After nearly three decades of working for the city, Karen Cody will take her curtain call today when she retires from her city executive secretary job. Congratulations on twenty six years with the City. We all know the City will be losing a great asset. You’ve been at the heart of City operations for along time. I’m sure there are some things you’ll miss about City Hall. Like when the packet needs to go and there are no minutes. Maybe you’ll get the urge to come in between Christmas and New Years and help collect taxes from the appreciating masses.
There are a lot of people you’ll miss too. I assume the blind on that window will open now. It’s hard to think you’ll never have to deal with the real estate agent who thinks that Watertown does everything right. How about the guy who demands a boat launch pass but doesn’t have his boat registration. Tell me you’re not going to miss the person who will not license their cat no matter how many times you call. The guy who needs his homework reviewed more then once. The one council member looking for a way to discredit the City Manager.
To help you through these tough times, we’ll refer the yellow pages telephone calls to you at home. This will help pass the slow time when the grandchildren are visiting.
Your personal history and experience with hundreds of City and community leaders will be irreplaceable. We’ll all miss your work ethic and commitment to the City which are legendary. It’s hard to imagine City Hall without you here. Your retirement is well-deserved, and I know you look forward to spending more time with the family.
You have left behind a legacy of representing this office with a high degree of integrity and professionalism, and have put a very good face on the city. We wish you well in your retirement and you'll be sorely missed,
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
What is it You Want Me to do?
Governance at any level encompasses the many and ever changing sets of relationships between the people who make up the government and the interest of citizens, who interact with public institutions both as individuals and as participants with mutual interests. Governance therefore is about processes of making decisions. In other words, it is concerned with developing processes that are focused on the distribution of public responsibility across multiple stakeholders.
Over the course of history, societies have employed a variety of mechanisms for making social choices. We have settled on a democratic republic. The problem is that voting isn’t a perfect system for aggregating individual preferences either directly through referenda or indirectly through a surrogate decision-maker.
Decision-makers are also faced with a lot of complexity involved in the legislative and administrative processes that determine what services citizens want and how to provide them on a day-to-day basis. Our current standard for communications is already difficult because there are major potentials for communication error. Social psychologists estimate there is usually a 40-60% loss of meaning in the communication between sender and receiver. Because the language we communicate with is a symbolic representation of an experience, room for interpretation and distortion of the meaning exists. Meaning has to be given to words and many factors affect how an individual will attribute meaning to particular words. It is important to note that no two people will attribute the exact same meaning to the same words.
Now, through a highly inclusive set of processes, managers are suppose to design and manage a broad scope of services amidst the conflicting priorities of competing stakeholders whose conflicting expectations are potentially mutually exclusive. Mutually exclusive is defined as being related such that each excludes or precludes the other. Stakeholders’ expectations become more intensified as economic conditions worsen and public agencies are under pressure to maintain or improve quality while expanding access because public welfare issues are increasing. This means management often is being asked to attempt to complete sets of activities that by definition excludes or precludes each other.
Our unrealistic and conflicting expectations of managers set up internal conflicts that make their jobs increasingly difficult, considering the many other issues they must deal with, such as the complexity of today's technologies, changing values and demographics, and increased regulations. As these almost impossible working conditions persist, managers wonder more about what they're doing wrong than what they can do right. They become autocratic machines or detached cynics.
Over the course of history, societies have employed a variety of mechanisms for making social choices. We have settled on a democratic republic. The problem is that voting isn’t a perfect system for aggregating individual preferences either directly through referenda or indirectly through a surrogate decision-maker.
Decision-makers are also faced with a lot of complexity involved in the legislative and administrative processes that determine what services citizens want and how to provide them on a day-to-day basis. Our current standard for communications is already difficult because there are major potentials for communication error. Social psychologists estimate there is usually a 40-60% loss of meaning in the communication between sender and receiver. Because the language we communicate with is a symbolic representation of an experience, room for interpretation and distortion of the meaning exists. Meaning has to be given to words and many factors affect how an individual will attribute meaning to particular words. It is important to note that no two people will attribute the exact same meaning to the same words.
Now, through a highly inclusive set of processes, managers are suppose to design and manage a broad scope of services amidst the conflicting priorities of competing stakeholders whose conflicting expectations are potentially mutually exclusive. Mutually exclusive is defined as being related such that each excludes or precludes the other. Stakeholders’ expectations become more intensified as economic conditions worsen and public agencies are under pressure to maintain or improve quality while expanding access because public welfare issues are increasing. This means management often is being asked to attempt to complete sets of activities that by definition excludes or precludes each other.
Our unrealistic and conflicting expectations of managers set up internal conflicts that make their jobs increasingly difficult, considering the many other issues they must deal with, such as the complexity of today's technologies, changing values and demographics, and increased regulations. As these almost impossible working conditions persist, managers wonder more about what they're doing wrong than what they can do right. They become autocratic machines or detached cynics.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Work on the Tank
Lake Mills Light and Water owns a water production facility called Well #4. Well #4 and the associated reservoir are located at the intersection of Franklin and Owen Streets. The reservoir is currently in average to poor condition and needs maintenance work.
The Council awarded a contract to L.C. United Painting Co. on May 17th, 2009 to complete the maintenance work recommended by Strand & Associates in their report dated October 2008. L.C. United Painting Co. is scheduled to start work on the reservoir June 24th and plans on completing the work with 14 work days.
The work includes weld repairs, welding containment logs, cleaning the tank interior, and rigging for sand blasting. They will then start blasting the interior to remove the old paint. They will finalize the work by blasting and painting the exterior of the tank.
Hopefully, all work will be completed by July 17th.
The Council awarded a contract to L.C. United Painting Co. on May 17th, 2009 to complete the maintenance work recommended by Strand & Associates in their report dated October 2008. L.C. United Painting Co. is scheduled to start work on the reservoir June 24th and plans on completing the work with 14 work days.
The work includes weld repairs, welding containment logs, cleaning the tank interior, and rigging for sand blasting. They will then start blasting the interior to remove the old paint. They will finalize the work by blasting and painting the exterior of the tank.
Hopefully, all work will be completed by July 17th.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
City Water Issues
The City of Lake Mills water system serves approximately 5,300 people and consists of three active wells, three booster pumping facilities, three ground storage reservoirs, one elevated water storage tank, and approximately 170,000 feet of water transmission and distribution mains.
Recently, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) sent a notice to the Lake Mills Light and Water Utility stating further action would have to be taken regarding lead and copper in your drinking water. Although most homes in Lake Mills have very low levels of lead and copper in their drinking water, some homes in the community have lead and copper levels above the EPA action levels. Lead and copper in your drinking water may come from materials commonly used in plumbing and water distribution systems, such as service lines, pipes, brass and bronze fixtures or solders and fluxes. Corrosive water may remove lead or copper from these materials, causing lead or copper to enter your drinking water.
Lead is unusual among drinking water contaminants in that it seldom occurs naturally in water supplies like ground water, rivers or lakes. Lead enters drinking water primarily as a result of the corrosion, or wearing away of materials containing lead in the water distribution system and household plumbing. These materials include lead-based solder used to join copper pipe, brass and chrome plated brass faucets, and in some cases, pipes made of lead that connect your house to the water main (service lines). In 1986, Congress banned the use of lead solder containing greater than 0.2% lead, and restricted the lead content of faucets, pipes and other plumbing materials to 0.8%.
When water stands in lead and copper pipes or plumbing systems containing lead for several hours or more, the lead or copper may dissolve into your drinking water. This means the first water drawn from the tap in the morning, or later in the afternoon after returning from work or school, can contain fairly high levels of lead or copper.
The Lake Mills Light and Water Utility has been adding phosphate to the water to reduce lead and copper leaching from interior pipe surfaces containing lead. The phosphate forms a very thin coating on interior pipe surfaces to keep lead and copper from dissolving into water. Many other water utilities across the U.S. have taken similar measures. The phosphate is added in the form of phosphoric acid. The Lake Mills Light and Water Utility has controlled lead and copper levels until recently. Because the levels of lead and copper are extremely sensitive to testing practices and the city has hired a firm to complete the testing for the rest of the year (2009). Historically, the homeowner has drawn the samples, but as federal requirements tighten down, better sampling practices can make a big difference.
WDNR is waiting to see the results of the first round of tests to make a final determination on changes the Utility would have to make in order to meet requirements. Possible options are requiring residents to change out their lead lines as the city rebuilds the system in front of their property. There are several other options the Utility could take to comply with the order.
The City and Utility will be working on solutions over the next several months.
Recently, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) sent a notice to the Lake Mills Light and Water Utility stating further action would have to be taken regarding lead and copper in your drinking water. Although most homes in Lake Mills have very low levels of lead and copper in their drinking water, some homes in the community have lead and copper levels above the EPA action levels. Lead and copper in your drinking water may come from materials commonly used in plumbing and water distribution systems, such as service lines, pipes, brass and bronze fixtures or solders and fluxes. Corrosive water may remove lead or copper from these materials, causing lead or copper to enter your drinking water.
Lead is unusual among drinking water contaminants in that it seldom occurs naturally in water supplies like ground water, rivers or lakes. Lead enters drinking water primarily as a result of the corrosion, or wearing away of materials containing lead in the water distribution system and household plumbing. These materials include lead-based solder used to join copper pipe, brass and chrome plated brass faucets, and in some cases, pipes made of lead that connect your house to the water main (service lines). In 1986, Congress banned the use of lead solder containing greater than 0.2% lead, and restricted the lead content of faucets, pipes and other plumbing materials to 0.8%.
When water stands in lead and copper pipes or plumbing systems containing lead for several hours or more, the lead or copper may dissolve into your drinking water. This means the first water drawn from the tap in the morning, or later in the afternoon after returning from work or school, can contain fairly high levels of lead or copper.
