Onslow County Politics

Even in blogosphere terms, this blog did not long last before it got closed down.  On the upswing, it’s only temporary.

I had wanted to create this blog for a long time.  One reason I didn’t earlier was because I worked for the County and felt that it would create conflicts.  Well a month after leaving the County’s employ I’m again putting in myself in a situation that could conflict with my intentions for this site.  I’m running for City Council in Jacksonville.

I don’t have a crystal-clear vision for this blog/site (I somewhat wanted it to grow organically and just see where it went), but I’m pretty sure that my campaign would unduly influence the development of this site.  So I’m putting this site on hiatus.  Luckily I did not mass-release it to the public, just to the only other Jacksonville blogger that I was aware of.

Win or lose, I expect to bring the site back in November after the election.

Thanks!

James

Not that new, but not that common either, is the discrepency over how to pronounce Camp Lejeune.

Luh-Zhune?

Luh-June?

Luh-Jern?

News & Observer has the latest on the story.

JDNews is reporting that the City and Bauer are at a stalemate over the release.

The City Attorney says the release includes a clause that asks for too much.  In the release Bauer states:

“I specifically do not waive my right to privacy with regard to, or any right to seek recourse for, any false, malicious or slanderous comments from city officials or any cause of action that I may have or may arise from the actions of individual City Council members. ”

Frustrating.  It doesn’t seem necessary from either perspective.  Release the minutes from the closed sessions. Comments from city officials seem superfluous to that matter.

Because of the release of the text message (a rather unclassy move, in my opinion), I think we’re well into the realm where the records may be released because of a lack of public confidence without a release by Bauer.

Here’s how I would settle the matter:  I would find a release form recommended by the School of Government and used by another city in NC.  I think this is what the City Attorney is doing.

Why was Bauer fired?  That question brings up two intertwined problems.  First, was it for a good reason?  Second, why is it unknown?

We can begin to answer the first problem with a little conjecture.  By the terms of his contract Bauer is being paid 9 months severance pay.  The contract likely included provisions that he not be entitled to severance if his departure is due to something extreme (gross mismanagement or something illegal).  This process of elimination only gets us so far, as the second problem prohibits us from fully answering the first.

The councilpeople who voted for the firing cited personnel record laws as the reason they couldn’t talk at length about it.  It’s a relatively minor point I thought, until the JDNews, Thomas Brock and myself repeated it.  At some point I thought the minor ‘glossing over’ became larger by the mere fact that it was repeated several times over.  The fact is that personnel records are not absolutely protected.

There is a provision to allow the opening of personnel records when “the release is essential to maintaining public confidence in the administration of city services or to maintaining the level and quality of city services.”  This is not entirely uncommon, there was a case just recently where this was done [in Brunswick County, I think?].

In fact, I think it’s pretty clear that the City of Jacksonville is suffering from a lack of public confidence.  Then again, if the records indicate what I presume, releasing them may not regain the public confidence.

Jeff Hudson, the new County Manager, started on Thursday. He worked for the county previously, was a town manager and most recently worked for the OC Schools.

I worked with him a little while I was with the County. I found him to be smart and responsive. I expect him to be a good manager for the county. I expect him to be capable. My worry is that he won’t be visionary/progressive enough.

It’s not enough to say that I never saw something like that before.

When I worked for the County we lost a good manager, but there was no way I was going put my career on the line to defend him.  The city employeees have much more nerve than me.  They signed petitions, they filled the room and stood together.  Simply amazing.

That sort of It’s a Wonderful Life moment just doesn’t happen in real life, or so I thought.  But sure enough everyone stepped up for someone who needed and deserved a kind word.

There was a call for his re-hiring.  I can’t imagine the four councilmembers admitting their mistake and re-hiring him.  I can’t imagine him accepting a re-hire offer.  But then again, I couldn’t have imagined the city employees standing for him like that.

The County Commissioners ended up going with the original proposed budget.

A long meeting with lots of speakers.  Very emotional from all perspectives.

Commissioner Buchanan previously said he would not vote for a tax raise, but did so.  This is more surprising because he could have cast a dissenting vote and still had the budget passed.  In essence, he did not take the opportunity to place himself in a better light politically.

Commissioner Keller did not expect to vote tonight.

Commissioner Midgett mentions that only 100 people attended the four public sessions and said people just werent interested.  He urged people to become more educated and involved.

Commissioner Ikner wants to put the sales tax back on the ballot and will vote to reduce the tax rate an equal amount if passed.

