This kind of stuff needs to stop. This city has some real potential for future opportunity and some serious challenges facing it. The focus needs to be on growth and community improvements on all fronts and all areas of the cities. Problems need to be addressed and solutions need to be found. Everytime one of these incidents occurs, it is a setback for our growth and how we are viewed from the outside. Incidents like this when it concerns behavior of individuals need to be dealt with and there are processes out that there that should be implemented to deal with these types of incidents to prevent reoccurence and to be handled fairly with those involved. The city staff is charged with conducting the day to day municipality business, it needs an elected body that will support what it does and help it improve on managing as time goes forward. With all the in house bickering and indecisions that go on whether in public or behind closed doors, the city staff's responsibilities do not change day to day and they do an outstanding job managing a muncipality that is heavily divided on many issues. This is where our elected officials should come in is to bridge that gap and find common ground and solutions that will improve the community as a whole. Guys we need to work together from the public, elected officials, to the city staff. With all the issues this city has, Mr. Capell and the entire city staff manage do a tremendous job managing this city's day to day business, they do their best to stay out of the political fights and to keep to the public business. I myself do not agree with everything, but being a former city staffer from another state, I know full well what they put up with every day and they need an electorate body that works with them to solve issues as a team. And that team should not tolerate certain individuals within that electorial body who try to undermine things without finding common ground to solve them.

Sincerely,
John Courter

joe has observed city hall long to have this one dead on.

all of the occupations which joe mentions to enhance the council's ability to navigate complicated ( or even.....simple) matters would be great. just make the candidates comfortably retired with no need for the stipend which those who serve receive. the full time job of representing the citizens is a hard row to hoe in your spare time from your day job. alternatively, any council member who finds themselves needing a little good advice could certainly turn to any one of a number of professionals in the field in question for clarification on finer points of legislation if they felt they wanted an outside city hall viewpoint. to the mayor...... yes actually reading would be nice.

john, i am not exactly able to back your confidence that "they do their best to stay out of political fights". often the council is maneuvered into a position, and does not even realize they have been played until it is too late....... and the council has to perform due diligence to prevent themselves from being duped into decisions which were actually a fait accompli, or are presented as an "emergency".

this time the behavior of the mayor obscures the good thing which thankfully was the result.

..... uh, long enough. its early ;0)

John - excellent post. The biggest damage from this incident comes outside perception.

Sarah - Joe's article seems like he's a concerned citizen crying out for help, as opposed to a reporter creating a story. His article is dead on.

Where is the incentive for "qualified" people to run? You yourself probably spend more time working on/researching various issues than many on the existing council. Unfortunately, it almost seems like you'd be more effective instituting change from the outside, than as a member of this type of dysfunctional council

part one of two:
Joe - I must agree you have had a significant opportunity in observing the conduct of the council and city manager. What is most surprising is that given your depth of your experiences how you would draw some of the conclusions you have.
Before we going any further please let me set the record straight and understand that this is not a defense of the mayor as I often find his conduct deficient to what matters in being an effective leader. That said, allow me to file in some of the gaps.
The mayor is but one member of the elected city government. While in theory it is expected for this position to set the tone and agenda for the city it by no means should translate into the remainder of the council becoming lethargic when a vacuum exists. In fact much of this problem exists because of a mind set allowed to progress over a period of time that the mayor is nothing more than a "ceremonial" position.
Next issue of reasonable dispute is your "being fair" to Mr. Capell. You first correctly note his approach that "often crafts a situation" so as to guide the outcome of a council vote. Here again I would point out that such manipulation is not the function of a city manager and it should be most apparent how from even your most benign description the practice could be viewed with skepticism. I will not go into other specific instances of situations occurring that you also have first hand knowledge of which provides greater support on this point.

part two of two:
Now lets expand on several of the details concerning the chain of events relating to the original council vote on the stimulus money.
It is fact that the city had knowledge about the funds being available from sometime in March, and council members were made aware of this via several email messages. This is where the timing of various actions give pause to what appeared on the surface as routine business.
Did several memos about the stimulus from the city manager to the council not mysteriously appear available for the NP immediately prior to the vote; with a phone call to a NP reporter from a city employee of their existence.
Perhaps a more objective look at this point may also raise the following questions.
While the council was clearly aware of the available funding were they properly and thoroughly briefed on options for its use; this being a prime function of a city manager in giving guidance to the council. Obviously the council has a history of not giving complete direction to the city manager so it is also easy to see how the process can quickly become convoluted.
Lastly is the timing of the vote on this subject. Given the apparent lead time that existed one must ask why a subject of such financial important to the city would be left to the last minute and on a date when members of the council that most predictably would be in favor of the measure were not present.
No Joe, intellect does not automatically transform into effectiveness or change what the governing process of the city should be. If Mr. Capell believes he is best suited in making the decisions of the city he should work to have himself elected to the council or mayor. He would then appropriately have a vote in how all policy matters are decided. Until then his obligation to the people of the city and council is to manage day to operations and provide counsel to those entrusted with making the decisions.

