The Auburn City Council's hands-on approach to running the city the past few weeks is largely a result of requests by councilor Matt Smith and Mayor Tim Lattimore.
But outside observers caution that getting involved in day-to-day activities of local government - while not inappropriate - may become time-consuming and burdensome. And that could take the city council away from shaping larger city policy issues, said Robert McEvoy, executive director of the state City/County Management Association and professor in public policy at the University of Albany.
“For the city council to be totally involved in the budget is totally OK,” McEvoy said. “The point really is does the city council want to spend their time worrying about a chair?”
The city council voted against approving a new chair for new city planner Bruce Sherman during the first week purchasing restrictions were put in place.
Considering the city's current financial situation, Smith said the city council is required to be worrying about the city's hires and purchases, including a $200 chair.
“If we were having a projected $4 million surplus, I think it is a legitimate question to be asking 'Why are you doing this?' But we're not, we're facing a hole,” Smith said. “With past councils, they've just been bobble heads. They've not been analyzing or asking questions. I think it's required that we have to get into it.”
The purchasing restrictions, proposed by Smith, require council approval for all purchases exceeding $3,000 and capital expenditures. Lattimore added a proposal to require council approval for all travel and training expenses, which was also approved by council.
Smith also proposed a hiring freeze that was passed by council, which requires city manager John Salomone to justify to council any needed hires between now and the end of the fiscal year. Smith asked for the restrictions, reacting to the projected $2.4 million deficit the city would face at the end of fiscal year 2007 under current budget conditions.
At last week's meeting, he asked for an additional resolution that would require council approval for all inter-departmental transfers of money. While he said the restriction could be temporary, he wants to create a policy where no department can be overdrawn and no money can be transferred between departments without receiving that approval. Smith said the intention would be to highlight which departments were facing shortfalls.
Last week, Salomone said he would work to come up with a solution that addresses Smith's concerns, but said bringing all transfers in front of council would slow the meetings “to a crawl,” and many of them wouldn't be very enlightening for the councilors.
In regards to the purchasing restrictions, McEvoy, being a former county manager himself, said it's typical for any manager to restrict hiring and purchases anyway when the end of the fiscal year is approaching. The job of city manager is to run the day-to-day operations so that the city council doesn't have to get bogged down with those items and create a duplications of efforts, McEvoy said. Salomone, for instance, has said the city had a hiring freeze in place anyway for most circumstances.
“Their goal should be to move the city forward with dynamic new programs,” McEvoy said. “From that perspective, they really have more important things to do. Policy makers have a lot to do. If they really do it well, that steers the community in the right direction.”
However, McEvoy said he understood the sentiment of wanting to restrict purchases in order to address potential shortfalls as the end of the fiscal year nears.
For Smith, talking about city expenditures is the biggest issue right now. Last week, the council refused approval for over $23,000 worth of expenditures out of about $110,000 total for that week, though one such purchase was a $22,000 truck.
“These are the big policy discussions. These are the discussions that have not taken place for the last six years,” he said. “If the financial status of the city is not healthy, what else can we do?”
City managers for Watertown and Geneva, however, said they had never been subject to similar scrutiny.
Mary Corriveau, city manager for Watertown, has been working in the city for 21 years. She said since the council approves a budget at the beginning of the year, they take a hands off approach to any dealings with hiring, firing and discipline from that point on.
Corriveau said she delegates most of that responsibility and responsibility for purchasing to her department heads - though she signs off on all purchases exceeding $1,000.
“Day-to-day operations and purchases fall to the city manager,” Corriveau said.
Richard Rising, city manager in Geneva for the past six years, said since the council passes the budget each year, he has somewhat of a mandate to proceed with purchases without additional oversight.
“Typically in a city manager form of government, the legislative body does not have that (oversight),” Rising said. “They passed a budget. As long as the budget is specific, it can be done administratively.”
Despite the new policies being unique, however, McEvoy said it was important in a council-manager form of government that the council does not perceive the manager as challenging their policy-making authority.
“If they want to do any kind of policy, like restricting purchases, then that's fine,” he said. “I certainly wouldn't want to spend my time on small things like that. But I understand the sentiment.”
At last week's council meeting, the purchasing discussion lasted nearly 45 minutes, and revolved around items like soft copper tube for the public works department and lunch cost reimbursements for police officers attending training sessions. The council approved all purchases, even adding $50 so that another city official could attend the Metropolitan Development Authority meeting in April. With the $2.4 million projected deficit, however, Smith doesn't believe these are small-time discussions.
