At Tuesday's Mesquite City Council meeting, the council voted 4-1 to do away with the Code of Conduct, the instrument that was previously used to muzzle council members and to destroy councilwoman Donna Fairchild.
The document was the embodiment of the "put on a happy face" schtick that was the trademark of the failed previous administration. Among its more grievous standards was the statement that council members were not permitted to say anything negative about boards or committees to which the council members were assigned. Nobody on the council seemed to recognize the irony of a government agency in the United States so blatantly impinging on the First Amendment freedom of speech rights of the council members. As Fairchild said before she died, she didn't surrender her freedom of speech when she took the council oath of office.
Another despicable codicil of the failed and now discarded Code was that council members were forbidden to talk to city employees other than the City Manager.
Despite the fact that Mesquite's City Attorney acknowledges that the Code of Conduct was copied from a document used by Sunnyvale, CA (which is an irony in itself, "Sunnyvale," because the previous administration tried to pretend that everything was sunny and fine in Mesquite), it fit perfectly the aims of a now deposed power hungry City Manager who wanted everything to go through him first, pretending that it would make things more efficient.
Since when is playing the "telephone game" (that game we played as kids, where one person says something to the person next to them, that person passes it on to the next, and so on until it reaches the end of the line as a completely different statement than what was originally said) a model of efficiency? No, it was all about control and power. And it was a horrible idea which contributed to the enormous chasm between the city government and the people they were supposed to be serving. In a well-functioning democracy, a citizen should be able to call a council member, who can then go right to a city employee to get an answer or fix a problem. Not only should it be a council member's right to go directly to a staff member, it should be their responsibility. Yes, it might make the job a little harder for that city employee to have five or six extra bosses in the form of a mayor and council. Tough. The city government is in place to serve and cater to the people, not the other way around.
If you read the Code of Conduct, it makes elected officials look like children who need constant supervision by unelected bureaucrats. For example, one rule is that council members were not allowed to send correspondence to citizens without running it by city staff. Another is that council members weren't allowed to attend city staff meetings unless specifically invited.
Of course, my personal favorite was the section on "Council Conduct With The Media," which opened with this quote: "Keep them well fed and never let them know that all you’ve got is a
chair and a whip." -- Lion Tamer School.
About the only quote that could have provided a more honest and accurate depiction of the previous secrecy-shrouded administration would be if they had simply written "Treat 'em like mushrooms - keep 'em in the dark and feed them plenty of B.S."
As expected, the only councilman to oppose the elimination of the Code of Conduct was Karl Gustaveson, Susan Holecheck's boy and the last vestige of the calamitous Holecheck regime. And it was quintessential Gustaveson. The people spoke loudly during the last campaign in opposition of the Code of Conduct. They didn't like it, didn't want it. But in typical Gustaveson style, he still seems to believe that he knows what's best for us, knows more than the people, and appears to have little interest in what the people want. Even after a lopsided political butt-whipping, some elected officials just aren't smart enough to get the message or learn the lesson.
The good news is that the Code of Conduct is gone, which will open the door for council members to be even more honest and transparent in expressing their opinions to the public, intervening personally on behalf of citizens, and telling the ugly truth instead of putting on a Sunny(vale) face.
To see a copy or bid farewell to the now-defunct Code of Conduct, go to http://records.mesquitenv.gov/sirepub/cache/0/cjpfsa2ay1mf2tavf3jbf3qw/312242072720110807493.PDF.
Don't forget that document destroyed Bill Fairchild, too.
ReplyDeleteThe Code was completely unnecessary. There's already a code of conduct for elected officials and the Nevada Ethics Commission enforces it.
ReplyDeleteThe most interesting statement here is Morris admitting that Hacker was a power hungry guy. Never heard you say that before, and you were so fast to declare him one of the brightest people you had ever met upon his arrival. I am glad you finally saw the light. Hacker was a direct piece of linkage to the general decline in our local economy. I was not much a fan of Montgomery, but he was true to form, he believed in promoting his vision of Mesquite and offered solid meaningful persuasion to gain support of an idea. Many of the good things we enjoy about Mesquite today can be directly tied to his vision for Mesquite. Let's hope the new crew can find a better direction and make our government responsive to the people.
ReplyDeleteKnew Hacker was a power hungry bureaucrat within first few months of his arrival, and wrote about it repeatedly. And I STILL believe he's one of the smartest guys I've ever met. Unforuntately, Lex Luthor was a brilliant guy, too, and you saw how well that worked out for Metropolis.
ReplyDeleteLex Luthor was a genius! Look at all of his creations, I mean the patents alone would have made him one of the top ten thinkers of human existence, but that is my point. I will cede that Hacker was no idiot, but point me to his brilliance? I mean really what did Hacker do that would suggest his smarts? He literally rode Bryan's wave of improvements and capital projects and spent the huge sums saved up over the years to utterly deplete our savings and all but destroyed the small business market. Unless you think those things were done on purpose, to stunt growth, then I say he was drunk and crazy at the wheel. That did not take smarts that took ignorance. And I apologize Morris, because I never read once when you called Hacker power hungry, I read when you tossed a blanket over the City Administration and called them out, but never read direct reference to Hacker and his dangerous ways.
ReplyDeleteI find it hilarious that I'm being put into a position of defending Tim Hacker, a guy I believed was a cancer in Mesquite government. But since you asked...a lot of his brilliance was in behind the scenes maneuvers. And in no way does that mean most of them were good maneuvers. However, one of the more recent ones was when a move was afoot in the just-completed state legislative session to redistribute funding to the municipalities, a new plan that would have cut Mesquite's share of revenue significantly. Hacker used some very sharp negotiating and dealing to squash that plan at the state level. (Now I feel like I need a shower, because I have that icky feeling all over). But Hacker was a snake on a lot of other fronts, particularly within City Hall. The political elimination of former interim City Clerk Sheree Goesmann is just one pointed example.
ReplyDeleteAs for examples of where I mentioned Hacker's dangerous ways, here are three Editorials I found without looking too hard. With more time and more inclination, I'm sure there are more in the archives of the newspaper I previously worked for.
http://www.mesquitelocalnews.com/viewnews.php?newsid=3033&id=2
http://www.mesquitelocalnews.com/viewnews.php?newsid=5813&id=2
http://www.mesquitelocalnews.com/viewnews.php?newsid=7724&id=2
As for other parts of your last post, Anonymous, I think we're on the same page. He contributed to making Mesquite a very business un-friendly place, and was at the helm when a lot of money got wasted, like the $8 million for the police building and the $1.7 million for the ridiculous "library land."
I was not a Tim Hacker fan, and as far as I'm aware, I was the only person to publicly say that Hacker's departure was a good thing for Mesquite.
But even here, I don't take great joy in dancing on a bureaucrat's grave. He's gone from City Hall now, and Mesquite can move on to repair all the damage done during his regime and that of what I believe history will judge to be the worst mayor in the City's brief history. It isn't going to happen overnight. Also won't happen while remnants of his regime remain in place, continuing to offer bad direction to elected officials and "don't worry, be happy" messages to the people. But it's time for us to look forward and start speaking out about what we want Mesquite to be when it grows up instead of continuing to bemoan what it has become over the last four years. The elimination of the Code of Conduct is a good first step.