A Civic Body

The Ancient Greeks believed a civic body must be committed to civic virtue. When citizens volunteer to become city decision-makers, it is then their virtues that characterize the types of decisions made. This form of decision-making was considered superior in determining what best protects the interests of the majority. In Ancient Greece, a polis was a city-state committed to being a society with a sense of community. The Politics of Aristotle viewed citizenship as consisting, not of political rights, but rather of political duties. Citizens were expected to put their private lives and interests aside and serve their poleis in accordance with duties defined by law.

Cutting edge thinker, Dr. John Carver, has created the Carver Policy Governance Model for the 21st Century polis. Policy Governance® is an integrated leadership civic body paradigm. It is a groundbreaking model of governance designed to empower city councils to fulfill their obligation of accountability for the organizations they govern. The model enables city councils to focus on the larger issues, to delegate with clarity, to control city management without meddling, to rigorously evaluate the accomplishments of city organizations, and to truly lead their city organizations. Policy Governance places primary importance on outcomes. City councils’ means of taking actions are defined in accordance with the roles of city councils, their members, their mayors, their officers, and any committees city councils may need to help them accomplish their jobs. This approach necessitates always “speaking with one voice". Dissent is expressed during the discussion preceding a vote. Once taken, city councils’ decisions may subsequently be changed, but are never to be undermined. See http://www.carvergovernance.com/.

Those who pioneered the Lebanon City Charter took a little from the Ancient Greeks and foreshadowed the Carver Policy Guidance Model. The City Charter created a Lebanon polis in the form of a City Council that acts as a true civic body.  The policy-making for all fiscal, prudential, and municipal affairs of the Lebanon polis is vested in the City Council. See City Charter at http://www.lebnh.net/home/docs.

The Council consists of nine volunteer, unpaid, citizen council members. A mayor is elected from among the council members as their citizen peer to preside at council meetings, speak and vote at those meetings in the same manner as any other member would, and be the head of the City for all ceremonial purposes. The present City Council designated its mayor to be their spokesperson, as an ministerial measure, to speak on their collective behalf as a civic body after they have acted as a council. A council can only act when in lawful formal session. The City’s administrative duties, as prescribed by the general statutes, are exercised by the City Manager with a few exceptions. 

The Lebanon City Council members are now living the policy-making dream of the Ancient Greek poleis and the cutting edge Dr. Carver, listening and engaging in conversations with their fellow citizens and collectively setting policies together to achieve a sustainable community. They meet, listen, disagree, debate, agree, reconsider, and act finally all together as a civic body. The synergy of their collective civic body approach enables breakthroughs, change, resilience, and leaning forward to a shared preferred future serving all citizens. It results in strong policy directions to the City Manager enabling the City Manager to lead and coach the City teams to produce outcomes to make the preferred future a reality The outcomes sought are all based on the discipline, sacrifice, and will of the City Council to act as a civic body and not as individuals to carry out the City Charter. 

The complexity of this endeavor can be misunderstood by those who have not done their homework on citizen based Ancient Greek poleis or explored along the cutting edges of the 21st Century poleis with Dr. Carver and similarly minded thinkers. To truly appreciate the City Charter based citizen City Council and its citizen Mayor, just imagine what it would be like in the deadlocking, grandstanding, bickering, polarizing, and sequestering worlds of Concord and Washington, D.C., if governing bodies met, listened, disagreed, debated, agreed, reconsidered, acted, and, after acting, spoke in one voice? Perhaps a better world for all of us?

Making An Airport Safer – Consideration Of True North

The question before the court of public opinion is whether our Lebanon community should make our Lebanon Municipal Airport safer and bring it closer to compliance with Federal Aviation Administration safety criteria as we enter in the new 21^st Century that lies before us.

The November 2012 Final Environmental Assessment asks that the Lebanon Municipal Airport Runway Safety Area Project be accepted and the City Manager to be directed to proceed with the permitting and mitigation tasks for the identified best options, namely Alternative P10 Modified for Runway 18-36 and Alternative C14 for Runway 7-25.

Alternative P10M would extend Runway 18-36 by 1,000 feet to the south with a 1,000 foot-long Runway Safety Area to the runway end, and displace the Runway 18 threshold by 300 feet. Alternative P10M would impact 10.6 acres of wetland and cost somewhere between $13.6M and $23.5M with non-City federal and state funding from aviation related fees picking up 95% of the costs.