“These are the important policies,” he said. “We're talking about copper tubes - yeah, it may be tedious, but ‘oh well.' That's our job.”
Staff writer Anne Gleason can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 248 or at anne.gleason@lee.net
“For the city council to be totally involved in the budget is totally OK,” McEvoy said. “The point really is does the city council want to spend their time worrying about a chair?”
The city council voted against approving a new chair for new city planner Bruce Sherman during the first week purchasing restrictions were put in place.
Considering the city's current financial situation, Smith said the city council is required to be worrying about the city's hires and purchases, including a $200 chair.
“If we were having a projected $4 million surplus, I think it is a legitimate question to be asking 'Why are you doing this?' But we're not, we're facing a hole,” Smith said. “With past councils, they've just been bobble heads. They've not been analyzing or asking questions. I think it's required that we have to get into it.”
The purchasing restrictions, proposed by Smith, require council approval for all purchases exceeding $3,000 and capital expenditures. Lattimore added a proposal to require council approval for all travel and training expenses, which was also approved by council.
Smith also proposed a hiring freeze that was passed by council, which requires city manager John Salomone to justify to council any needed hires between now and the end of the fiscal year. Smith asked for the restrictions, reacting to the projected $2.4 million deficit the city would face at the end of fiscal year 2007 under current budget conditions.
At last week's meeting, he asked for an additional resolution that would require council approval for all inter-departmental transfers of money. While he said the restriction could be temporary, he wants to create a policy where no department can be overdrawn and no money can be transferred between departments without receiving that approval. Smith said the intention would be to highlight which departments were facing shortfalls.
Last week, Salomone said he would work to come up with a solution that addresses Smith's concerns, but said bringing all transfers in front of council would slow the meetings “to a crawl,” and many of them wouldn't be very enlightening for the councilors.
In regards to the purchasing restrictions, McEvoy, being a former county manager himself, said it's typical for any manager to restrict hiring and purchases anyway when the end of the fiscal year is approaching. The job of city manager is to run the day-to-day operations so that the city council doesn't have to get bogged down with those items and create a duplications of efforts, McEvoy said. Salomone, for instance, has said the city had a hiring freeze in place anyway for most circumstances.
“Their goal should be to move the city forward with dynamic new programs,” McEvoy said. “From that perspective, they really have more important things to do. Policy makers have a lot to do. If they really do it well, that steers the community in the right direction.”
However, McEvoy said he understood the sentiment of wanting to restrict purchases in order to address potential shortfalls as the end of the fiscal year nears.
For Smith, talking about city expenditures is the biggest issue right now. Last week, the council refused approval for over $23,000 worth of expenditures out of about $110,000 total for that week, though one such purchase was a $22,000 truck.
“These are the big policy discussions. These are the discussions that have not taken place for the last six years,” he said. “If the financial status of the city is not healthy, what else can we do?”
City managers for Watertown and Geneva, however, said they had never been subject to similar scrutiny.
Mary Corriveau, city manager for Watertown, has been working in the city for 21 years. She said since the council approves a budget at the beginning of the year, they take a hands off approach to any dealings with hiring, firing and discipline from that point on.
Corriveau said she delegates most of that responsibility and responsibility for purchasing to her department heads - though she signs off on all purchases exceeding $1,000.
“Day-to-day operations and purchases fall to the city manager,” Corriveau said.
Richard Rising, city manager in Geneva for the past six years, said since the council passes the budget each year, he has somewhat of a mandate to proceed with purchases without additional oversight.
“Typically in a city manager form of government, the legislative body does not have that (oversight),” Rising said. “They passed a budget. As long as the budget is specific, it can be done administratively.”
Despite the new policies being unique, however, McEvoy said it was important in a council-manager form of government that the council does not perceive the manager as challenging their policy-making authority.
“If they want to do any kind of policy, like restricting purchases, then that's fine,” he said. “I certainly wouldn't want to spend my time on small things like that. But I understand the sentiment.”
At last week's council meeting, the purchasing discussion lasted nearly 45 minutes, and revolved around items like soft copper tube for the public works department and lunch cost reimbursements for police officers attending training sessions. The council approved all purchases, even adding $50 so that another city official could attend the Metropolitan Development Authority meeting in April. With the $2.4 million projected deficit, however, Smith doesn't believe these are small-time discussions.
“These are the important policies,” he said. “We're talking about copper tubes - yeah, it may be tedious, but ‘oh well.' That's our job.”
Staff writer Anne Gleason can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 248 or at anne.gleason@lee.net
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