Council Bashing Another E-mail raises question of city staff respect for democracy. BY ALAN PITTMAN Another controversial e-mail has emerged that could indicate more widespread disrespect of democratically elected officials by Eugene city staffers. Bonny Bettman "It's pathetic that we have to work around and cater to these elected morons," says the e-mail. "We all feel the same way about these pot-head idiots!" The e-mail, which bears a time stamp of "4/12/2006 7:06:26 pm," was postal mailed anonymously to Eugene Weekly with the sender and recipient blacked out. From its contents it appears it may be from a city staffer to Assistant City Manager Jim Carlson. Carlson said that he received no such message and, "I have not seen this message before." City Manager Dennis Taylor did not respond to e-mail and phone inquiries concerning the document. Carlson publicly apologized April 17 for the "disrespectful" e-mail he inadvertently sent last month to City Councilor Bonny Bettman. The e-mail contained a "She's Baaack" comment about Bettman. The quote invokes the horror film Poltergeist II. The unidentified April 12 e-mail calls critics of Carlson's e-mail to Bettman "pathetic," "whining," "liberal loonies" and described Bettman as a "pain in the ass and a flaming liberal waste of flesh." The e-mail continues, "hang in there friend" and adds, "you know you have support on this one, all throughout the agency." In a tense April 17 council meeting Bettman described Carlson's "She's Baaack" e-mail as the "tip of the iceberg" and an indication of deep problems with Eugene government. The "scripted" written apology which Carlson read at the meeting was not enough, she said, "I want real reform." The controversy strikes to the core of local government and raises the question of whether or not Eugene is a democracy. Eugene has a council-manager form of government. In theory, that means the City Council and mayor decide the overall policies and direction the city government will take and rely on the city manager and his staff to carry out the details. But that doesn't work when the staff don't respect the elected representatives of the citizens of Eugene. "It is a very, very negative trend in the organization and it undermines councilors' ability to represent their constituents," Bettman said. Several other councilor's agreed. Staff too often view the council as a "nuisance," said Councilor Betty Taylor. "We're the representatives of the voters," she said. "You're disrespecting the citizens when you disrespect a councilor." Councilor David Kelly said he's also felt "marginalized and disrespected by staff" who appeared to view the council as a "side show" at times. "This isn't about this e-mail. It's about a broader issue of corporate culture." Mayor Kitty Piercy wrote to the city manager that Carlson's e-mail was "far more significant" than the inappropriate two words. "It would lead us all to think that this practice is not unusual," Piercy wrote. "Each councilor also represents our citizenry and thus, when the councilor is treated or spoken of in this manner, it is also disrespectful of the public." But which elected officials have trouble with city staff appears defined by politics. Generally, conservative/pro-development councilors praise how staff treat them and oppose deeper reforms in city government while more progressive and environmental elected officials complain the system is not working. Accusations of a lack of respect by staff for the citizens' elected representatives and their policy directions aren't new in Eugene. Former City Councilor Paul Nicholson complained that top staff treated the council like a child sitting in a car seat with a toy steering wheel. "It's symptomatic of a deep cultural problem with a city manager system that really has no accountability." Shawn Boles, who served with Nicholson on the council, said he also saw "arrogance" on the part of staff in treating councilors differently. For example, staff selectively notified councilors of a deal with Hynix, based on their politics. Nicholson said top staff's treatment of councilors appeared based on whether or not they supported staff's pro-developer agenda. Councilors who didn't were like mushrooms, "kept in the dark and fed horse manure," he said. In 1996 criticism that then City Manager Mike Gleason was ignoring council direction, providing biased information and pursuing his own pro-development agenda, lead to his resignation after 15 years in power. Today, Bettman said she often has problems getting information from city staff to inform her votes. "I've been actually told by staff that they're forbidden to speak to me." When Carlson was acting city manager he pushed for a policy that strictly limits who elected officials can speak to in city government. The policy continued under Dennis Taylor. Ironically, the policy means that the lobbyist for the Chamber of Commerce or Lane County Homebuilders Association now has far more direct access to city staff and city information than the elected mayor or councilors. Criticism of Taylor's failure to provide the council with needed information and twisting or ignoring council direction were leading reasons for a mixed review of Taylor last year. Taylor only received a customary yearly raise when the mayor broke a tie council vote. Taylor's salary package is $151,000 a year and Carlson makes $131,000. Carlson's work for the city has also been controversial. In 1996 Carlson worked at the Lane Council of Governments and clashed with sprawl critics when he wrote a study for the city arguing that growth paid for itself. Carlson later joined the city and was appointed by Republican Mayor Jim Torrey to serve as interim city manager for one year. During that year progressive councilors criticized Carlson for failing to provide information on a Hynix tax appeal before a close vote granting the corporation $2 million more in tax breaks, and for dramatically exaggerating the staffing needed for a proposed city auditor position. Nicholson said the root of the problem in Eugene is the City Charter, which gives too much power to the unelected manager and staff. The charter does appear unbalanced. For example, it states that elected officials who "attempt to influence the manager" in "any removal of city personnel" can themselves be removed from office. There is no penalty for the city manager or his staff crossing the line in the charter into dictating city policy. Unelected city managers in Eugene have appeared to frequently cross that policy line. In 2004, former Eugene City Manager Jim Johnson gave a city committee on economic development a list of "How to Get Something Done in Eugene." Under "will happen" he listed "city manager is excited" about the change. Under "won't happen" Johnson listed "city manager not excited." The harsh charter provision on personnel issues complicated the handling of Carlson's e-mail, making a quiet resolution difficult. The charter does include a provision allowing councilors to discuss any matter, including removal of city personnel, in open public session. Bettman said she brought up the issue at a public meeting for that reason. The charter also does allow the council to fire the manager, but that provision has been very rarely used in Eugene. "It's like foreign policy where the only alternative is the big red button," Nicholson said. Manager Taylor said he has always told staff "how important it is to respect democracy." He said he will investigate the matter with Carlson and take appropriate disciplinary action if needed, but will not tell anyone what personnel action he took. Bettman said that secretness will prevent the manager from sending a strong "zero tolerance" message on such disrespect to the city organization and will lead to a perception of "tacit acceptance" of council bashing by top city managers. She said she was "skeptical" that Taylor was really requiring that staff respect elected officials because, "I'm not seeing it played out in the organization." Bettman also questioned whether Taylor knew about Carlson's offensive e-mail for a month but failed to act. Initially, Taylor said at a council meeting he did know about Carlson's e-mail a month earlier. Later, Taylor said he didn't know about the e-mail until Bettman complained about it. At the April 17 council meeting where Carlson's e-mail was discussed, Taylor urged councilors not to discuss the issue at the council "process session." Kelly said that it was "really unfortunate" the manager said that as it conveyed the impression that he was trying to "suppress discussion" of the problem. Ideas to reform the city manager system to make it more respectful, responsive and accountable to citizens have been circulating for decades. The ideas include allowing the council to hire an independent performance auditor to provide objective information, putting the powerful city attorney under the control of the council and/or giving the council authority over the hiring and firing of department heads. But developers, The Register-Guard and other pro-developer interests have generally opposed reform. Nicholson said, "Obviously they want a system that's responsive to them instead a bunch of crazy people that get elected."
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