There’s better ways to run city government

Tim Geddes

One of the necessary components of good leadership is the ability

to employ new ideas, methods and approaches to improve the quality

and efficiency of the decision-making process. This especially

applies to governing a city the size of Huntington Beach.

While our city is not the size of Los Angeles or even Anaheim, we

can certainly look at what both larger and smaller ones are doing to

provide good leadership for their local governments. We can certainly

borrow good ideas from these communities to make our own

decision-making process better.

One such good idea for improved leadership comes from the City of

Irvine. It is not a new idea at all but was implemented by then and

now Mayor Larry Agran in 1984. It has been a fixture with local

government ever since through good times and bad. It is the City

Council Executive Assistant Program (formerly the City Council Aide

Program).

This program provides part-time paid staff assistance to City

Council members and, in Irvine, is administered through the City

Manager’s Office. Each council member is provided a personal staff

budget to augment his or her leadership responsibility to the city

with a tiered scale of part-time positions (depending upon the needs

and inclinations of the council member). The tiers range from near

minimum wage for intern level help to roughly what substitute

teachers make here on an hourly basis for more skilled assistance.

Once the annual budget is used up, the council member is on his or

her own as far as personal staff help goes.

Having personal staff allows City Council members to dramatically

improve their leadership as elected officials. This is especially

true of council members who must work full time in addition to their

civic duties. Executive assistants can review documents, perform

research and writing duties, attend constituent functions, contribute

valuable input, provide liaison services and handle all manner of

arrangements that otherwise would have to be done by the council

members or by full-time city staff.

Why is this important now? A look at the current City Council and

the field of candidates that will fill the upcoming vacancies shows

that a majority of the new City Council are likely to hold down

full-time jobs. For example, our mayor next year, Councilwoman Connie

Boardman, will be working for a living and must adjust her civic

duties to her teaching demands. This goes for every other council

member who is not retired, independently wealthy, blessed with a

well-heeled spouse or similarly unconcerned with having to support

themselves.

The new City Council will have less time to devote to their

positions than the previous City Council. And yet, the demands on

Council members’ time and efforts are likely to increase. The job

keeps on getting tougher and more complex.

Critics are likely to howl about money and increasing municipal

bureaucracy. City staff may be leery of “Little Napoleons” roaming

the corridors of City Hall. Others might begrudge our elected

officials another “perk” or question the uses or choices of the

personnel involved. The city of Irvine has been through all of this

and provides an excellent model. Mayor Agran even has a suggestion

for Huntington Beach launch a scaled-down pilot program next year

that provides the council members, the city staff, and the community

with a preview of the concept’s promise. He is sure that it will be

adopted on a full-time basis once the value of the program is

perceived. It should be noted that Anaheim has adopted the Irvine

model to serve its City Council.

This is not just for big cities like Los Angeles. Again, the

benefit of this “new idea” is to augment the leadership capacities of

our elected officials and to improve their decision-making process.

This will lead to better and more responsive local government. The

need is there, the value is evident and the costs are reasonable. The

time is right, and the time is right now to try it.

* TIM GEDDES is a Huntington Beach resident. To contribute to

“Sounding Off” fax us at (714) 965-7174 or e-mail us at

hbindy@latimes.com.