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The Do's and Don'ts with Elected Officials - City
Commissioners
By Gene Strickland
Random thoughts in no particular order from a retired
City Manager. Gene Strickland retired from the City of Lakeland. He
served his 34+-year public administrative career in Lakeland.
Live inside the city limits (City Managers)
Respond
timely to City Commission requests no matter how trivial
Make your City Commissioners look good
Understand clearly
your role and their role
Remember every retiree or
terminated city employee can become a City Commissioner
Get
your head out of the monitor and be accessible to the public, city
employees, and your staff (do your work after 5:00 pm or on
Saturday)
Meet individually with each of your City
Commissioners no less than bi-weekly
Ask your City
Commission to schedule an annual retreat
Ask for any annual
job performance evaluation
Resist being a "fad" manager
Resist being "first" with technology and equipment
capitalize on lessons learned from others (first usually has "bugs"
and cost more)
Mediate, as a last resort, between feuding
City Commissioners this one is tricky, so be careful as a high
degree of diplomacy is necessary
Arrive 30 minutes before
and leave 30 minutes after working hours of employees (Merrett
Stierheim's tip)
Remember - the chair that you are sitting
in is only being loaned to you. Respect your elected officials and
citizens and serve them with honesty, integrity and humility
Never take sides in a local election
Never tell any of
your City Commissioners, including your favorite City Commissioner,
that you plan to vote for them
Never make a derogatory
comment about one City Commissioner to another
Never
violate your credibility its easy to lose and very difficult to
restore
Never act like you know more than a citizen or an
elected official discipline your ego
Never make changes
with "knee jerk" reactions
"Time your recommendations to
not cause political fallout"
"Never allow a news story to
surprise your elected officials"
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