My Approach

Overall, I tend to think of offices and bureaucracies as systems, complex ideas with many moving parts, and with solutions that aren't always obvious. I'm interested in the nuts and bolts of the process just as much as the big goals and broad ideas. It would be fair to call me a bit of a technocrat, but whatever you consider my views to be, I hope you'll cast a vote for me this November 8th.

Here's how I see it

We can do great things as a community – and as a local government. For ourselves and for our future, we should do so. Let's build a truly sustainable city with local jobs, local food, local energy, all of it. Let's go climate neutral, break the cycle of poverty, retain our historic character, and be among the first to stand up and say when something is wrong and that we won't be a part of continuing it in our lives.

We can't do any of that immediately. I am not naive – no matter how awesome the idea will be once realized, great things are done in time. Moving too quickly has a nasty habit of getting you to that great thing you wanted to achieve, but with more costs – fiscal, environmental, personal – than were ever necessary. And, to be frank, I don't think we are quite ready to successfully tackle some of these issues, even though we want to. Technology, available choices, and the reality of the world in which we want to make these changes – all of it has changed rapidly. We'll need to educate ourselves, stay flexible, and be willing to change how we do things, before we can change what we do.

If we're going to get anything done, and done well, the proverbial engines of government need to be running on all cylinders, cleaned, primed, and properly pushed for best results. This is why my initial goals for council focus on strengthening the foundations of our legislative process:

1. Write a handbook for our volunteers. Boards and commissions are populated with people willing to give their time and expertise. Council should be clear on what they want to hear, and how both parties can best work with one another.
2. Don't just expect options; demand them. Decisions should not be made in an accidental vacuum.
3. Clean up the laws on the books. Can you spot why this small bit of city ordinance is no longer that useful? Clutter doesn't help anything, not to mention that folks quite reasonably assume that what's written down is what we are in fact doing.
4. Don't dawdle. Meetings should rarely last three hours. Legislation shouldn't get stuck for a year waiting for someone to weigh in. I see nothing wrong with asking a volunteer board, or city staff, to have information, feedback, or reports delivered within a particular time frame.
   

How I judge 'success'
Oberlin City Council has an important supervisory role, approving budgets and expenditures created by city staff, as well as hiring – and conceivably firing – four important positions: city manager, law director, finance director, and city clerk/clerk of council. I don't claim to be an expert in the job functions of any or all of these roles. But if a plan or action proposed by city administration, in whole or in part, run counter to the following baseline assumptions, you'll have a much harder time convincing me of its value:

• Nowadays, if you are not applying technology in all its forms to reduce costs, increase productivity, and provide new or better services, you are, quite simply, falling behind. In doing so you are creating costs – often structural costs – with which future taxpayers (and councils) will be forced to deal. Modernize. Help your staff learn new tools and techniques. Remove or reduce environmental costs whenever possible.
• Corollary: we need to be data-driven. It should be a priority to collect all forms of data – feedback from the public included – and do so with a purpose. Form better projections. Better anticipate trends (and risks). Suss out benefits people might not even realize they are missing.
• Simplify. Recognize that less is often more.
• Criticism is not condemnation; it is crucial. Plans often have small (hopefully not large) sections that can be improved. If you are unwilling to take feedback on your work, then I see that as arrogance; if you don't think council should sometimes challenge specifics of proposals, I see that as blind faith in hired staff. Neither instills my confidence in the outcome.