by Alex de Marban
A
number of humble
items occupied last Thursday’s agenda, killing much of the council’s usual
tendency for the spotlight and a snappy tempo. Mayor Bruce Todd offered a
laborious expanse of advice on Brigid Shea’s and City Manager Jesus Garza’s
initiative for a comprehensive audit of city government. Perhaps the mayor was
still reacclimating to the English language after his two-week Moscow sojourn.
In merciful summation, hizonner apparently requested additional auditing of
commonly cited government ailments, like high taxes and slow EMS-response
times.
Aside from that, the audit, passed without opposition, calls for the review of
every city program within the next five years by an executive steering
committee made of top-level city management and two “middle managers.” Garza
will chair the nine-member committee, to consist entirely of city staff; no
objective participants need apply. Graduate students from the LBJ School of
Public Affairs will participate only as part of a seven-member field research
team to “support” the executive committee and follow the orders of the city
controller. The participation of the LBJ School is Shea’s idea.
During the audit of each city program, the exec committee will ask itself
hard-nosed questions like: Are services provided in the most cost-effective
manner? Are there opportunities for increasing revenue collections? Do we
really need this program? Then comes the fun part: The management-heavy exec
committee will sacrifice its own kind on the altar of efficient government,
continuing Garza’s “flattening” and “delayering” efforts that have supposedly
been “removing management layers” since January, 1995.
The effort Garza is talking about is the “de-layering” of 184 jobs in the
recently adopted 1996 budget. A difficult and impressive feat, no doubt. But
it’s important to note that the city’s bureaucratic organism miraculously and
quickly healed itself, and then some. According to a September 1 article by
Chronicle reporter Daryl Slusher, 197 jobs were added, for a net gain of
13 employees between the 1995 and 1996 fiscal years. (Brackenridge Hospital,
now leased to Seton, is not included in the calculations.) And as to the
removal of management layers for the 1996 budget, none of the 150
highest-salaried positions — $68,619 and up — were eliminated.
Asked whether the “delayering” initiative would focus on top-level city
management, Garza offered no specifics but said it will focus on all levels of
city management, then waxed philosophical about the role of “delayering” in a
government “streamlining” process.
“Delayering by itself, without taking it into context, doesn’t really say a
lot. We’ve tried to do that [delayering] in pieces, but that doesn’t help.
That’s not the main objective for streamlining. It’s an opportunity to look at
your programming, to see what you spend your resources on, to see what are your
priorities, and an opportunity to let the citizens know what our priorities
should be.”
LBJ Professor Bill Spelman, who will oversee the participation of the LBJ
students, wants city line employees, not management, to do the audit. He says
that will allow a more thorough and intricate examination of bureaucratic
processes.
Garza proudly said he will incorporate Spelman’s idea into the review process.
“Bottom line workers will be interviewed,” he said. When reminded that Spelman
would like to see the workers play a more active role in the audit, Garza
acknowledged, “They won’t be doing the work. We’re not going to pull people
from the field.”
n
The city’s Drainage Utility, from whence comes a portion of the funds
used to defend lawsuits against the city’s Save Our Springs water-quality
ordinance, could lose tens of thousands of dollars because of an error in the
collection of utility fees from tax-exempt entities.
The South Austin Teri Road Baptist Church raised the issue at last week’s
council meeting; Pastor Gerald Dickerson pointed out that the church has been
overcharged more than $5,000 in recent years.
Utility fees are determined by the amount of developed acreage on a property,
according to the Travis County Appraisal District (TCAD). Churches are
tax-exempt; TCAD records show tax-exempt properties as being entirely
developed. So TCAD records showed the church had five developed acres instead
of only two, resulting in a higher drainage utility fee.
At the meeting, council debate centered around whether to grant a refund or
credit to the church. Mayor Todd worried that a reimbursement had “the
possibility of opening up a number of complications” — namely, the untold
amounts of utility revenue overcharged to other tax-exempt entities.