Meeting ends at midnight…

First, you’ll notice there’s a difference (separate posts) between my thoughts on Bauer and his firing.  This is with reason; I can disagree with a decision’s result but still be content with the decision making process.  That is not the case here.  Here I disagree with the decision and its process.

I only know of the decision process by way of the JDNews.  From there I learned the following:

1.  Williams, Thomas, Willingham, and Sullivan voted to fire him. Lazzara and Coleman voted against it. From his statements, presumably Mayor Phillips would have voted against it as well.

2.  Alva Williams voted to fire him and said “We had given him chance, after chance, after chance for the last year and it was time, it was just time.”  She also “said Bauer tried to “control council” and often presented information in a biased manner rather than neutrally allowing the council to make their own decisions.”

3.  The other three who voted to fire him could not be reached for comment.

4.  Lazarra said “I’m just extremely upset, I believe it’s a total abuse of power and it’s an absolute injustice to the citizens that we serve. There was no justification as far as I’m concerned. Kristoff Bauer has been an asset to the organization and to the citizens of Jacksonville.”  Phillips praised Bauer.

I don’t care for politicians who cannot be reached for comment on something like this.  I’d get over that if they subsequently shared their thought process, but letting it fade away aggravates me.

There is an implied history of failure; I don’t buy it.  If this is maintained then I want to see which actions he failed to perform.  I want to see which action the council had a majority vote for and Bauer failed to enact.

I can believe that a manager would not do everything Council asked of them–but those are usually things asked outside of meetings, without votes, inconsequential to the operation of government and principally for the benefit of the requesting councilmember.  In essence, it makes me question what exactly they were asking him to do that he refused?

I am left with dissatisfaction about this.  I want to know what the Council asked Bauer to do that he did not.  At this time I am forced to believe that any answer would reflect more poorly on the Council members who voted him out than on Bauer himself.

I didn’t know Bauer very well, but I worked with him occassionally. I liked him.  I disagree with the City Council’s firing.

Why I liked him:
1.  He was capable.  He understood government and how to get things done.  He got things done.  I sat in a meeting with him and former county manager Frank Clifton.  Bauer and Clifton each fought for their entities and were equals–a compliment to both.
2.  He knew what being progressive was.  I saw what he wanted to accomplish and what he wanted for Jacksonville.  I read his messages to listservs for county and city managers in NC; those messages further convinced me that he had a mind for progress.  Perhaps equally important is that I saw issues that I knew he wanted one path, but accepted local politics and did not push.
3.  He was a communicator.  He appeared comfortable on G10, which was good.  More importantly he managed a government that chose to divulge information rather than hide it.  When a sewage spill occured Jacksonville wrote up a report on it.  The report explained (in detail) what happened, why and what was going to be done about it.  The report did not just sit on filed away in the clerk’s office–it was posted on the city webpage and even presented to a roundtable of entities invested in the environmental protection of the New River.

I didn’t know Bauer well and do not think his management was perfect.  But I did like him and thought he was a good city manager.

To be truly critical of something you have two options.  First, you can fully understand it and believe there is a better alternative.  Second, you can not fully understand it and believe that the burden is elsewhere to convince you.

It’s my opinion that in regards to budgets our community rightfully rests in the second camp.  The budgets are too big and complex for anyone to know completely.  Options to review and suggest alternatives are disingenuous.  Recent history includes reasons to be suspicious but lacks reasons to give trust–time and actions will hopefully reverse this.

I believe myself to be fairly educated in our local government, but I’ll be the first to say that I do not fully comprehend the budget.

I think the Interim County Manager did a decent job in putting the budget in terms that were easily understandable.  It wasn’t perfect, but that’s not entirely his fault–it’s the nature of the beast (e.g. politics).

What I think would be beneficial is more of the complete breakdown of the budget into simple to understand terms.  The Triangle Transportation Authority in Raleigh worked with the public to determine its budget some years ago.  It had a certain amount of new funding and had to decide what to do with the funds.  So it posted a simple webpage that let everyone vote.  Everyone got to ‘spend’ their 14 ‘pennies’ however they wanted.  Each item had its approximate cost (e.g. bike racks were 2 pennies, extra routes were 6 pennies, etc).

Telling the public that the budget is bare-bones is not sufficient.  Telling the public that these are the best next cuts is not sufficient.  The public is requesting to be shown.  And at the same time, pointing to a 400-page budget won’t cut it.