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MRSC has joined with Carl Neu, Director of the Center for the Future of Local Governance, P. Stephen DiJulio, Attorney, Foster Pepper PLLC, and Paul McClintock, Professional Registered Parliamentarian, to bring you the "Council/Commission Advisor." The Council/Commission Advisor will feature a new article each month with timely information and advice you can use.*
Was I Elected To Do What the People Want or to Govern Well?
February 2007
Carl H. Neu, Jr.
President of Neu and Company and
Director
of the Center for the Future of Local Governance™
The Challenge
Every public official, especially when newly-elected mayors and council members are sworn in, to later be sworn at on occasion, confronts this question. The answer really is yes to both parts of the question, but the latter, to govern well, is the primary obligation.
All elected officials operate in two simultaneous realities: the here and now (the world of “what people want”) and the future (exercising wisdom, judgment and courage to be stewards of the quality of the community’s future).
Let’s start with “to do what the people want.” Jim Miller, Executive Director of the League of Minnesota Cities and a highly-respected former city manager, professes that this sentiment is appealing. It also is problematic. How does any public official really know “what the people want” as compared to the true desires and long-term best interests of the larger community or entire city? Public opinion and wants are often diffuse and frequently transitory, sometimes even selfish and myopic. How does one balance them with what “other people” want and what the entire community may desire?
The reality is that deciding and responding to what the people want boils down to the inevitable necessity to make difficult choices among conflicting wants and desires. It also requires choosing between short-term wants and long-term priorities and responsible leadership decisions about, in our world of limited resources, what is more essential to the entire community especially in the long view.
This leads us to the second part of the question “to govern well.” Management and general service delivery within our cities have improved greatly! But, what about governance? Most councils, regardless of the good intentions of each member, routinely just continue to perform out of tradition in the same ways councils have for decades; same room/seating arrangements, same procedures, same mindsets, same council-staff interaction protocols, same methods for citizen input, same decision-making techniques, same focus on the “here and now” agendas evident at typical council meetings, same focus on immediate issues brought to council members’ attention. Some councils, however, actively are seeking and practicing better ways to govern.
A Better Way to Govern
Great “world-class” councils, and each of their members, focus on three pathways to extraordinary performance as governing bodies: perspective, process, and performance results.
Perspective. World-Class councils see themselves existing to:
- Think about and plan for the future for their cities,
- Establish vision and well-defined strategic priorities,
- Prescribe end/results to be achieved,
- Ensure/empower management and employee performance to produce those results,
- Sustain relationships with citizens that instill confidence in council’s trustee/leadership,
- Demonstrate a sense of stewardship for the city’s future and provide the leadership to ensure that actions taken today will produce the future desired for tomorrow.
Process. Governance is more than individuals having the courage, traits, and desire to lead. Governance emerges in every city through engaging in processes and collaborative relationships that enable the council to function as a group (team) in providing the leadership required to make a better city for tomorrow (focusing on the future) and today (outstanding operational performance and service delivery).
Performance Results. Results which truly produce citizen satisfaction and position the city for continuous performance excellence, a better future, and a more business-like manner for dealing with the challenges it faces.
Strategic Leadership: What is it; Why do it?
Communities are future seeking. But first, they must be able to imagine and decide what they want the future to be. Secondly, they must decide how they are going to make this desired future become a reality. Strategic leadership is a process that brings people together to think about the future, create a vision, and invent ways to make this future happen through determination, community teamwork, and disciplined actions. It is the primary function of leadership – making things happen that would not happen otherwise and preventing things from happening that might occur ordinarily. It is getting people to work together to achieve common goals and aspirations; to transform visions into reality.
A strategic plan is a document recording what people think – a broad blueprint for positive change that defines a vision and key outcomes that must occur to attain this vision. Other implementation efforts and plans such as the comprehensive land use plan, financial plans, and development and redevelopment plans are policy and decision making tools that assist the community, council, and administration in achieving the vision.
A strategic leadership perspective and plan will challenge and stretch the community’s imagination in defining what is possible and test its will to commit to a great and exciting, rather than “good enough” future. The strategic plan will forge and sustain the critical partnerships and relationships that will translate the strategic plan a reality.
This Strategic Plan is a compass – a dynamic and continuous process about how a community sees, thinks about, and creates, through decisive leadership and management commitment and actions, the future it desires. It defines the long-term “big picture” framework within which all policy, fiscal, administrative, and tactical decisions need to occur. It focuses the governing body on defining Ends and Results to be achieved and the management team on the Means necessary to achieve those Ends and Results.
One Community’s Example: Governing with a Strategic Management Plan
The Town Council of Pinetop-Lakeside, Arizona, in addressing its obligation to serve by governing well, in 2005 created and adopted a Strategic Management Plan.(SMP) that boldly focuses on the community’s future and pursues excellence in providing leadership and management.
In late January, 2007, the SMP was updated to fiscal years 2007-08 and 2008-09. It is the Town’s plan to update and report upon results achieved in a Strategic Management Plan Progress Report (A Report Card to the Citizens of Pinetop-Lakeside).
The contents of the SMP and accompanying Report Card are specific to a given community and its particular circumstances. These governance tools, however, are universally applicable to every community that governs, manages and serves well for the benefit of the whole community in response to “was I elected to do what the people want or to govern well?” The answer truly is: “I was elected to do what the people want to the degree I can in a fair, equitable and responsible manner and I was elected to govern well – to ensure my community seeks, achieves and sustains a truly fulfilling future in which people take pride and satisfaction.”
P. Stephen DiJulio, a partner at Foster Pepper & Shefelman PLLC, focuses on litigation involving state and local governments, and land use and environmental law. Particular experience includes representation of jurisdictions on eminent domain, utilities (water, wastewater, storm water, solid waste systems), local improvement districts, facility siting and contractor litigation. More.
Carl Neu, author and consultant, is recognized nationally as an authority on, and an experienced practitioner of, the theory and application of governance and leadership to city councils and county boards, local government managers, and community leaders. More.
Paul McClintock is a Professional Registered Parliamentarian and Certified Parliamentarian, professionally serving organizations as parliamentarian at meetings, teaching workshops, and writing parliamentary opinions. He also is an active leader in the National Association of Parliamentarians and the American Institute of Parliamentarians at several levels. More.
*The Articles appearing in the "Council/Commission" column represent the opinions of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Municipal Research & Services Center.