The Lake Mills Light and Water Utility has been adding phosphate to the water to reduce lead and copper leaching from interior pipe surfaces containing lead. The phosphate forms a very thin coating on interior pipe surfaces to keep lead and copper from dissolving into water. Many other water utilities across the U.S. have taken similar measures. The phosphate is added in the form of phosphoric acid. The Lake Mills Light and Water Utility has controlled lead and copper levels until recently. Because the levels of lead and copper are extremely sensitive to testing practices and the city has hired a firm to complete the testing for the rest of the year (2009). Historically, the homeowner has drawn the samples, but as federal requirements tighten down, better sampling practices can make a big difference.
WDNR is waiting to see the results of the first round of tests to make a final determination on changes the Utility would have to make in order to meet requirements. Possible options are requiring residents to change out their lead lines as the city rebuilds the system in front of their property. There are several other options the Utility could take to comply with the order.
The City and Utility will be working on solutions over the next several months.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
The State Budget and the City Finances
The State Joint Finance Committee (JFC) passed their series of omnibus motions on May 29th. The Committee's version of the state budget increases the governor’s cut in shared revenue from 1% to 3.5% and it also prohibits municipalities from cutting emergency services expenditures in 2010. The JFC's proposal reduces shared revenue funding by an additional $21.4 million for a total cut of $29.9 million to be applied to payments made in 2010. The total 3.5% cut is to be distributed among municipalities in the same manner as proposed for the original 1% cut included in Governor Doyle's recommended budget, which is on a equalized value basis with a 15% maximum payment reduction. After the cut in 2010, each municipality would receive the same shared revenue payment in 2011 that it received in 2010. The Legislative Fiscal Bureau will release a report showing the impact of the cuts on each municipality in the next week or so.
To keep shared revenue cuts below 5%, the Governor and legislative leaders agreed on a plan inserted into the Joint Finance Committee's version of the budget that converts a telephone surcharge approved by the committee last month to pay for county 911 dispatch equipment upgrades to a police and fire telephone fee. The new 75 cent per month fee on all cell phones and landlines raises an estimated $100 million in new revenue for the state to help fund the shared revenue program.
The JFC in exchange for this funding add on requires that each municipality spend each year for "emergency services" no less than the amount it spent in 2009, not including one-time expenses. Failure to comply may lead to a reduction in shared revenue payments in an amount to be determined by DOR. DOR is instructed to develop a definition of "emergency services."
The Joint Finance Committee also proposed increasing funding for the General Transportation Aid program by 2% in 2010 and 3% in 2011. (The Governor had proposed a 1% cut to GTA in 2010.)
These are some other municipal related items:
Expenditure Restraint Program. (ERP)
The Governor has notified the City of Lake Mills of a 7.6% reduction in shared revenues and 6.13% reduction in transportation aids. Although the total shared revenues distributed by the state where reduced 3.5%, the actual reduction per city was done on an equalized value basis and Lake Mills was the largest percentage cut in Jefferson County for cities. The transportation aids were proposed by the Governor to decrease 1% and increase in all the other proposals so the notice of a 6.13%reduction was a surprise.
Much of this information is from League Legislative bulletins.
To keep shared revenue cuts below 5%, the Governor and legislative leaders agreed on a plan inserted into the Joint Finance Committee's version of the budget that converts a telephone surcharge approved by the committee last month to pay for county 911 dispatch equipment upgrades to a police and fire telephone fee. The new 75 cent per month fee on all cell phones and landlines raises an estimated $100 million in new revenue for the state to help fund the shared revenue program.
The JFC in exchange for this funding add on requires that each municipality spend each year for "emergency services" no less than the amount it spent in 2009, not including one-time expenses. Failure to comply may lead to a reduction in shared revenue payments in an amount to be determined by DOR. DOR is instructed to develop a definition of "emergency services."
The Joint Finance Committee also proposed increasing funding for the General Transportation Aid program by 2% in 2010 and 3% in 2011. (The Governor had proposed a 1% cut to GTA in 2010.)
These are some other municipal related items:
Expenditure Restraint Program. (ERP)
- Modify the definition of "inflation factor" under the expenditure restraint spending limit formula to limit it to no less than 0%. (The League had requested the adoption of a CPI floor of 3%.)
- Modify the budget test under ERP to allow an adjustment to municipal budgets equal to the difference between a municipality's entitlement under the payments for municipal services program, assuming the program is fully funded, and the municipality's actual payment under the program. Provide that any expenditures allowed under this provision cannot be financed with property tax revenues. (This was requested by the City of Madison).
- Exclude from the spending limits under ERP unreimbursed expenses related to a declared emergency.
- Allow municipalities to recapture unused levy capacity from the previous two years when calculating the allowable levy increase in 2009.
- Except from levy limit any amount that a municipality levies to pay the unreimbursed expenses related to a declared emergency beginning in the year in which the emergency occurs or the next year. Extend the exception to amounts levied to replenish cash reserves used in the previous year to pay any unreimbursed expenses related to a declared emergency.
- Allow levy limit adjustments when two communities contract to consolidate services where one community agrees to lower its allowable levy to allow a second community to increase its allowable levy.
- Expenditure Restraint Program -- Police and Fire Expenditures. Excludes police and fire expenditures from the expenditure restraint program's budget test if those expenditures are funded from a municipality's general fund balance.
- Property Tax Exemption for Student Housing Facilities. Creates a property tax exemption for all real and personal property of a student housing facility if: (a) the facility is owned by a nonprofit organization; (b) at least 90% of the facility's residents are students enrolled at a public or private institution of higher education and the facility houses no more than 300 such students; and (c) the facility offers support services and outreach programs to its residents, the public or private institution of higher education at which the student residents are enrolled, and the public.
- Beer and Wine at Nonprofit Organization Fundraisers. Deletes provision added by the JFC allowing any non-profit organization to provide free beer or wine at fundraisers without the need for a license from the municipality.
- Expenditure Restraint Program Budget Test. Establishes a CPI floor of 3% under the Expenditure Restraint Program's spending limits.
- Maintenance of Effort for Police and Fire Protection Services. Clarifies that the new maintenance of effort requirement for police and fire protection services inserted into the budget by the JFC does not apply to capital expenditures or one time expenses.
- Municipal and County Recycling Grant Program Funding Level. Increases funding for the municipal and county recycling grant program by $2.5 million annually. This would provide a total of $31.6 million in 2009-10 and $32.6 in 2010-11. (The program is currently funded at $31 million, but $3.1 million was transferred to the general fund as part of the current budget deficit efforts.)
- Property Tax Exemption for Retirement Homes for the Aged. Reduces the threshold for distinguishing between taxable and exempt dwelling units within retirement homes for the aged from 160% to 100% of the average equalized value of residential parcels within the county; deletes provision requiring assessors to exclude common areas when assessing value of individual units; and restores requirement that retirement homes must be owned by benevolent associations to qualify for the exemption.
- Definition of Agricultural Land for Property Tax Purposes. Modifies the definition of agricultural land for purposes of property taxation to exclude any land that is platted or zoned for residential, commercial, or industrial use.
- Police and Fire Protection Fee – Sunset. Sunsets the police and fire telephone surcharge on June 30, 2011. Creates a 911 equipment upgrade telephone surcharge effective July 1, 2011.
- Modifications to Prevailing Wage Provisions. Clarifies that the prevailing wage requirements do not apply to "minor service and maintenance work," which is defined to include minor crack filling, chip or slurry sealing or other minor pavement patching, not including overlays. Makes several other technical modifications, including defining "direct financial assistance" for publicly funded private construction projects as moneys in the form of a grant or other arrangement that a municipality directly provides to assist in the erection, construction, repair, remodeling, demolition, or improvement of a private facility.
- Broader Definition of Public Contract Subject to Competitive Bidding. Expands definition of municipal "public contract" for purposes of determining when public works contracts are subject to competitive bidding requirements. The new definition includes contracts for demolition, grading, alteration, painting, or decorating, as well as construction, repair, and remodeling, which are included under current law.
The Governor has notified the City of Lake Mills of a 7.6% reduction in shared revenues and 6.13% reduction in transportation aids. Although the total shared revenues distributed by the state where reduced 3.5%, the actual reduction per city was done on an equalized value basis and Lake Mills was the largest percentage cut in Jefferson County for cities. The transportation aids were proposed by the Governor to decrease 1% and increase in all the other proposals so the notice of a 6.13%reduction was a surprise.
Much of this information is from League Legislative bulletins.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Lake Mills Zoning Code Rewrite
The zoning code is one of the primary tools the City of Lake Mills uses to regulate development. All existing and new development in the City must be consistent with the requirements of the zoning code. These requirements range from the land uses (e.g. single family home, apartment, neighborhood store, office building) allowed on a property, to building setbacks from the street and adjacent properties, to the amount of parking required on a site. The current zoning code dates from 1969 and it does not always reflect best zoning and community planning practices. Further, the zoning code is often confusing and difficult to use. In addition, it is not always effective in implementing the recommendations of Lake Mills’ adopted Comprehensive Plan, neighborhood and special area plans. The new zoning code will be a much-improved code that is easier to use and understand. Further, it will better enable the City to implement its various plans.
Specifically, the city's desire is to create subdivision and zoning codes that encompass the city’s comprehensive plan, neighborhood plans, public works plans, extra-territorial zoning, facilitate development and redevelopment within the Tax Increment Districts and City, continue the City’s ability to provide adequate administrative review and public hearings, integrate the codes and plans so that they are consistent and cross referenced, and are flexible to accommodate changing economic and technological conditions.
