I watched Darrin Smith's presentation regarding the Naming Rights ordinance to the Public Service Committee on Monday, December 12th. I found it quite amusing. Here stood a director of a city department and he was asking part-time councilors for language change suggestions on drafting new ordinance language. He cited problems with the current ordinance but offered no solutions, no ideas for change. Clearly, he had not done his homework. He wanted someone else to do it, namely the Public Services Committee.
Obviously, the naming rights ordinance needs some major overhaul. It's great to ask for input but you would think that a city director would at least do some research and come forward with some substantive information instead of standing before a city council subcommittee thinking out loud about all the problems with the current ordinance without direction or concrete solutions.
The naming rights issue was generated out of the mayor's administration as part of the revenue package for the Event Center. It is the administration's job to research the naming rights issue and present a draft ordinance based on research and sound analysis. It's not the councilors job to do research for Smith. It's their job to finalize the policy ordinance for adoption. I think Director Smith forgot he is no longer a city councilor. He is a city director now. He has to actually do the work. He doesn't get to ask someone else to do it for him, especially city councilors.
When Councilor Brown asked Director Smith if he was going to bring a draft for the Council to review and comment, Director Smith said "Yup." That just about sums up the depth of this discussion.
Or, Darrin was just giving them a chance to have an early shot at comments. So, you don't like Darrin. Move on, he is an improvement from what was there. And, figure this out, why do we need an Director of Community Development? Part of this job could be under Public Works and the rest under Planning. And, that was never so clear as under the last Mayor. You are a very bright woman that gets too focused on the personalities in that Building.
ReplyDeleteThis is what you get when city director positions become political appointees.....unqualified department heads while the career professionals forced to work with them and under them suffer.
ReplyDeleteIf you read the blog posted yesterday and listened to the actual presentation at this meeting, both the City Attorney and acting City Clerk presented draft ordinances to the committee. Smith did not. I think you can tell who was prepared and who was not.
ReplyDeleteAt 12:09, the previous was not a Political Appointment, he inherited the job after being
ReplyDeleteCivil Service for years. He was just incompetent and the most overpaid person in City Hall up until he left.
Someone might suffer under the delusion that the Civil Service system at City Hall is great because they ran it for years. It is OK. But, not great.
Ain't nothin' more special than a food fight within the city sector.
ReplyDeletePolly Amalo
I went on the city site and watched the committee meeting, and a couple corrections are in order....first, the city attorney and acting city clerk DID NOT offer draft ordinances. In fact, Smith stated a desire to move quickly on the issue and offered to bring a draft ordinance with councilor's suggestions, the city attorney then stepped in asked for time to research other cities ordinances. Second, if you truly understood what this form of government is suppose to be, then you'd know that the city council is suppose to be the policy making branch, but they have given it up (or had it taken away) over the years by an aggressive administration (maybe this is why Jennifer's understanding of the different roles is screwed up). So perhaps Smith was trying to get their input because as a former council member he does believe that's their role...Kermit used to complain about this all the time.
ReplyDelete@10:19am hit the nail on the head, virtually all of Jennifer's posts include attacks on either Smith or Huether, and it's getting old.
@12:09pm "Career professionals", uh I think you mean bureacrats. I'd rather take my chances with someone with experience from outside city hall working for me, thank you very much.
ReplyDelete@2:52 I am always puzzled that whenever Darrin Smith is mentioned it appears the same anon commentator always brings up the Previous department head in a disparaging manner. Frankly those kind of remarks about the previous department head when trying to build up Smith really just damage Smith even more. I thought all department head appointments were approved/ratified by City Council. Overpaid and incompetent? Sounds like Smith to me. The other guy is gone. You need to get over him. Smith stands on his own now.
ReplyDeleteThe Darrin Smith Fan Club is busy again. Makes me want to puke.
ReplyDeleteI was pretty amused by the meeting to. You have the city attorney asking to move the meetings to during the day and Darrin Smith asking the council what he should do. Maybe he should ask his boss. It's not that hard. If someone wants to name a tree on the corner of 14th and Walts and will pay the city $5000 to do it. Let them. This isn't freaking rocket science.
ReplyDeleteDarrin Smith is Mike Huether's Jody Schwan. A lightening rod. It's what you usually get for "political" appointees with unspecific credentials for positions they land.
ReplyDeleteHey Smith you're so obvious you need to get a clue. It looks like you are now the most incompetent over paid individual in City Hall. Even the empoyees in your department are waiting for 2014 when you will be gone.
ReplyDelete