The Greatest Challenge
"What is the greatest challenge facing our city and why?"
Our city has trust issues.
I believe the greatest challenge facing our next mayor and council is how to establish trust between citizens and elected officials, citizens and city staff, and council and staff.
DEB'S ACTION PLAN FOR BUILDING TRUST
Rowlett - similarly to most Texas cities in this politically divided post-Covid era, faces many challenges. We are experiencing rapid population growth here and throughout the metroplex and we are struggling to keep up, with aging infrastructure and outdated processes. We're competing for the best personnel - especially in the public safety departments - with surrounding cities that enjoy a much bigger tax base and a more robust budget.
Money is always a challenge. Attracting and retaining the best employees in a competitive metroplex job market is always a challenge (and partially dependent on money). Population growth and its consequences - more and denser development, more traffic, more crime, more strain on resources such as water - are always a challenge (and addressing them requires money).
But I'm going to lay those money issues aside for now (I plan to address that in a different position paper) and go with something more intangible.
I believe one of the greatest and possibly the greatest challenge facing our city at this point is trust - or rather, the lack thereof.
“Trust is like the air we breathe – when it’s present, nobody really notices; when it’s absent, everybody notices.” Warren Buffett
Why do I say that? Moving forward and becoming the kind of thriving city that we want to be first requires embracing a common vision, then setting broad goals, defining more specific objectives, developing action items, implementing them, and measuring their effectiveness. Every step of that process requires working together, but to work effectively together, we need to trust one another.
A large percentage of our citizens don't trust "the city." That includes both the officials they put in office to set policy and the staff members who were hired to implement those policies. Conversations with residents at the grocery store or a quick scroll through Facebook will confirm that.
In some cases, that lack of trust is caused by miscommunications and misunderstanding of the role and authority of councilmembers, staff members and the city government. In other cases, it was caused by very real failures on the part of the city. And sometimes it's a side effect of how the system works.
Closed executive sessions
I wrote a separate position paper about the need for more transparency. There is much more to municipal government than the public knows or realizes. Lawsuits and potential lawsuits, legal advice, certain contract negotiations, specific personnel matters, security matters, certain economic development matters - per Texas state law, these are discussed in closed executive sessions. Our code of ethics prohibits councilmembers from revealing what is discussed in closed sessions.
In many (but in my opinion, not all) cases, confidentiality is necessary and protects taxpayers' interests. However, keeping secrets perpetuates distrust. One of my goals as mayor is to reduce the number of executive sessions and eliminate unnecessary closed sessions in our meetings.
Broken promises
I don't believe past city leaders deliberately misled the public, but there have been some wildly optimistic plans that never came to fruition. The Signature Gateway development is a prime example. I referenced that in detail in my position paper on density. When what was touted as a multiuse destination development with retail, restaurants, an amphitheater, a water taxi, a dog park, and more ended up being just a sea of apartments, citizens felt betrayed.
I know many feel the same about Sapphire Bay, another big dream that, thus far, has yielded little more than high density residences, and are further frustrated by the lack of information about the plans and timelines. So am I. The property and project are owned by the developer; it's not a private/public partnership with the city. The city has not communicated that well, and the previous city administration made or at least implied promises that in my opinion really were not the city's to make.
"Trust is built and maintained by many small actions over time."
It's not just what's happened with ambitious big entertainment developments that has broken trust. I've heard the same story over and over far too many times, both from business owners and homeowners: they submitted projects to the city, pulled permits, started or even completed the work as it had been approved by staff, and then upon inspection were told they needed to tear it out and do it a whole different way.
If only a few were saying this, I could believe they just misunderstood or were exaggerating. But when they're people I know to be intelligent, conscientious, and truthful, and when contractors I have out to give estimates for work on my own home tell me they don't want to do the work because the city of Rowlett is too difficult to work with, I know we have a problem.
I believe some steps have recently been taken to address this, but it takes far longer to rebuild trust than to lose it. As mayor, I would make it a priority to establish policies to discourage overpromising in situations where the city can't control the outcome and to communicate more openly with our citizens when plans must be changed.
Unrealistic goals
This ties in with the previous issue. It's great to dream big; that's the only way big things are ever accomplished - but if we aren't realistic in the goals we set, we'll fall short of them, and the people whose tax dollars are funding those dreams will lose faith in our ability to lead.