In February, the City retained the services of Dustin Wolff of Mead & Hunt, Inc. The consultant will prepare a new zoning code and map for the City of Lake Mills. The zoning code rewrite project is expected to be a one-year process, starting in April 2009, with completion in December 2009.
Dustin Wolff has had the opportunity to work as the City’s consulting planner, conducted development review, prepared long-range plans, and drafted patch ordinance amendments. He has an established familiarity with the community’s needs and objectives. He has witnessed the growth and development pressures facing the City, and has firsthand knowledge that the current ordinances do not provide the most effective strategy for implementing the desired development patterns and character desired by the City.
Specifically, the city's desire is to create subdivision and zoning codes that encompass the city’s comprehensive plan, neighborhood plans, public works plans, extra-territorial zoning, facilitate development and redevelopment within the Tax Increment Districts and City, continue the City’s ability to provide adequate administrative review and public hearings, integrate the codes and plans so that they are consistent and cross referenced, and are flexible to accommodate changing economic and technological conditions.
In February, the City retained the services of Dustin Wolff of Mead & Hunt, Inc. The consultant will prepare a new zoning code and map for the City of Lake Mills. The zoning code rewrite project is expected to be a one-year process, starting in April 2009, with completion in December 2009.
Dustin Wolff has had the opportunity to work as the City’s consulting planner, conducted development review, prepared long-range plans, and drafted patch ordinance amendments. He has an established familiarity with the community’s needs and objectives. He has witnessed the growth and development pressures facing the City, and has firsthand knowledge that the current ordinances do not provide the most effective strategy for implementing the desired development patterns and character desired by the City.
Monday, June 22, 2009
High End Senior Housing Tax Exemption Needed?
Cities are always in an economic crisis. But now, cities need to become even more resourceful in obtaining revenue to support core services. One opportunity for the City is to review the status of properties exempt from local taxes. The residents of senior tax-exempt housing receive a substantial level of service from the City while providing no property tax revenues to support the effort required.
The Joint Finance Committee is proposing changes to this exemption in the current budget bill. The changes should be strongly opposed by municipalities because it creates a new property tax exemption for high value retirement homes for the aged. This provision will ultimately shift more of the property tax burden onto residential homeowners who already are paying 71% of the statewide property tax levy.
Benevolent Associations infer the reason they deserve the tax-exempt benefit is because they make generous contributions to charities, including low-income housing, and that their own volunteers reduce the cost of providing service to their residents. Cities contend that nonprofit housing providers’ donations to charities are really much less than they claim since a major source of that charity is borne by property taxpayers who are paying to support local governments. The providers of senior tax-exempt housing have not been able to generate any persuasive evidence that would prove tax-exempt developments produce benefits that are in any way equivalent to the taxes lost. Others argue that tax-exempt senior housing projects appear to be mutual support arrangements for well-to-do seniors that are heavily subsidized by taxpayers, both rich and poor.
The Wisconsin State Statute § 50.01(1d) definition of residential care apartment complex (RCAC) means a place where 5 or more adults reside that consists of independent apartments of two hundred and fifty (250) square feet, each of which has (1) an individual lockable entrance and exit, (2) a kitchen, including a stove, (3) individual bathroom, sleeping and living areas and (4) that provides, to the resident, not more than 28 hours per week of services that are supportive, personal and nursing services. The definition of RCAC does not include a nursing home or a community-based residential facility, but may be physically part of a structure that is a nursing home or community-based residential facility.
In a 2003 case, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that nonprofit housing providers who lease their property must pay property taxes on that leased property unless the lessees themselves are tax-exempt. The result of that decision was that virtually all property leased by low income housing providers and an uncertain amount of property leased by providers of elderly services would have been placed on the tax rolls for taxable year 2004.
In response, 2003 Wisconsin Act 195 was enacted to overturn the court’s decision. The Act specified the types of property owned by benevolent associations that are exempt from the property tax to include:
1. Nursing Homes
2. Community Based Residential Facilities
3. Adult Family Homes
4. Residential Care Apartment Complexes
5. Domestic Abuse Shelters
6. Homeless and transitional shelters
7. Housing for low income persons operated in compliance with IRS income eligibility limits for federal low income housing programs
8. AODA facilities
9. Housing for people with disabilities
10. Non residential property
Act 195 again exempted the property owned and used by benevolent organizations, although the statute still does not contain a definition of benevolence for this exemption. A substantial amount of court involvement has been needed in resolving issues related to the exemption and the courts have not developed a substantive meaning of benevolence, but have ruled that benevolence implies organization on a nonprofit basis, must be engaged in benevolent activities, and that benevolence has a broader meaning than "charitable." Within each municipality, the exemption limits the amount of exempt property of a benevolent organization to 10 acres.
As lawyers, accountants, developers and administrators for seniors housing communities offer new and more creative financial and service options for avoiding taxes; government tax uniformity is likely to become more complicated. Because of the nuances involved in interpreting property tax exemptions, it is absolutely essential that local governments and the state legislature communicate about these complexities to ensure that tax uniformity is practically, carefully and appropriately applied.
American public policy toward senior citizens is defined by a long list of programs. Just about every issue affecting older persons became a government program. Philip Longman identifies a key fact by quoting a 1977 study by economists Spencer Spengler and Robert Clark: "Expenditures for the elderly at all levels of government exceed the amount spent on children, age seventeen and under, including the total amount spent on public education, by more than three to one." Noting that "the disparity is much larger today," Longman states that "Social Security pensions and Medicare pensions have become much more generous while welfare and educational programs for the young have been cut.” He adds: "At the federal level, the disproportion is about ten to one.” [1]
Reasons for the unequal treatment of the old and the young include the simple fact that elders call their legislators and children do not. Entitlements for the elderly have become the sacred cow of American politics. Officeholders and candidates threaten entitlements at their peril. One of the most powerful lobbies in Washington is run by the 29-million-member American Association of Retired Persons—which Newsweek recently described as "the big gray money machine."
The Wisconsin Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (WAHSA) is a statewide membership organization of 193 not-for-profit long-term care providers. Their members own/operate 185 not-for-profit nursing homes, of which 47 are county-operated facilities, 72 community-based residential facilities (CBRF), 50 residential care apartment complexes (RCAC), 13 HUD Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly apartment complexes, and 98 apartment complexes for independent seniors. WAHSA members offer over 300 community service programs ranging from home care, hospice, Alzheimer’s support and adult and child daycare to Meals on Wheels. Their members employ over 38,000 dedicated caregiving and support staff.
Benevolent Associations are also associated with strong lobbying groups themselves as noted above. Churches, hospitals, nursing homes and other nonprofits providing service in this field generally have long histories of effectively lobbying their public officials.
The League of Wisconsin Municipalities supports legislation clarifying the property tax exemption for benevolent organizations that provide housing for low-income individuals. They would support a property tax exemption for retirement housing priced at or below market rates which is owned by benevolent organizations. They oppose the provision inserted in the budget bill because it goes far beyond these worthwhile objectives and will ultimately and unjustifiably shift more of the property tax burden onto homeowners.
[1] Longman, Philip. Born to Pay: The New Politics of Aging in America (Houghton Mifflin, 1987).
The Joint Finance Committee is proposing changes to this exemption in the current budget bill. The changes should be strongly opposed by municipalities because it creates a new property tax exemption for high value retirement homes for the aged. This provision will ultimately shift more of the property tax burden onto residential homeowners who already are paying 71% of the statewide property tax levy.
Benevolent Associations infer the reason they deserve the tax-exempt benefit is because they make generous contributions to charities, including low-income housing, and that their own volunteers reduce the cost of providing service to their residents. Cities contend that nonprofit housing providers’ donations to charities are really much less than they claim since a major source of that charity is borne by property taxpayers who are paying to support local governments. The providers of senior tax-exempt housing have not been able to generate any persuasive evidence that would prove tax-exempt developments produce benefits that are in any way equivalent to the taxes lost. Others argue that tax-exempt senior housing projects appear to be mutual support arrangements for well-to-do seniors that are heavily subsidized by taxpayers, both rich and poor.
The Wisconsin State Statute § 50.01(1d) definition of residential care apartment complex (RCAC) means a place where 5 or more adults reside that consists of independent apartments of two hundred and fifty (250) square feet, each of which has (1) an individual lockable entrance and exit, (2) a kitchen, including a stove, (3) individual bathroom, sleeping and living areas and (4) that provides, to the resident, not more than 28 hours per week of services that are supportive, personal and nursing services. The definition of RCAC does not include a nursing home or a community-based residential facility, but may be physically part of a structure that is a nursing home or community-based residential facility.
In a 2003 case, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that nonprofit housing providers who lease their property must pay property taxes on that leased property unless the lessees themselves are tax-exempt. The result of that decision was that virtually all property leased by low income housing providers and an uncertain amount of property leased by providers of elderly services would have been placed on the tax rolls for taxable year 2004.
In response, 2003 Wisconsin Act 195 was enacted to overturn the court’s decision. The Act specified the types of property owned by benevolent associations that are exempt from the property tax to include:
1. Nursing Homes
2. Community Based Residential Facilities
3. Adult Family Homes
4. Residential Care Apartment Complexes
5. Domestic Abuse Shelters
6. Homeless and transitional shelters
7. Housing for low income persons operated in compliance with IRS income eligibility limits for federal low income housing programs
8. AODA facilities
9. Housing for people with disabilities
10. Non residential property
Act 195 again exempted the property owned and used by benevolent organizations, although the statute still does not contain a definition of benevolence for this exemption. A substantial amount of court involvement has been needed in resolving issues related to the exemption and the courts have not developed a substantive meaning of benevolence, but have ruled that benevolence implies organization on a nonprofit basis, must be engaged in benevolent activities, and that benevolence has a broader meaning than "charitable." Within each municipality, the exemption limits the amount of exempt property of a benevolent organization to 10 acres.
