At the city council retreat earlier this year, council leadership and city staff decided city council would no longer be able to talk directly to city department directors. Instead, all communications will go through the city manager’s office.
This bucks the decades-long practice of council members being able to ask questions and engage directly with department directors about important city issues and operations. This new approach also goes against the city charter (section 2.10), which grants council members the right to engage with city staff for the purposes of inquiry.
This means the average resident has more authority to engage with city staff than our elected officials.
Council leadership – the president and president pro-temp – could have prevented this change, but embraced it instead.
With the limits on Council members interacting with city staff, it seems that City Council leadership is reducing the democracy in our government. That kind of control indicates lack of trust and lack of openness. Not a good sign!