Alternative C14 would lower the classification of east-west Runway 7-25 and shorten both ends of the runway by 250 feet.  Alternative C14 does not impact wetlands and the only cost associated would be a change in runway markings.

The Lebanon Municipal Airport for a long time has had non-standard Runway Safety Areas off three of four runway ends.  The Federal Aviation Administration criteria for Runway Safety Areas that must be met have been in place since the early-1980s.  The Federal Aviation Administration is under a Congressional mandate to bring the Airport into compliance with its required design criteria

If the runways are not rebuilt to achieve the design criteria, the Federal Aviation Administration could require that the Airport achieve Runway Safety Area compliance by reducing the useable length of both runways.

Is there any single caveat that could be a “True North” in seeking guidance when grappling with facts of the Airport before the Lebanon community so our Airport can be safe? How many times have the commendation “To be safe” been heard in our collective presence? Be safe as your children go off on a trip or away to college, be safe as your spouse travels in harsh winter conditions to his or her employment, be safe as your loved one enters overseas military duty in dangerous lands, be safe as you care for others in difficult circumstances, be safe as you travel in unknown neighborhoods with high crime statistics, or be safe when you travel by air and hear for the one hundredth time how to buckle your seat belt and look for your nearest safety exit.

Does the Upper Valley need a safe port for air travel in the 21^st Century that can sustain the level of the present Airport operations or can we just live with a diminished capacity for air travel or perhaps do without air travel at all? What should be our “True North”?

Here Ye, Here Ye, Gather Round! Public Hearing on Zoning Amendments!

Here ye, here ye, gather round! The City of Lebanon has a public hearing scheduled for Wednesday, January 16, 2013, City Council Chambers, City Hall, Lebanon, on several amendments to the City’s Zoning Ordinance. Some of those amendments will be forwarded to the voters for their approval on the March 2013 ballot.

This subject needs the community’s attention. If you are concerned about better protecting wetlands and riverbanks; having wind and solar energy facilities to support existing residences and businesses; allowing accessory dwelling units for single family home owners, and keeping a limited number of chickens in residential zones, then you better perk up!. Copies of all proposed amendments are available at the Planning & Zoning and the City Clerk’s Office. To view all of the proposed zoning amendments on-line please visit the web page http://planning.lebnh.net/home/master-plan/master-plan-implementation

The proposed zoning amendments address:

Adding infill in already built areas where utilities and facilities exist

Certain residential housing needs in the City

Promoting energy efficient development practices and renewable energy

Protecting natural resources (wetlands and riverbanks)

Allowing urban agriculture (chickens for homegrown eggs)

Other minor Zoning Amendments will improve existing zoning regulations.

The proposed amendments provide for a Wetland Conservation and Riverbank Protection District to protect high value wetlands and select rivers and streams. They also allow homeowners the opportunity to add Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) or small apartments on their properties for their extended families or to rent to offset the expense of maintaining the properties.

Lebanon | Hanover Collaboration in 2013

Always Have A Safety Net!