As lawyers, accountants, developers and administrators for seniors housing communities offer new and more creative financial and service options for avoiding taxes; government tax uniformity is likely to become more complicated. Because of the nuances involved in interpreting property tax exemptions, it is absolutely essential that local governments and the state legislature communicate about these complexities to ensure that tax uniformity is practically, carefully and appropriately applied.
American public policy toward senior citizens is defined by a long list of programs. Just about every issue affecting older persons became a government program. Philip Longman identifies a key fact by quoting a 1977 study by economists Spencer Spengler and Robert Clark: "Expenditures for the elderly at all levels of government exceed the amount spent on children, age seventeen and under, including the total amount spent on public education, by more than three to one." Noting that "the disparity is much larger today," Longman states that "Social Security pensions and Medicare pensions have become much more generous while welfare and educational programs for the young have been cut.” He adds: "At the federal level, the disproportion is about ten to one.” [1]
Reasons for the unequal treatment of the old and the young include the simple fact that elders call their legislators and children do not. Entitlements for the elderly have become the sacred cow of American politics. Officeholders and candidates threaten entitlements at their peril. One of the most powerful lobbies in Washington is run by the 29-million-member American Association of Retired Persons—which Newsweek recently described as "the big gray money machine."
The Wisconsin Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (WAHSA) is a statewide membership organization of 193 not-for-profit long-term care providers. Their members own/operate 185 not-for-profit nursing homes, of which 47 are county-operated facilities, 72 community-based residential facilities (CBRF), 50 residential care apartment complexes (RCAC), 13 HUD Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly apartment complexes, and 98 apartment complexes for independent seniors. WAHSA members offer over 300 community service programs ranging from home care, hospice, Alzheimer’s support and adult and child daycare to Meals on Wheels. Their members employ over 38,000 dedicated caregiving and support staff.
Benevolent Associations are also associated with strong lobbying groups themselves as noted above. Churches, hospitals, nursing homes and other nonprofits providing service in this field generally have long histories of effectively lobbying their public officials.
The League of Wisconsin Municipalities supports legislation clarifying the property tax exemption for benevolent organizations that provide housing for low-income individuals. They would support a property tax exemption for retirement housing priced at or below market rates which is owned by benevolent organizations. They oppose the provision inserted in the budget bill because it goes far beyond these worthwhile objectives and will ultimately and unjustifiably shift more of the property tax burden onto homeowners.
[1] Longman, Philip. Born to Pay: The New Politics of Aging in America (Houghton Mifflin, 1987).
Friday, June 12, 2009
The State and The City
For your information - this is one of the ways the State is attempting to fix it's budget problem. The City will actually end up being the one who charges the additional fees - but it goes to the State. Not quite as mean and desperate as California - but still making the cities raise their revenues.
The State Budget is proposing to increase tipping fees that are paid per ton of solid waste (excluding high volume industrial waste) from the current $5.90 per ton to $13.00 per ton. This is a 120% solid waste tipping fee increase that will be passed on to city residents in their Sanitation and Recycling fees.
The State is proposing to Increase funding for the recycling grant program by $20 million in each year of the biennium. It is projected that the total increase of $7.10 per ton on municipal solid waste will generate an additional $44.1 million per year.
The 24.1 million in funds per year will be used to fund other environmental programs and environmental debt service, freeing up general purpose revenue to balance the state budget.
The State Budget is proposing to increase tipping fees that are paid per ton of solid waste (excluding high volume industrial waste) from the current $5.90 per ton to $13.00 per ton. This is a 120% solid waste tipping fee increase that will be passed on to city residents in their Sanitation and Recycling fees.
The State is proposing to Increase funding for the recycling grant program by $20 million in each year of the biennium. It is projected that the total increase of $7.10 per ton on municipal solid waste will generate an additional $44.1 million per year.
The 24.1 million in funds per year will be used to fund other environmental programs and environmental debt service, freeing up general purpose revenue to balance the state budget.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Just Coping!
So a description of what I think my personality is like withheld a small issue. I have a couple of personality defenses which influences the ease with which I am able to develop and maintain relationships. I have unconsciously developed these coping techniques in response to frustrating and difficult relationships and experiences. These techniques help me to defend against upsetting and destructive relationships, while hopefully also allowing healthy relationships to continue. I sometimes use these defenses to gain perspective on my problems. The following are the most evident coping techniques that I use.
I sometimes use Intellectualization to cope with anxiety producing events by retreating into a cognitive analysis of the event, in so doing, creating a sort of insulating distance from the emotions surrounding the event. I may also use Rationalization post-hoc (after the fact) to defend a course of action I have taken. I also love to use Humor to break up negativity, to inject laughter into what is otherwise serious and to force myself to look at a brighter side of my predicaments. Humor simultaneously distracts (allowing distance from seriousness) and instructs.[1]
I need to maintain reasonable relationships as a part of my job and it is a necessary ingredient for a happy and functional lifestyle. Coping techniques, if used properly, helps me maintain an accurate understanding of social reality and enhances my ability to function socially.
[1] Dombeck, Mark Ph.D., Defense Mechanisms. http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=4054
I sometimes use Intellectualization to cope with anxiety producing events by retreating into a cognitive analysis of the event, in so doing, creating a sort of insulating distance from the emotions surrounding the event. I may also use Rationalization post-hoc (after the fact) to defend a course of action I have taken. I also love to use Humor to break up negativity, to inject laughter into what is otherwise serious and to force myself to look at a brighter side of my predicaments. Humor simultaneously distracts (allowing distance from seriousness) and instructs.[1]
I need to maintain reasonable relationships as a part of my job and it is a necessary ingredient for a happy and functional lifestyle. Coping techniques, if used properly, helps me maintain an accurate understanding of social reality and enhances my ability to function socially.
[1] Dombeck, Mark Ph.D., Defense Mechanisms. http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=4054
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Personality - Does Understanding it Help?
Every so often you wonder if your personality is right for the job or work environment you're in. I've taken the Myers-Briggs test a couple of times. The following is kind of a summary of how I read the test. I wonder if this is really how people see me?
My personality starts by being internally focus, where I take things in primarily via my intuition. I than switch my focus to external, where I deal with things rationally and logically. My modes of focus are almost equally balanced.
I enjoy the world of ideas and strategic planning and have lived in it for the last twenty years. There is always a world of possibilities where I see all sorts’ of challenges and I want to be the one responsible for overcoming them. I see things from a long-range perspective and am usually successful at identifying plans to turn problems around. I am tireless in my efforts on the job, and driven to visualize where an organization is headed.
I have a drive for leadership, as a youth I was often place in positions of leadership and still seek leadership positions today. My leadership is well-served by my quickness to grasp complexities, ability to absorb a large amount of impersonal information, and quick and decisive judgments. I am a "take charge" person. I constantly scan the environment for potential problems which I can turn into solutions.
When I’m in a leadership role, I tend to be quite effective because I work hard to objectively see the reality of a situation and can still adapt to change when things aren't working well. I am always scanning available ideas and concepts and weighing them against the current strategy to plan for every conceivable contingency.
I spend a lot of my energy observing the world and generating ideas and possibilities. My mind constantly gathers information and makes associations about it. I work hard at being insightful and usually am very quick to understand new ideas. However, my primary interest is not understanding a concept, but rather applying that concept in a useful way. I do not need to follow an idea as far as it can possibly go; I only need to understand it fully. I really need to come to conclusions about ideas. Once I have my conclusion, my need for closure usually requires that I take some action.
I value intelligence, knowledge, humor and competence and typically have high standards in these regards, which I continuously strive to fulfill. To a somewhat lesser extent, I have similar expectations of those around me.
I dislike seeing mistakes repeated, and have no patience with inefficiency. I can become brutally honest and may become rather harsh when my patience is tried in these respects, because I’m not naturally tuned in to people's feelings, and generally don't believe that I should tailor my judgments in consideration for people's feelings. I have difficulty seeing things from outside my own perspective. I tend to have little patience with people who do not see things the same way as I do. I have to consciously work on recognizing the value of other people's opinions, as well as the value of being sensitive towards people's feelings. When I’m not consciously working on being sensitive towards people, I can become forceful, intimidating and overbearing.
People tend to grant me a tremendous amount of personal power and allow my presence to affect them, which works as a force towards achieving my goals. However, this personal power is also an agent of alienation and self-aggrandizement, which I have to work hard to avoid.
I tend to be a very forceful, decisive individual. I generally make decisions quickly, and can be quick to verbalize my opinions and decisions. Every day there are countless choices that I make without much thought. I tend to apply rules and copy solutions from my own or others past experience rather than solve every problem I encounter on a daily basis. I would have difficulty surviving if I had to apply problem solving techniques to every decision I faced. Some will call this intuition; I prefer to think of it as the ability to recall all that impersonal data. Either way, as I have gather experience and education, I tend to make fewer decisions too hastily, because I have a better understanding of all the issues and possible solutions. I still spend a lot of time thinking and developing understandable and rational system for new projects or ideas. This may isolate me and I can lose interest in other people's thoughts or feelings. It is not easy for me to express internal images, insights, and abstractions. The internal form of my thoughts and concepts is highly individualized, and is not easy for others to understand. However, I’m driven to translate my ideas into a plan or system that is usually readily explainable.
Although I’m not naturally tuned into other people's feelings, I frequently experience very strong sentimental streaks. Often these sentiments are very powerful and I hide it from general knowledge, believing the feelings to be a weakness. Because the world of feelings and values are not where I naturally function, I may sometimes make value judgments and hold onto submerged emotions which are ill-founded and inappropriately developed.
