Three years after a complete assessment of the governmental structure of the City of Woodland was done, highlighting issues of productivity and low morale in the Clerk-Treasurer’s Office, members of the City Council and Mayor Grover Laseke are at odds on how to move forward.
During the last city council meeting on Nov. 18, Laseke said he would not go along with the council members, who voted 6-1 to spend $10,000 to hire a new consultant to conduct a full review of the department.
During a special workshop held on Mon., Nov. 25, the council met with Laseke at the Woodland Community Center to see what can be done to break the gridlock.
“I want to be clear that I am not questioning the ethics of the employees who make up the Clerk-Treasurer’s Office,” said Council Member Marshall Allen. “This is more about how the procedures are done and whether or not they can be improved or if additional staff or resources are needed."
Benjamin Fredricks asked City Attorney William Eling what the options for the council were and if there was any potential legalities in place that could usurp the mayor’s decision.
“I’ve looked back on things we’ve talked about in prior administrations and it’s really a bit of a gray area,” said Eling. “Under the law, the council can enter into a contract that manages on its own to do some sort of study, but as the administrator of the departments below him, like the Clerk-Treasurer’s Office, the mayor can direct his staff in what and what not to do.”
“Really, there has to be some sort of compromise reached,” Eling continued. “The mayor has taken his position and believes things are OK at present. As part of the compromise, perhaps it’s better to find specific and not broader questions, but the council cannot order the mayor to do what it wants anymore than the mayor can order the council to do what he wants.”
Council Member Scott Perry cited the Prothman Report, done in 2010 by the Prothman Co., and identified the potential issues within the Clerk-Treasurer’s Office, in his argument for why a new study was not needed.
“We need to be planning for the next 5-10 years and need to ask ourselves if we as a council have done the things recommended to us by the report,” said Perry. “The report said we need to do planning for capital projects, but those things have never been discussed. The report called for a full-time city administrator and we gave the mayor an additional salary of $30,000 to do that.”
“I don’t think you can beat the level of communication we get from the mayor and he’s doing the best job he can with what he’s got today,” Perry continued. “I want to get the city turned around and encourage economic development, and we need to focus on that rather than having another study we problably won’t do much with.”
Council Member Marilee McCall, who criticized Laseke’s decision in a written statement saying “he was in violation of his duties and responsibilities of the mayor’s office; and has also cast a negative light on the process with staff,” said it is time for the city to move past the Prothman Report and reorganize.
“We’ve been doing things the same way since we’ve had 1,000 people in this city, but we were elected to be policy makers and not administrators,” said McCall. “We have a vote and give direction on options presented to us. We keep going back to the Prothman Report as what we need to do, but it was just an organizational study, not an efficiency report.
“Working in Clark County myself, I’m aware that because of budget constraints we are doing more with less and that is ‘the new normal’ and the new normal is not fun,‘‘ McCall said. “We need to be more efficient. Every other government group or department locally is doing some form of restructuring. The mayor is doing two jobs, and as mayor, he needs to be present to represent the city, which takes away time for him to be a more effective city administrator.”
Allen agreed that things need to change in the Clerk-Treasurer’s Office after seeing the first copy of the proposed 2014 budget, which still needs to be passed.
“It was atrocious, and that might not be anyone’s direct fault,” said Allen of the proposed budget. “It seemed like they were trying to put everything in and it just wasn’t organized. If we need more people, hire them, but let’s figure out the best way to get it done so we’re not having to wait until the third copy to have something readable.”
Fredricks admitted that the reliance on the Prothman Report to give the city potential solutions might have been misplaced, while also reminding his fellow council members that they are part-time legislators.
“I don’t appreciate some of the language that was used by the mayor in the report,’’ Fredricks said. “I found it offensive and to suggest that we are using the report as a club towards staff was unacceptable. For example, I work 60 hours per week and I don’t have enough time to deal with the administrative branch of government issues, as a council we cannot veer into the administrative branch of government as it sets a bad precedent.”
Perry closed the debate by trying to keep the council focused the future needs of Woodland.
“We need to take a hard look at the city and the direction we’re heading in economically because if we keep going the way we are, it won’t be the city we want it to be,” Perry said. “We need to focus on the big picture and let the mayor and staff run the day-to-day options.”
The Woodland City Council meets again on Mon., Dec. 2 for their next scheduled meeting at 7 p.m., in their new chambers in the new Woodland Police Station at 200 E. Scott Ave., in Woodland.