Nik Wallenda walks over Niagara Falls on a tightrope in Niagara Falls, Ontario, on Friday, June 15, 2012. / AP PHOTO In my prior jurisdiction of Niagara County, New York, where I was the County Manager, daredevil Nik Wallenda last summer on the night of Friday, June 15, 2012, became the first person to walk on a tightrope across the Niagara Falls. CBS News described Wallenda as taking steady, measured steps for 1,800 feet across the mist-fogged brink of the roaring falls separating the U.S. and Canada as an estimated crowd of 125,000 people on the Canadian side and 4,000 on the American side watched. Along the way, he calmly prayed aloud. Wallenda had wanted to take his daredevil walk without a safety net. But, fortunately, wiser heads prevailed and a tether was put into place as a safety net to keep him from falling in the river should he had slipped. (Please note over the years many have fallen into the river to their demise.) Having a safety net has always been a tenet of a civilized community especially one like Lebanon which is striving to be a sustainable community. There are community members in Lebanon who need help. They may struggle to put food on the table, pay their fuel bills to keep warm, keep a roof over their heads, or obtain healthcare essential necessities. A civilized, sustainable community must try to help them and must not leave them to fend for themselves. It is helpful to remember the burned at the stake English reformer John Bradford’s proverbial saying “There but for the grace of God go I!” All it takes is a serious illness – a cancer, a stroke, a heart attack, an injury, a lay-off, or a death in the family. Chapter 165 of Title XII Public Safety and Welfare, New Hampshire Revised Statutes Annotated (RSA) mandates that Lebanon provide such a safety net. http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/rsa/html/XII/165/165-mrg.htm The New Hampshire Local Welfare Administrators' Association describes RSA 165 as indicating the following: “Whenever a person in any town is poor and unable to support himself, he shall be relieved and maintained by the overseers of public welfare of such town, whether or not he has residence there.” This statute has been in effect in one way, shape or form for over 200 years. Lebanon is required to provide general assistance under this statute and develop guidelines to administer said assistance. Lebanon, in my City Manager proposed 2013 City Budget (http://finance.lebnh.net/home/documents/budget/2013-proposed-budget) funds the Human Services Department in the amount of $463,150 to meet the City’s obligation to provide for a societal safety net and administer the State-mandated General Assistance. See https://docs.google.com/folder/d/0B20uz_ArJ0MDTm5zeEw1TFRjMGc/edit?docId=0B20uz_ArJ0MDNDlXU3FLZ09aOEk. This funding includes $78,000 for (1) direct assistance for food, rent, fuel, medical, and utilities, and (2) other purchased services. This funding includes $245,730 to directly fund ten nonprofits to partner and collaborate in Lebanon as part of the Lebanon community’s societal safety net. The funding for the ten nonprofits is held at the same level as their level of funding in the 2012 City Budget. This level funding is another measure, among many, to achieve affordability for Lebanon community property taxpayers, get through another Year of Survival in 2013 in a continuingly unsteady economy, and keep parity with the 2013 level funding required of City departments. The proposed 2013 City Budget for the Human Services Department is not without its challenges. Assistance and other purchase funding in the Human Services Department budget was reduced by $23,400 but the proposed reduction was accompanied by my City Manager commitment to ask the City Council for a special appropriation in 2013 should it prove necessary so that no Lebanon community member eligible for General Assistance will be left behind in 2013. Personnel funding in the Human Services Department budget was reduced by $36,300 in part-time wages with a part-time vacant Assistant Director position remaining unfunded in 2013. This measure is part of my City Manager administrative initiative to consider certain changes and transformations in Department structures and systems to change cost patterns and force redesign of how the City delivers services in order to focus on producing outcomes for the Lebanon community, including the outcome of Self-Sufficient Individuals & Families. This particular outcome seeks to produce a strong and sustainable City safety net where no Lebanon community member eligible for General Assistance is denied application for or benefit of his or her legal right under New Hampshire law. Making challenging reductions such as the above sometimes tests the levels of being trusted and being trustworthy among the City Council, the City Manager, City departments, City nonprofit partners, City community members who may need the City’s safety net and the General Assistance benefits thereunder, and the greater Lebanon community as a whole. As some assurance of trustworthiness, as a City Manager, whose first 12-year career choice was to be an attorney and executive director for legal services programs serving persons who were poor and often at times unable to support themselves so that they might have access to justice, allowing Lebanon community members who are unable to economically meet their basic needs to go without a safety net is for me no more acceptable than allowing Nik Wallenda to walk on a tightrope across the Niagara Falls without a tether being put into place. This commitment can be taken to the bank!

Chief Alexander – Best Ever, Best Ever Will Be!

Lebanon Police Chief Jim Alexander has announced his retirement come the end of February 2013. Jim is a mission driven, strong leader. He has achieved mastery over managing liability exposures, public and media relations in challenging sensitive circumstances, trouble shooting complex and difficult issues, and generally managing human resources and operations. He accomplishes this with an observant eye that cuts through any clutter or clouds and steers his Police Department with a deft hand to the best possible outcome. Jim is excellent at sizing up what is in front of him in the parlance of cost, benefit, risk, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. I have observed him in action when life/safety, property, public, and organizational integrity have been at risk. He always rises to the occasion and brings his Police Department through it with honesty, bravery, and integrity. Jim is a strong communicator, a straight shooter, and very transparent to both the public and the media. I have observed him handling difficult public customers; trying, overweening, aggressive columnists, bloggers, and reporters; and important editorial board members all with aplomb and resilience. Jim is quick to be proactive and gets on top of fast developing issues when he has been confronted with some horrendous scenarios. He is adept at becoming orientated to the facts, assessing their significance and the order for triaging, rendering considerate decisions with due diligence, and taking timely action. Jim is at the top of my top 10 lists for managers with whom I have worked and over whom I have supervised in my 25-year local government manager career. He has great observation skills and is a model for how an organizational leader should manage human resources and operations: empowering others while holding them accountable for producing the outcomes sought and practicing high ethics. He demands of himself and others high standards for character and competency. I trust Jim and his trustworthiness will never disappoint any organization lucky enough in the future to become associated with him. For all the above, in my opinion, Chief Jim Alexander will always be the best there is, the best there ever will be!