I enjoy interacting with people. I’m energized and stimulated by public situations. There's nothing more enjoyable and satisfying to me than having a lively, challenging conversation. I especially respect people who are able to stand up to me, and argue persuasively for their point of view. There aren't too many people who will do so, however, because I’m a very forceful and dynamic presence who has a tremendous amount of self-confidence and excellent verbal communication skills. Even the most confident person may experience moments of self-doubt when debating a point with me.
Other people may have a difficult time understanding me. They may see me as aloof and reserved. Indeed, I’m not overly demonstrative of my affections and will not give as much praise or positive support as others may need or desire. This doesn't mean that I don't truly have affection or regard for others, I simply do not typically feel the need to express it. Others may falsely perceive me as being rigid and set in my ways. Nothing could be further from the truth, because I’m committed to always finding the objective best strategy to implement my ideas. I’m usually quite open to hearing an alternative way of doing something.
I like my home because it is beautiful, well-furnished, and efficiently run. I’ve always placed a lot of emphasis on my children being well-educated and structured. I have worked to develop a congenial and devoted relationship with my spouse. My wife survives with me because she has a strong self-image and is also a thinking type. She has very well-formed ideas about the way things should be and is not shy about expressing her opinions
I’m ambitious, self-confident, deliberate, and a long-range thinker. I picked my profession to find enough challenges which involve organizing and strategic planning. I dislike messiness and inefficiency, and anything that is muddled or unclear. I value clarity and efficiency, and will put enormous amounts of energy and time into consolidating their insights into structured patterns.
I get the Big Picture and am driven to synthesize concepts into solid plans of action. I have good reasoning skills and the means to accomplish my plans. I have not had a problem meeting my career or education goals.
My personality starts by being internally focus, where I take things in primarily via my intuition. I than switch my focus to external, where I deal with things rationally and logically. My modes of focus are almost equally balanced.
I enjoy the world of ideas and strategic planning and have lived in it for the last twenty years. There is always a world of possibilities where I see all sorts’ of challenges and I want to be the one responsible for overcoming them. I see things from a long-range perspective and am usually successful at identifying plans to turn problems around. I am tireless in my efforts on the job, and driven to visualize where an organization is headed.
I have a drive for leadership, as a youth I was often place in positions of leadership and still seek leadership positions today. My leadership is well-served by my quickness to grasp complexities, ability to absorb a large amount of impersonal information, and quick and decisive judgments. I am a "take charge" person. I constantly scan the environment for potential problems which I can turn into solutions.
When I’m in a leadership role, I tend to be quite effective because I work hard to objectively see the reality of a situation and can still adapt to change when things aren't working well. I am always scanning available ideas and concepts and weighing them against the current strategy to plan for every conceivable contingency.
I spend a lot of my energy observing the world and generating ideas and possibilities. My mind constantly gathers information and makes associations about it. I work hard at being insightful and usually am very quick to understand new ideas. However, my primary interest is not understanding a concept, but rather applying that concept in a useful way. I do not need to follow an idea as far as it can possibly go; I only need to understand it fully. I really need to come to conclusions about ideas. Once I have my conclusion, my need for closure usually requires that I take some action.
I value intelligence, knowledge, humor and competence and typically have high standards in these regards, which I continuously strive to fulfill. To a somewhat lesser extent, I have similar expectations of those around me.
I dislike seeing mistakes repeated, and have no patience with inefficiency. I can become brutally honest and may become rather harsh when my patience is tried in these respects, because I’m not naturally tuned in to people's feelings, and generally don't believe that I should tailor my judgments in consideration for people's feelings. I have difficulty seeing things from outside my own perspective. I tend to have little patience with people who do not see things the same way as I do. I have to consciously work on recognizing the value of other people's opinions, as well as the value of being sensitive towards people's feelings. When I’m not consciously working on being sensitive towards people, I can become forceful, intimidating and overbearing.
People tend to grant me a tremendous amount of personal power and allow my presence to affect them, which works as a force towards achieving my goals. However, this personal power is also an agent of alienation and self-aggrandizement, which I have to work hard to avoid.
I tend to be a very forceful, decisive individual. I generally make decisions quickly, and can be quick to verbalize my opinions and decisions. Every day there are countless choices that I make without much thought. I tend to apply rules and copy solutions from my own or others past experience rather than solve every problem I encounter on a daily basis. I would have difficulty surviving if I had to apply problem solving techniques to every decision I faced. Some will call this intuition; I prefer to think of it as the ability to recall all that impersonal data. Either way, as I have gather experience and education, I tend to make fewer decisions too hastily, because I have a better understanding of all the issues and possible solutions. I still spend a lot of time thinking and developing understandable and rational system for new projects or ideas. This may isolate me and I can lose interest in other people's thoughts or feelings. It is not easy for me to express internal images, insights, and abstractions. The internal form of my thoughts and concepts is highly individualized, and is not easy for others to understand. However, I’m driven to translate my ideas into a plan or system that is usually readily explainable.
Although I’m not naturally tuned into other people's feelings, I frequently experience very strong sentimental streaks. Often these sentiments are very powerful and I hide it from general knowledge, believing the feelings to be a weakness. Because the world of feelings and values are not where I naturally function, I may sometimes make value judgments and hold onto submerged emotions which are ill-founded and inappropriately developed.
I enjoy interacting with people. I’m energized and stimulated by public situations. There's nothing more enjoyable and satisfying to me than having a lively, challenging conversation. I especially respect people who are able to stand up to me, and argue persuasively for their point of view. There aren't too many people who will do so, however, because I’m a very forceful and dynamic presence who has a tremendous amount of self-confidence and excellent verbal communication skills. Even the most confident person may experience moments of self-doubt when debating a point with me.
Other people may have a difficult time understanding me. They may see me as aloof and reserved. Indeed, I’m not overly demonstrative of my affections and will not give as much praise or positive support as others may need or desire. This doesn't mean that I don't truly have affection or regard for others, I simply do not typically feel the need to express it. Others may falsely perceive me as being rigid and set in my ways. Nothing could be further from the truth, because I’m committed to always finding the objective best strategy to implement my ideas. I’m usually quite open to hearing an alternative way of doing something.
I like my home because it is beautiful, well-furnished, and efficiently run. I’ve always placed a lot of emphasis on my children being well-educated and structured. I have worked to develop a congenial and devoted relationship with my spouse. My wife survives with me because she has a strong self-image and is also a thinking type. She has very well-formed ideas about the way things should be and is not shy about expressing her opinions
I’m ambitious, self-confident, deliberate, and a long-range thinker. I picked my profession to find enough challenges which involve organizing and strategic planning. I dislike messiness and inefficiency, and anything that is muddled or unclear. I value clarity and efficiency, and will put enormous amounts of energy and time into consolidating their insights into structured patterns.
I get the Big Picture and am driven to synthesize concepts into solid plans of action. I have good reasoning skills and the means to accomplish my plans. I have not had a problem meeting my career or education goals.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
System Helps in Economic Downturn
The number of employees per one hundred population is an indicator that city’s use to evaluate their personnel capacity and capability. The lack of adequately trained personnel to take on the financial and personnel responsibilities of delivering the goods and services is a common cause of concern. Therefore, to ensure that taxes are affordable and quality public services are available to all citizens, the council determined critical volume of the supply of goods and services needs to be matched with the personnel capacity and capability.
The personnel capacity and capability of the city workforce has changed substantially over the last decade. There have been reductions in the Street department and increases in administrative, facility maintenance and police personnel. The overall number of employees has remained constant throughout the last decade with other service delivery methods used to pickup additional responsibilities of delivering the goods and services. Lake Mills is slightly below average for the number of employees per capita and has declined annually since 2000 when the Federal government stopped the police grants.
Increasing employees per capita may indicate that expenditures are rising faster than revenues (as personnel costs are often a major portion of government expenditures), the government is becoming more labor intensive, and/or personnel productivity is declining. Decreasing employees per capita may indicate personnel productivity increases through education, equipment or technology. This may also be an indication of a decreasing level of service.
The personnel capacity and capability of the city workforce has changed substantially over the last decade. There have been reductions in the Street department and increases in administrative, facility maintenance and police personnel. The overall number of employees has remained constant throughout the last decade with other service delivery methods used to pickup additional responsibilities of delivering the goods and services. Lake Mills is slightly below average for the number of employees per capita and has declined annually since 2000 when the Federal government stopped the police grants.
Increasing employees per capita may indicate that expenditures are rising faster than revenues (as personnel costs are often a major portion of government expenditures), the government is becoming more labor intensive, and/or personnel productivity is declining. Decreasing employees per capita may indicate personnel productivity increases through education, equipment or technology. This may also be an indication of a decreasing level of service.
Chart Shows Number of Employees per Hundred of City Population
The City has used a mix of FTE, PTE, TEMPS and Contractors to control costs. The City maintains a blend of FTE, PTE, TEMPS to cushion against “agent” opportunistic behavior because there has been a limited pool of competent contractor competition locally. The city also uses the mix to protect against economic shock. The city can reduce the number of PTE, TEMPS and contractors with little financial implications. The city can also seek better contract prices during economic downturns. The current goal of administration has been to blend our employee’s strengths with the most cost effective contracts. The mix allows the constant delivery of service by FTEs; the ability to adjust to seasonal changes with PTE and TEMPs; and special skills, knowledge and equipment of contractors. The contracting with external suppliers to provide public services while maintaining a minimum level of FT employees as a cushion has allowed the city to adjust to changing economic conditions while maintaining a relatively consistent level of service to date.
