City Council steps toward better use of its time

This editorial appears in the Feb. 9, 2012, Yakima Herald-Republic.

The Yakima City Council is taking a fresh look at how it conducts business -- a step that few organizations in general take and one that governmental entities in particular are accused of avoiding.

In past years, the council has relied on committees made up usually of three members to flesh out policy issues. Then the committee members passed on their findings to the council as a whole, and frequently they had to bring the full council up to speed on the whys and hows.

Former Councilman Dave Edler, before he departed the council in December, expressed his view that the whole process was too unwieldy. The council agreed and last month voted to use study sessions for policy issues, thus involving the entire council from Day One. The council now will arrive at a consensus on how to address a policy issue, then leave it to committee members to make it work. This stands to be a better use of council members' time and city staff's resources.

The council also studied the need for committees themselves and decided a few could go. The council now has nine standing committees for issues like public safety, economic development and transportation, down from 13.

City Council members followed up those decisions by moving to learn more of the nitty-gritty of what city departments do and the money it takes to run them. And while they tiptoed around whether they are stepping into the turf of department heads, they did agree that more budget information would come in handy, especially should revenue continue its longtime lag.

This effort picks up from an initiative by former City Manager Don Cooper, who advocated looking at the level of service the city provides. The detailed budget information from city department heads should provide a better idea of how low the service levels could go in tight economic times.

Some of this is by necessity; with no permanent city manager right now, the council is the logical body to forge the future direction of city government. That reality led Councilwoman Kathy Coffey to address the vision thing during a council retreat last week. "At some point, we need to start looking at what is the long-range plan for this community. Where are we going?" she said. Very good question, and the council is putting itself in a position to answer it.

* Members of the Yakima Herald-Republic editorial board are Sharon J. Prill, Bob Crider, Frank Purdy and Karen Troianello.