Who’s on First, Who’s on Second, Who’s on Third – Proposed 2013 City Budget?

It’s complicated in trying to understand municipal budget processing and deliberation! But, here goes an attempt to try to shed some light for the benefit of all. First, let’s take a stroll over to the City Charter on the City web site at http://www.lebnh.net/home and select and click on DOCUMENTS at http://www.lebnh.net/home/docs. On the DOCUMENT page, select and click on “City Charter” under the City Charter, Code, Zoning Ordinance section of the page. You will then find that the City Manager is the chief executive and administrative officer of the City government, but, by way of separation of powers, the City Manager is to carry out the policies laid down by the City Council and be responsible to the City Council for the proper administration of all affairs of the City. Now, let’s pivot toward the Proposed 2013 City Budget, the City Council has set forth a policy vision, through their principles and work sessions, that the City of Lebanon should be a Sustainable Community. To achieve this vision, the City Council has issued policy directions that the City is to produce five core priority outcomes Excellent Planning; Economic Vitality; Self-Sufficient Individuals and Families; Fiscal Responsibility, Restraint, and Prudent Long-Term Stewardship of Resources; and Public Safety. Per the above, the City Manager is seeking to carry out the City Council’s vision and outcomes policies in the Proposed 2013 City Budget for the City to be a good prudent steward of limited and scarce resources, produce only outcomes that City residents and stakeholders themselves determine they need, and insure the outcomes produced are affordable. This Proposed 2013 City Budget process has been lengthy beginning in the second quarter of 2012 with the City Council’s work sessions and their prospective general budget direction. The City’s Finance Department, under Finance Director Len Jarvi’s expert, professional, municipal financial leadership and guidance, has been an essential partner in the Proposed 2013 City Budget process to insure that accounting control over the finances of the City is maintained and proper budget reports, summaries, and spreadsheets are filed and made available as provided by code and law. Responding to the directions of the City Manager and the Finance Director, who work in seamless tandem, the City’s department heads submitted itemized estimates of expenditures for the 2013 fiscal year for their departments or the activities under their control. The City budget team, composed of the City Manager, the Finance Director, the Deputy Finance Director Vicki Lee, and Shelley Steeves, Accounts Payable, met with the Department budget teams, composed of City department heads, their deputies, their assistants, and their designated budget staff to go over their department budgets line by line, account by account, painstakingly detailing and analytically zero basing every budget item. A similar process was followed by the City Budget team in meeting with all outside agencies and organizations seeking funding in the Proposed 2013 City Budget. Following completion of these processes, the City Manager took a step back from the budget process for some needed thoughtful reflection, analyzed what it would take to propose a 2013 City Budget that would carry out the vision and outcomes policies laid down by the City Council, made some difficult budget reductions (the hardest being personnel reductions), and initiated an important budgetary and operational change to deploy a Deputy Public Works Director position in 2013. The City Manager then submitted the Proposed 2013 City Budget on October 31, 2012, for City Council and public conversations, deliberations, and consideration. With proper prior notice per the City Charter, being given, the City Council will hold a public hearing on the Proposed 2013 City Budget on December 19, 2012, prior to the City Council’s consideration of its final adoption of the 2013 City Budget, which will be initiated on that same December 19, 2012, night. By City Charter mandate, in increasing or decreasing items in the 2013 City budget, the City Council cannot increase or decrease any individual salary item but must act solely with respect to total salaries in the various departments of the City. The 2013 City Budget must be finally adopted by no later than December 31, 2012. Should the City Council take no final action on or prior to December 31, 2012, the Proposed 2013 City Budget as submitted by the City Manager will be deemed to have been finally adopted by the City Council per the City Charter. The 2013 City Fiscal and Budget Year will begin on January 1, 2013. So, please get acquainted with the Proposed 2013 City Budget, if you have not already done so, by going to the City web site at Proposed 2013 City Budget at http://www.lebnh.net/news/proposed2013Citybudget and hit on the Quick Links!