The city contracts with hundreds of different organizations through out the course of a year. The contracts include grass mowing, HVAC maintenance, computer administration, interpretation services, burial services, sidewalk construction and repair, street construction and repair, vehicle repair, laboratory services, jail, legal services, planning, zoning, building inspection, engineering, uniforms, cellular phone service, pagers, building maintenance, porta-potties, sanitation and recycling services, electric construction, water construction and repair, sanitary sewer construction and repair, financial services, economic development services, drug and alcohol testing, DUI testing, radio repair, etc, etc, etc. This is not even a complete listing of city contractors.
The city has used this system to provide consistent services and control the ability to reduce costs in a relatively simple fashion.
The city contracts with hundreds of different organizations through out the course of a year. The contracts include grass mowing, HVAC maintenance, computer administration, interpretation services, burial services, sidewalk construction and repair, street construction and repair, vehicle repair, laboratory services, jail, legal services, planning, zoning, building inspection, engineering, uniforms, cellular phone service, pagers, building maintenance, porta-potties, sanitation and recycling services, electric construction, water construction and repair, sanitary sewer construction and repair, financial services, economic development services, drug and alcohol testing, DUI testing, radio repair, etc, etc, etc. This is not even a complete listing of city contractors.
The city has used this system to provide consistent services and control the ability to reduce costs in a relatively simple fashion.
Monday, June 8, 2009
Me -Blog?
I’ve never thought of myself as a writer. Blogging usually involves some writing skills. Because I lack writing skills - what kind of benefit will I provide as a blogger? Can I use this communication option to enlighten someone enough to really make a difference? Although all of us have been communicating with others from the time we can remember, the process of communicating information from one individual to another is a very complex procedure with many potential sources of miscommunication. Many of us have ignore our inability to effectively communicate with others most of our lives. I have come to realize that communication has the potential to be very subjective because it has a strong base in our personal experiences and the accounts and explanations made to us by others. The meaning and understanding of most communication is dependent on the particular contexts in which it occurs; consequently most of the thoughts and ideas I’m trying to communicate aren’t effective far beyond the context in which they were produced. An example of this is a upcoming conference program for city managers titled “Elected Officials and Appointed Officials use the same words and speak a different language”. So, why blog?
If I want people to act based on my communications, they have to be motivated to do so. To get them to act in the way I want them too, it very much depends on the information they need to take the right course of action and to be motivated to do it. Motivation or the absence of it can quite often be traced back to communications and their influence on those receiving it.
When I’m trying to effectively communicate, the one thing I should ask myself is 'Can this message or instruction be easily understood by the audience receiving it?' Can I be sure that those receiving my message actually understand what I’m saying?
One of the most important limitations on people's perceptions is the cultural and emotional differences they use to filter the perception. Culture and emotion act as interpretative "lenses" that helps us make sense of events. Most of us, generally speaking, use the lenses to perceive what we expect to perceive. In other words, we see what we expect to see and to a very large extent hear what we want to hear. Usually the unexpected communication is not resented; what often happens is that the message has not actually been received at all. It has been neither seen nor heard. It has been ignored. Your wife or husband probably understands this issue.
More often than not - and most of us are quite unaware of the process - our mind tries very hard to fit impressions and stimuli into a framework of expectations. We resist any attempts to make us 'change our mind'.
Every day people make countless choices without much thought. They tend to apply rules and copy solutions from their cultural and emotional understanding of their environment rather than solve every problem they encounter on a daily basis. They would have difficulty surviving if they had to apply problem solving techniques to every decision they faced. Malcolm Gladwell[1] refers to this decision making process as “Blink”. Gladwell’s main points: "Blink" happens very rapidly within "the locked room" of our unconscious; we need to take this ability seriously as it leads to important insights; it can also betray us because quick judgment is highly influenced by the environment and predispositions. Our use of communication needs to manage the way people "Blink" by paying attention and making corrections to the way and types of communications used.
So, add a blog to the mix.
[1] Gladwell, Malcolm. Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. : Little, Brown and Company, January 11, 2005.
If I want people to act based on my communications, they have to be motivated to do so. To get them to act in the way I want them too, it very much depends on the information they need to take the right course of action and to be motivated to do it. Motivation or the absence of it can quite often be traced back to communications and their influence on those receiving it.
When I’m trying to effectively communicate, the one thing I should ask myself is 'Can this message or instruction be easily understood by the audience receiving it?' Can I be sure that those receiving my message actually understand what I’m saying?
One of the most important limitations on people's perceptions is the cultural and emotional differences they use to filter the perception. Culture and emotion act as interpretative "lenses" that helps us make sense of events. Most of us, generally speaking, use the lenses to perceive what we expect to perceive. In other words, we see what we expect to see and to a very large extent hear what we want to hear. Usually the unexpected communication is not resented; what often happens is that the message has not actually been received at all. It has been neither seen nor heard. It has been ignored. Your wife or husband probably understands this issue.
More often than not - and most of us are quite unaware of the process - our mind tries very hard to fit impressions and stimuli into a framework of expectations. We resist any attempts to make us 'change our mind'.
Every day people make countless choices without much thought. They tend to apply rules and copy solutions from their cultural and emotional understanding of their environment rather than solve every problem they encounter on a daily basis. They would have difficulty surviving if they had to apply problem solving techniques to every decision they faced. Malcolm Gladwell[1] refers to this decision making process as “Blink”. Gladwell’s main points: "Blink" happens very rapidly within "the locked room" of our unconscious; we need to take this ability seriously as it leads to important insights; it can also betray us because quick judgment is highly influenced by the environment and predispositions. Our use of communication needs to manage the way people "Blink" by paying attention and making corrections to the way and types of communications used.
So, add a blog to the mix.
[1] Gladwell, Malcolm. Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. : Little, Brown and Company, January 11, 2005.
Friday, June 5, 2009
TYRANENA PARK ROAD SUBSTATION
The City has received and reviewed a Common Facilities Agreement from ATC regarding the Tyranena Park Road Substation. The agreement identifies the allocation of the cost responsibility for expansions and improvements to Common Facilities at Joint Use Substations.
A Joint Use Substation is a substation at which Assignable Facilities are installed, owned and operated by more than one entity.
Common Facilities are facilities installed at a Joint Use Substation, which are substantially used and useful to more than one entity at such substation and may include, but are not limited to, batteries, ground grids, fences, gravel areas, parking areas, landscaping, access roads, yard lighting, shielding, screening and other similar elements. Common Facilities do not include real property or the Substation property.
The Public Works Board will review the document and make a recommendation to the City Council on approving the agreement. The City Council will determine if the City Manager will be authorized to sign the agreement.
A Joint Use Substation is a substation at which Assignable Facilities are installed, owned and operated by more than one entity.
Common Facilities are facilities installed at a Joint Use Substation, which are substantially used and useful to more than one entity at such substation and may include, but are not limited to, batteries, ground grids, fences, gravel areas, parking areas, landscaping, access roads, yard lighting, shielding, screening and other similar elements. Common Facilities do not include real property or the Substation property.
The Public Works Board will review the document and make a recommendation to the City Council on approving the agreement. The City Council will determine if the City Manager will be authorized to sign the agreement.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
How Ace Became Ace
The City of Lake Mills was criticized recently because of a site plan that was approved that enabled the construction of a building that may become a hardware store at the entrance to the City. This criticism seems to be focused on why the City would do this to the detriment of existing businesses already located in the downtown. In response to such critics, I hope to assure readers that the City had no choice but to apply its codes to the site in question. If the requirements are met, administrators have to grant the approval.
The decision to approve the site plan is like many of the other land use decisions the City makes, such as whether to grant approval to a homeowner seeking a permit for a new addition or deck, or to a store owner who is applying for a permit to erect a new sign. Like nearly all cities in the United States, Lake Mills regulates land use through its police powers to promote and protect the public’s health, safety, comfort, convenience and general welfare. The City is granted zoning powers by the State.
Zoning was upheld as constitutional and within the government’s police powers with the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1926 decision in Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co. Since then, the limits of zoning have been further refined through federal and state case law. Zoning becomes a balancing act of the right of the individual to use their property as they wish and the interest the community has in the use of private property. When cities control land use, it does it primarily through its zoning codes, which restrict the use of private property for the benefit of the community as a whole.
The purpose of the City’s zoning ordinance is to lessen congestion in the streets, provide for fire safety, and to provide adequate standards of light, air, and open space, while also preventing the overcrowding of land by creating a rational land use pattern between residential, business, commercial, and manufacturing uses for the mutual benefit of all. Dimensional standards apply to any structures built on lots within each zoning district, and typically take the form of setbacks, height limits, minimum lot sizes, lot coverage limits, and other limitations on the "building envelope".
The use of zoning regulations means that if you want to locate a use within the city, you need to check the zoning map and code. Constructing a building on a site where the use is permitted means you only have to worry about "building envelope" issues. In the case of the new building, the site selected by the owner was zoned several years ago to allow for many kinds of businesses in the planned business district.
On the site of the new store, many other different uses could have occurred there as a matter of right. If a proposed use fits the rules for a particular zoning district, the only way the City can control the use is by applying its design standards, building codes, and set back requirements.
In approving the site plan for the new building, the approval is withheld until the parking, landscaping, and setbacks meet code requirements; and that the design of the exterior of the building is of appropriate materials and character. The same sorts of considerations were made several years ago when the construction of the convenience store at the gas station near the hardware store’s location and the construction of the drugstore next to the building in question were approved.
But, the law does not allow prohibiting the builder from receiving approvals and permits because there is already an existing hardware store downtown. That would be a clear abuse of zoning powers. To make such a demand with respect to granting the hardware store permits would be no different than telling someone who is complying with all of the pre-established zoning requirements that we already have enough three-bedroom homes in your neighborhood, so change your plans for your property and build a larger or smaller house, and then the city will grant a permit to you.