Mr. Mastrangelo--

Your criticism of the staff appears to be unwarranted. According to published reports, the "mysterious" memoranda appeared as some members of Council criticized staff claiming they had "no knowledge" of the terms of the bill until immediately before the vote. For example, Mr. McCush was interviewed on local TV after the first vote. In fact, those complainants were provided information long before the vote.

You have a decidedly anti-staff bent. That is your prerogative. Please look at the public published admissions of these councilmembers before castigating staff.

Finally, it makes sense that a professional city manager SHOULD steer council towards the best [administrative] method to meet the [policy] goal established by Council. That's the nature of the form of government established in our city.

I think that before we criticize the mayor, we should remember one thing. He was, at best, a RELUCTANT candidate, who really thought he would NOT win, but like many of you, was not satisfied with things as they were. The opponent had money and was expected to win, but evidently lost the faith of the community. I guess my problem with it is why has city government become such a negative, that this kind of theatre (confrontations and insults) seems to be the norm, not the exception?

Mr. Saunders:

If you make the effort to contact certain individuals at the NP I believe you will find the statement made on the particular point of the messages surfacing is accurate.

I will agree with you to the extent that any member of the council having claimed to not have knowledge about the stimulus money is not making an accurate statement.

The record will stand for any comments made in "criticism" of the "elected council" which is not staff by definition. I view each and every member as honorable individuals wanting good for the community but intentions do not universally equate into effectiveness.

You ultimately seem to believe it appropriate conduct and that the city manger "SHOULD steer council towards the best {administrative} method to meet the {policy} goal established by council".
That is exactly the point; a city manager serves as counsel to those elected and subordinate in the process. The council is entrusted and ultimately responsible to the people for the decisions made.

rjw, i think blumberg could work anywhere as an investigative reporter. i enjoyed this piece.

mr saunders. while i have come to realize that mr. cappel is not the devil incarnate, i have had many problems with the conduct in city hall. mr. falkner correctly pointed to a lack of diversity in some appropriations emanating from CH.

as a new person here, it was really hard to actually grasp just how far behind the eight ball the newly elected and novice members actually were. i was dumbstruck for the first year watching council. only two of the members had any grasp of the simple application of something as basic as robert's rules.

this council has come a long way. i have a huge amount of respect of each one's integrity. each member is earnestly involved. as far as i can discern the sole member of council who consistently drops the ball is shearin. his personality is simply not suited to the work, he Cannot stay on task, and his behaivor is reminiscent of a kindergarten student who has not been given their ADHD meds for the day.

council is often steered by a machiavellian CM. the man is good. he actually had me convinced i was against impact fees........... i think that cappel has done a good job for this city. he appears to be astute, and adept especially in finances. his STAFF is very loyal, and i know a few of them well enough now to give their leader credit for being able to inspire that kind of loyalty.

my naive assessment of why this city seems to have such trouble finding a consensus is simplistic, but obvious. st joseph has, since her creation, been a ctiy divided. ken shearin and the city manager, for good or worse, are lightning rods. maybe what joetown needs is a really bright cheerleader/coach to harness the council's ideas and execute those dreams.

i have said it before...... this city needs a Pied Piper to Lead, someone who people want to follow. we do not need a person who is waving a Lead Pipe.

Well it is over for now. Next round will come up when proposals come in and are reviewed by city staff or when the city must act again with little notice because of this federal money. Be thankful Obama is giving it to us, no thanks to the opposition they all voted no except two women from Maine.

AS TO CAMPAIN MODE THOSE RUNNING AGAIN ARE ALREADY IN IT WITH A PRIMARY NINE MONTHS AWAY.

Joe - great way to start my day by reading your article. Thank you!

apm, the city charter item 4.4 (h) states...
" He/she shall keep the Council fully advised as to the financial
condition and future needs of the City and Make Such Recommendations to
the Council concerning the affairs of the City as he/she deems
desirable.

this does seem to indicate that the CM is not restricted from giving his own opinion to council.

it is important to note that VC should not keep information from, or present it in an incomplete way to counsel.

the pendulum swings both ways.

The city manager is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't speak about a particular issue.

The real problem here is that staff does inform council, they just have to read the materials provided to them. The information is there, most of the council members choose not to read it, remember they read it, etc. Often there is ample opportunity to ask a question long before the meeting.

heritage - You are absolutely correct about the charter language and the operative words are "advised and recommendations" deemed "desirable".
The disconnect over this subject occurs when the distinction is not perfectly clear between the advisory capacity and that of manipulation.

238 - You are correct as to the obligation of council members to actively review the information at their disposal. This part of the discussion is equally important because the perception of anyone exerting undue influence would not exist if the council were aggressive in both requiring specifics on matters and then setting concise policy or directives.