Our city cannot be all things to all people. For example, we can't be like Addison and also be like Sunnyvale. Both of those are successful suburbs but they're very different. Cities that thrive don't try to please everyone. Their leaders - elected and appointed, within and outside of the city government - develop a vision, together, of what kind of city they want to become. Then they create a long-term plan with goals, objectives, action items, and measurable performance indicators, to serve as a roadmap to get there.
We have made a start on some bits and pieces of such an effort. We're currently focused on downtown, and that's an important piece of the puzzle. As mayor, I would immediately propose a review and revision of our overall strategic plan that includes the involvement of our departments, boards and commissions, partner organizations, neighborhood leaders, and other key stakeholders. Our current plan was created in 2018, before the pandemic that changed our world, our city, and our perspective on many aspects of life.
Inconsistent enforcement
The city has legislative authority to pass ordinances that impose criminal or civil penalties. We can never get everyone to agree on exactly what should and shouldn't be regulated, but whatever the laws are, I believe they should be enforced consistently. Citizens lose trust when enforcement is haphazard - when one person or group seems to be repeatedly targeted while others do the same thing with no consequences, or when something is allowed sometimes but not at other times (unless exempt times are clearly defined in the ordinance or rule).
"Trust is built with consistency.” —Lincoln Chafee
If ordinances and policies are outdated, if circumstances have changed so that they no longer make sense, it should be incumbent upon the staff to let the council know and upon the council to make the appropriate changes or repeal the ordinances.
As mayor, I would propose a council subcommittee to work with the city attorney to review all of our ordinances and bring recommendations for needed changes to the council.
Council-staff and intracouncil relationships
Under the council-manager form of government and the city charter, the roles and responsibilities of councilmembers and staff members are clearly defined. The council sets policy and the staff implements it. The councilmembers may only give direction to the city manager, city secretary, city attorney, and city judge(s) - and then only as a majority of the body.
In our city, those direct reports work for seven bosses with equal authority, and equal lack of authority as individuals. Rarely do all seven completely agree on the many issues involved in running a city. Add to this the fact that the Texas Open Meetings Act (TOMA) prohibits more than three councilmembers (numbers constituting a quorum) to discuss matters that may come before the council outside of posted, public meetings.
This forced lack of communication creates cliques and gives rise to distrust among councilmembers. It can be difficult to keep up with who you spoke to about a particular issue. The easy solution is to pick two other members and talk only to them, about everything. That means councilmembers simply don't communicate outside their little circle of three.
It doesn't have to be that way. I talk with different members about different issues, and I keep a written record of which other councilmembers I've talked to about each subject to avoid an inadvertent walking quorum. I have been working with the councilmember who is most opposite me politically on several issues and projects, and we have both learned to put our differences aside and collaborate in those areas where we do find common ground.
As mayor, my goal will be to help councilmembers work together as a team even when we have very different perspectives, viewpoints, and ideologies, and to lead by example in respecting the limitations on the powers of the council while fully exercising the authority that is entrusted to us as elected officials.
Summary
"Trust is like a broken glass; you can glue it back together, but it will never be the same."
Trust is the foundation of civilization and it's vital to the effective operation of any organization. This assessment of trust issues within our city shouldn't be seen as a point of discouragement, but as a cornerstone upon which we can build a stronger and more unified Rowlett.
We all aspire to be trusted leaders, but it takes more than words on a sign to rebuild trust in the hearts and minds of people who have had bad experiences with the city in the past. All those who take that oath of office in May have a tough job ahead of them - but the biggest challenges also present the greatest opportunities.
I believe it's time to stop pointing figures at past councils and administrations, acknowledge our own mistakes, and get to work putting the pieces back together. The cracks may always be visible - but that's not a bad thing, because it will serve as a reminder that trust is a fragile and precious thing that should never be taken for granted.
We can begin to repair it by:
- being more transparent with the public,
- keeping our promises,
- keeping our goals realistic and attainable,
- enforcing rules, regulations, and laws consistently, equally, and fairly,
- understanding our own and others' roles, responsibilities, and areas of authority, and
- working together in the best interests of our city while remaining true to our principles and core values.
My vision for Rowlett is a city where trust is not just an aspiration, but a tangible reality, and these are some of the things I want to do, to earn your trust as your mayor.