No city in the nation would be permitted to make such demands. If a property has been zoned for a particular use, anyone who wishes to buy such a property has a right to operate any of the permitted uses and construct whatever the owner wants to construct, provided all of the regulations are met. It may be that the critics of this approval and this project are confusing our present situation with the examples they may have recently observed in neighboring communities regarding the location of a large retail store that critics vowed to prevent by fighting the location of this business due to concerns over the future viability of existing, smaller retailers after the giant mega-store is permitted to build in the community.
Please be assured that although our situation may look to casual observers to be the same as what has occurred in neighboring communities, the situation with respect to the mega store is different. It is not different because the types of businesses are different. It is different because the site where the hardware store is being built was already zoned for this and many other kinds of uses at this location. The owner of the property was not seeking permission to annex or the granting of a type of zoning that would permit the construction of the hardware store. Instead, the owner of the property bought a property that was already zoned for uses that were compatible with what the owner wished to construct. So the only approval opportunities left for the City in our situation were ones that would make sure that all of the previously established regulations were being followed.
In the district where the building is being constructed that may have a hardware store, many uses were possible, it was not within the rights of the zoning administrator to dictate which of the previously permitted uses could be allowed and which would not be allowed, because the ordinance in place allows the use in the zoning district. Some of the other possible, permitted uses at the location were: general merchandise stores, food stores, garden stores, apparel stores, furniture and home furnishing stores, travel agencies, and office supply stores.
Besides these types of stores, the owner of properties within the zoning district could also allow real estate, financial, insurance or legal services to be provided, or where medical facilities, barber shops and similar uses could be operated. This particular location also could provide for such institutional uses such as churches, or civic, social and fraternal associations. Even service stations, drive-in or drive-thru restaurants, car wash facilities, auto banks, and similar uses could also be constructed. Most of these uses would be in competition with businesses already in Lake Mills. In each of these other possible uses for the property in question, the City would be restricted from demanding that some uses could be used and others could not.
Zoning is simply a limited system for dividing a city into several districts so that land use conflicts will be minimized. One would not put a house in the middle of an industrial park, and a factory cannot be located next to a drug store. Zoning ordinances regulate uses of land in detail so every owner of land and every potential buyer of a property will know what is permitted and required on the particular property, and also on the properties nearby. Despite the critics, zoning really is good for protecting what’s already there and for preventing nuisances, but once someone is seeking to operate within the established rules, no one can say to a prospective business owner that we already have a business like yours, so either pick a different business or go to some other community to build what you have in mind.
While zoning certainly can be criticized, the careful and evenhanded administration of a thoughtfully drafted zoning ordinance remains one of the best ways to implement the community comprehensive plan. Zoning makes an important contribution to the livability, efficiency, and attractiveness of the City. The City of Lake Mills has developed a vision for the whole community and sometimes specific objectives of the vision may seem mutually exclusive, but the City’s zoning is a legally defendable plan that ties diverse aspects of a community together.
Instead of blaming the zoning or those who administer it, maybe it would be more useful to consider that it may actually be the case that people and their purchasing habits are driving the resulting business economic options more than zoning regulations or those required to administer them.
The decision to approve the site plan is like many of the other land use decisions the City makes, such as whether to grant approval to a homeowner seeking a permit for a new addition or deck, or to a store owner who is applying for a permit to erect a new sign. Like nearly all cities in the United States, Lake Mills regulates land use through its police powers to promote and protect the public’s health, safety, comfort, convenience and general welfare. The City is granted zoning powers by the State.
Zoning was upheld as constitutional and within the government’s police powers with the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1926 decision in Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co. Since then, the limits of zoning have been further refined through federal and state case law. Zoning becomes a balancing act of the right of the individual to use their property as they wish and the interest the community has in the use of private property. When cities control land use, it does it primarily through its zoning codes, which restrict the use of private property for the benefit of the community as a whole.
The purpose of the City’s zoning ordinance is to lessen congestion in the streets, provide for fire safety, and to provide adequate standards of light, air, and open space, while also preventing the overcrowding of land by creating a rational land use pattern between residential, business, commercial, and manufacturing uses for the mutual benefit of all. Dimensional standards apply to any structures built on lots within each zoning district, and typically take the form of setbacks, height limits, minimum lot sizes, lot coverage limits, and other limitations on the "building envelope".
The use of zoning regulations means that if you want to locate a use within the city, you need to check the zoning map and code. Constructing a building on a site where the use is permitted means you only have to worry about "building envelope" issues. In the case of the new building, the site selected by the owner was zoned several years ago to allow for many kinds of businesses in the planned business district.
On the site of the new store, many other different uses could have occurred there as a matter of right. If a proposed use fits the rules for a particular zoning district, the only way the City can control the use is by applying its design standards, building codes, and set back requirements.
In approving the site plan for the new building, the approval is withheld until the parking, landscaping, and setbacks meet code requirements; and that the design of the exterior of the building is of appropriate materials and character. The same sorts of considerations were made several years ago when the construction of the convenience store at the gas station near the hardware store’s location and the construction of the drugstore next to the building in question were approved.
But, the law does not allow prohibiting the builder from receiving approvals and permits because there is already an existing hardware store downtown. That would be a clear abuse of zoning powers. To make such a demand with respect to granting the hardware store permits would be no different than telling someone who is complying with all of the pre-established zoning requirements that we already have enough three-bedroom homes in your neighborhood, so change your plans for your property and build a larger or smaller house, and then the city will grant a permit to you.
No city in the nation would be permitted to make such demands. If a property has been zoned for a particular use, anyone who wishes to buy such a property has a right to operate any of the permitted uses and construct whatever the owner wants to construct, provided all of the regulations are met. It may be that the critics of this approval and this project are confusing our present situation with the examples they may have recently observed in neighboring communities regarding the location of a large retail store that critics vowed to prevent by fighting the location of this business due to concerns over the future viability of existing, smaller retailers after the giant mega-store is permitted to build in the community.
Please be assured that although our situation may look to casual observers to be the same as what has occurred in neighboring communities, the situation with respect to the mega store is different. It is not different because the types of businesses are different. It is different because the site where the hardware store is being built was already zoned for this and many other kinds of uses at this location. The owner of the property was not seeking permission to annex or the granting of a type of zoning that would permit the construction of the hardware store. Instead, the owner of the property bought a property that was already zoned for uses that were compatible with what the owner wished to construct. So the only approval opportunities left for the City in our situation were ones that would make sure that all of the previously established regulations were being followed.
In the district where the building is being constructed that may have a hardware store, many uses were possible, it was not within the rights of the zoning administrator to dictate which of the previously permitted uses could be allowed and which would not be allowed, because the ordinance in place allows the use in the zoning district. Some of the other possible, permitted uses at the location were: general merchandise stores, food stores, garden stores, apparel stores, furniture and home furnishing stores, travel agencies, and office supply stores.
Besides these types of stores, the owner of properties within the zoning district could also allow real estate, financial, insurance or legal services to be provided, or where medical facilities, barber shops and similar uses could be operated. This particular location also could provide for such institutional uses such as churches, or civic, social and fraternal associations. Even service stations, drive-in or drive-thru restaurants, car wash facilities, auto banks, and similar uses could also be constructed. Most of these uses would be in competition with businesses already in Lake Mills. In each of these other possible uses for the property in question, the City would be restricted from demanding that some uses could be used and others could not.
Zoning is simply a limited system for dividing a city into several districts so that land use conflicts will be minimized. One would not put a house in the middle of an industrial park, and a factory cannot be located next to a drug store. Zoning ordinances regulate uses of land in detail so every owner of land and every potential buyer of a property will know what is permitted and required on the particular property, and also on the properties nearby. Despite the critics, zoning really is good for protecting what’s already there and for preventing nuisances, but once someone is seeking to operate within the established rules, no one can say to a prospective business owner that we already have a business like yours, so either pick a different business or go to some other community to build what you have in mind.
While zoning certainly can be criticized, the careful and evenhanded administration of a thoughtfully drafted zoning ordinance remains one of the best ways to implement the community comprehensive plan. Zoning makes an important contribution to the livability, efficiency, and attractiveness of the City. The City of Lake Mills has developed a vision for the whole community and sometimes specific objectives of the vision may seem mutually exclusive, but the City’s zoning is a legally defendable plan that ties diverse aspects of a community together.
Instead of blaming the zoning or those who administer it, maybe it would be more useful to consider that it may actually be the case that people and their purchasing habits are driving the resulting business economic options more than zoning regulations or those required to administer them.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Political Windmills
Why do some elected officials avoid reality altogether and act like "Facts are the enemy of truth." These were words spoken by Don Quixote in Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra’s book “Don Quixote.”[1] What does it mean to fight windmills in public administration? It means fighting nothing important or real, just imaginary enemies and issues. The windmill may be the “phantom illegal employee action,” “phantom annexation” or the “phantom memo.” All meaningless matters, which one builds into something solid and formidable in one’s mind and because it’s a public issue gains gravity.[2] Everybody wants to be somebody even if it's only Don Quixote fighting windmills. Dealing with windmill issues is irritating, divisive and devoid of fact. You can't defend something that is not there to surrender. Some people just cannot come to the realization that these windmills are imaginary, that one can remove them by not endowing them with strength and importance. A slightly different version of this is shown by the following story: The conductor calls for everyone to board the train from New York to Chicago. Many people from the station board the train. About the time the train is pulling out of the train station, one woman says she’s on the train to Paris. The conductor corrects her by stating again that it’s the train to Chicago. The woman leans over and tells the passenger next to her that she’s on the train to Paris. The fellow passenger asks the conductor if the train is going to Paris and the conductor says “no’ that it’s going to Chicago and the passenger says that the woman who told him seemed very sincere about the train going to Paris. Pretty soon someone else asks the conductor why the train is going to Paris because they need to go to Chicago and again the conductor states it’s the train to Chicago. Eventually there is a panic about the train going to Paris rather than Chicago. The train ends up in Chicago. Our political landscapes are full of windmills.