The air on the dais was heavy with uncertainty until Mitchell cast the
defining argument, saying, “As far as opening up a can of worms, anyone that
wants a refund still has to come before the council.” He made a motion to
refund one-third of the overbilling, and provide a credit for the remaining
two-thirds. It survived a Max Nofziger abstention and “No” votes from Shea and
Garcia. Explaining her vote, Shea says, “It’s not a good precedent to set [in
terms of money paid out.]” Garcia felt theirs was no error, since the city,
without mal intent, adhered to TCAD’s numbers.
n
The duties of a council aide aren’t all work. Sometimes, they’re even
a little fun. Take, for example, Donnetta McCall’s position as a voting member
on the Central City Entertainment Center (CCEC) advisory board. The nine-member
board will recommend how to best construct and operate the proposed center’s
16-lane bowling alley, roller skating rink, and food court, among other
venues.
Of course, too much fun can have its side effects, and it seems McCall’s
membership is a conflict of interest of potential consequence, considering that
her boss, Eric Mitchell, is the lead backer of the CCEC.
McCall, appointed by the council on October 19, says she didn’t want the
position and that city staff put her up to it. Nathan Schneider, staff liaison
to the advisory board, concurs. He nominated her to fill the “city position”
slot instead of a more neutral city employee because, “I was impressed with her
[knowledge of the CCEC].”
As far as the possible conflict of interest, most significant when the board
recommends contractors for the $9.6 million center, Shea finds it a problem.
But the former journalist and self-anointed council “watchdog” joined the rest
of her colleagues in reticently approving McCall. Shea voiced no objection, she
says, because she tires of being the lone voice in the wilderness.
Jackie Goodman, the most agreeable of the councilmembers, sees no conflict of
interest, and says, “You don’t give up your citizenship to become an aide.”
Schneider adds that McCall is “accepted by and rooted in the community and has
a more mature point of view [than other board candidates] for things not
restricted to that area of town.”
Unfortunately for Mitchell’s office, the latter merit resulted in McCall’s
removal from the board as of last week, giving McCall opportunity to attend
only one meeting. That’s because her residence, Pflugerville, makes her
ineligible.
n
Finally, the council voted to annex 622 acres of mostly undeveloped
property in South Austin, including a 360-acre tract at Loop 360 and Barton
Creek. They also agreed, at Reynolds’ behest, to stall annexation of the
337-acre Texas Oaks tract off William Cannon Road until area residents can hold
a formal meeting with the full council, or at least a majority. Reynolds is the
sole councilmember who didn’t stand the residents up during the last Texas Oaks
public hearing in September, a meeting that was scheduled by the councilmembers
themselves. Texas Oaks neighborhood representative Lyda Guz says the
neighborhood hopes to negotiate concessions into the city’s post-annexation
service plan, like a minimum period to repair an area bridge.
Only Shea dissented, offering the surprisingly arrogant explanation that no
one ever wants to be annexed anyway, so what good will another meeting do? The
rest of the council, perhaps feeling guilty for their earlier remiss, scheduled
another meeting with the neighborhood on November 14.
n
This week in council: No meeting. The council will likely be resting
up for the November 16 meeting, which will be one of the year’s wildest. Most
significant is a public hearing on Mitchell’s $75 million plan to revitalize
the Eastside. Also, two small Freeport zoning cases are up for third and final
reading. They were expected to pass on consent at last week’s meeting until
Nofziger, Shea, and Goodman declared their intent to vote nay, and Garcia
indicated an abstention. Not to be outdone, the mayor pointed out the reason
for the absence of Freeport’s lobbyist, Richard Suttle. He was out of town
attending a funeral. A reverent silence emanated from the council, except for
Garcia, who verbally agreed to the mayor’s request for a delay.
This article appears in November 10 • 1995 and November 10 • 1995 (Cover).