distrust
• Perception that data is withheld which leads to mistrust
• Perception that "all government is the same"
• Trust issues and Council's ability to lead
• May not be following their own rules and policy i.e., going over the meeting set-
time limitation, use of cell phones, etc.
• Council members and/or staff late to meetings, or absent
• Too much talking during meetings
• Council/staff infighting gives public a bad perception
• Not giving clear responses
• Putting a negative spin on issues
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