[1] Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de. “Don Quixote,” Part I published in 1605; Part II in 1615.
[2] Appleby, Paul. “Government is Different” 1945 - reprinted in Classics of Public Administration, sixth edition. Edited by Jay M. Shafritz and Albert C. Hyde, page 119-123
[1] Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de. “Don Quixote,” Part I published in 1605; Part II in 1615.
[2] Appleby, Paul. “Government is Different” 1945 - reprinted in Classics of Public Administration, sixth edition. Edited by Jay M. Shafritz and Albert C. Hyde, page 119-123
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Summer Projects
TOPEKA DRIVE REBUILD:
THE FOLLOWING WORK HAS BEEN COMPLETED.
STORM SEWER
· LMS will finish Stony/Topeka intersection Tuesday (6/2)
· LMS will start at north outfall to Rock Creek (@ Gladstone) Tuesday (6/2)
· Inverts are being poured 1 to 2 days after structures are installed.
· Sump lateral connections will be done following storm sewer main installation.
WATER MAIN
· All testing completed.
· Safe samples have been received.
· All services have been installed.
· LMS will be removing existing hydrants during storm sewer installation.
SANITARY SEWER
· All pipe installed.
· Service installed.
· Pressure testing was waived due to live lateral hook-up.
WORK IN PROGRESS.
WE ENERGIES
· Have adjusted gas main at CTH V, Cass, and Plainview for storm sewer.
· Still need to adjust gas main at Gladstone for storm sewer. This is planned to be completed this week.
WATER AND LIGHT
· Waiting for LMS to complete storm sewer installation to begin work.
B.R. AMON
· Scheduled to come on site following storm sewer completion to start building subgrade for street.
BREWSTER STREET SUBDIVISION:
The surface asphalt was paved May 29.
A site walk-through has been scheduled for the Brewster Drive subdivision work.
This walk-through will identify any major work items remaining as well as a punch list.
This walk-through was asked for by owner’s engineer in preparation for a letter of credit reduction submittal.
The owner has requested to final the subdivion.
Items that will be looking at include: retaining wall railing, grass restoration, chimney seals, sidewalk concrete, curb concrete, hydrant orientation, curb box adjustments, storm sewer piping, detention basin grading, and anything else related to the public improvements.
TYRANENA PARK ROAD SUBSTATION:
All of the structure foundations, including the transformer pads and control house pads have been poured, and some of the underground conduit has been installed. The ground grid is being laid out and should be completed in the next couple of weeks. The transformers are scheduled to be shipped late next week of the week after.
FRANKLIN STREET RESERVOIR:
L.C. Painting Company was awarded the contract to repaint the reservoir. The work will be completed this summer.
CP/PRAIRIE SANITARY SEWER PROJECT:
This is a potential schedule for the project:
May 1 = Survey Complete
June 1 = Preliminary Design sent to City for Review
June 1 = Submit Chapter 30 Permit to DNR
July 1 = Submit DNR Sanitary Sewer Permit
July 16 = First Advertisement
July 23 = Second Advertisement
July 30 = Open Bids
August 3 = Award Contract
August 17 = Start Construction
October 16 = Completion Date
WATER SYSTEM CONTROL AND DATA AQUISITION PROJECT:
The objectives of this project are as follows:
Replace the existing outdated control system with a new SCADA system which provides state-of-the-art centralized monitoring and control of the water system facilities.
Replace the existing leased-line modem network with an FCC-licensed radio network.
Provide an alarm notification system that will notify staff of specific alarms and key system data via standard telephone line.
Provide a reporting system that will collect and store pump, flow, and water quality data.
Provide the foundation of SCADA-integrated site security and access logging system.
Provide an inline chlorine analyzer for installation at the public works building. Integrate analyzer into SCADA reporting system. Include option for single fluoride analyzer.
THE FOLLOWING WORK HAS BEEN COMPLETED.
STORM SEWER
· LMS will finish Stony/Topeka intersection Tuesday (6/2)
· LMS will start at north outfall to Rock Creek (@ Gladstone) Tuesday (6/2)
· Inverts are being poured 1 to 2 days after structures are installed.
· Sump lateral connections will be done following storm sewer main installation.
WATER MAIN
· All testing completed.
· Safe samples have been received.
· All services have been installed.
· LMS will be removing existing hydrants during storm sewer installation.
SANITARY SEWER
· All pipe installed.
· Service installed.
· Pressure testing was waived due to live lateral hook-up.
WORK IN PROGRESS.
WE ENERGIES
· Have adjusted gas main at CTH V, Cass, and Plainview for storm sewer.
· Still need to adjust gas main at Gladstone for storm sewer. This is planned to be completed this week.
WATER AND LIGHT
· Waiting for LMS to complete storm sewer installation to begin work.
B.R. AMON
· Scheduled to come on site following storm sewer completion to start building subgrade for street.
BREWSTER STREET SUBDIVISION:
The surface asphalt was paved May 29.
A site walk-through has been scheduled for the Brewster Drive subdivision work.
This walk-through will identify any major work items remaining as well as a punch list.
This walk-through was asked for by owner’s engineer in preparation for a letter of credit reduction submittal.
The owner has requested to final the subdivion.
Items that will be looking at include: retaining wall railing, grass restoration, chimney seals, sidewalk concrete, curb concrete, hydrant orientation, curb box adjustments, storm sewer piping, detention basin grading, and anything else related to the public improvements.
TYRANENA PARK ROAD SUBSTATION:
All of the structure foundations, including the transformer pads and control house pads have been poured, and some of the underground conduit has been installed. The ground grid is being laid out and should be completed in the next couple of weeks. The transformers are scheduled to be shipped late next week of the week after.
FRANKLIN STREET RESERVOIR:
L.C. Painting Company was awarded the contract to repaint the reservoir. The work will be completed this summer.
CP/PRAIRIE SANITARY SEWER PROJECT:
This is a potential schedule for the project:
May 1 = Survey Complete
June 1 = Preliminary Design sent to City for Review
June 1 = Submit Chapter 30 Permit to DNR
July 1 = Submit DNR Sanitary Sewer Permit
July 16 = First Advertisement
July 23 = Second Advertisement
July 30 = Open Bids
August 3 = Award Contract
August 17 = Start Construction
October 16 = Completion Date
WATER SYSTEM CONTROL AND DATA AQUISITION PROJECT:
The objectives of this project are as follows:
Replace the existing outdated control system with a new SCADA system which provides state-of-the-art centralized monitoring and control of the water system facilities.
Replace the existing leased-line modem network with an FCC-licensed radio network.
Provide an alarm notification system that will notify staff of specific alarms and key system data via standard telephone line.
Provide a reporting system that will collect and store pump, flow, and water quality data.
Provide the foundation of SCADA-integrated site security and access logging system.
Provide an inline chlorine analyzer for installation at the public works building. Integrate analyzer into SCADA reporting system. Include option for single fluoride analyzer.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Our Task?
As City Managers, we understand that any policy-making process involves value conflicts, social constructs, and stakeholders. In our divided societies, where social homogeneity is limited and power is unequally distributed, people have conflicting interests and desired results, and thus will tend to have different particular opinions. Policy-making has to be shaped by the recognition of competing values, ideas and judgments as well as understanding our own bounded rational tools. We try to systematize our decisions and then explain particular judgments about what is “just” by appealing to widely shared principles, we "go back and forth," and finally change the judgments or the principles to satisfy similarly revisable methodological constraints, such as consistency, simplicity, and explanatory power. The real task is to find a stable basis for cooperation that does not abstract from actual interests but that also avoids relativization to those interests.
Policy-makers, management and the policy analyst face uncertainty about the future and the costs of acquiring information in the present. These factors limit the extent to which decision makers can make a fully rational decision. Yet, our rational and political processes are the utmost decision makers can utilize in the bounded and uncertain real world. As managers, as policy-makers, none can predict the end results of our decisions. Nor can anyone identify or recognize all available options in context, even if there were the time and financial resources to pursue them. What policy-makers do have is the insight gained from our experience to accurately identify the values that will come into conflict, deal honestly with social constructs (those of others and of our own making) and to bring in appropriate stakeholders, all the while reserving the right to exercise professional judgment, and be willing to change and adjust in the future.
Policy-makers and policy analysts are going to be required to go beyond the boundary of our current knowledge and understanding to sustain a distribution of burden and benefit across residents in a manner that is consistent with the accepted norms of fairness and equity. Only there will we find many of the answers to the core problems of our communities and organizations.
Policy-makers, management and the policy analyst face uncertainty about the future and the costs of acquiring information in the present. These factors limit the extent to which decision makers can make a fully rational decision. Yet, our rational and political processes are the utmost decision makers can utilize in the bounded and uncertain real world. As managers, as policy-makers, none can predict the end results of our decisions. Nor can anyone identify or recognize all available options in context, even if there were the time and financial resources to pursue them. What policy-makers do have is the insight gained from our experience to accurately identify the values that will come into conflict, deal honestly with social constructs (those of others and of our own making) and to bring in appropriate stakeholders, all the while reserving the right to exercise professional judgment, and be willing to change and adjust in the future.
Policy-makers and policy analysts are going to be required to go beyond the boundary of our current knowledge and understanding to sustain a distribution of burden and benefit across residents in a manner that is consistent with the accepted norms of fairness and equity. Only there will we find many of the answers to the core problems of our communities and organizations.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)