THE CITY OF CARMEL-BY-THE-SEA is hereby determined to be primarily, a residential City wherein business and commerce have in the past, are now, and are proposed to be in the future subordinated to its residential character; and that said determination is made having in mind the history and the development of said city, its growth and the causes thereof; and also its geographical and topographical aspects, together with its near proximity to the cities of Pacific Grove and Monterey and the businesses, industries, trades, callings and professions in existence and permissible therein.
Adopted by Ordinance No. 96 passed on this 5th day of June 1929
The City of Carmel-by-the-Sea, under the mayorship of Sue McCloud, has either unfilled essential city positions or less qualified individuals compared to their predecessors in essential city positions, including:
• Assistant City Administrator
• Fire Chief
• Public Works Director
• Planning Director
• Library Director
• Community & Cultural Director
• City Forester
As a result, power has been centralized with Mayor Sue McCloud. And since no one individual has the expertise, background and experience to properly fulfill the duties and responsibilities all these positions entail, the City has failed to fulfill city government responsibilities to residents, namely uphold and comply with the mandated Local Coastal Program and Municipal Code, particularly the spirit of Ordinance 96, the credo of the City of Carmel-by-the-Sea.
3 comments:
There are many reasons the mayor and city council have decimated the city staff. Among them: the phlilosophy that the less government and less spending the better; with inadequate staff and/or incompetent staff it can be claimed that things the mayor and council should do but don't want to do can't be done; remaining staff are more compliant in the face of misfeasance and malfeasance because they are afraid they too will get fired if they show initiative or speak up;the mayor, who is a control freak, can better direct the staff and city on a day to day basis (not her job) which has damaged staff moral and the city as a whole.
The city administrator should be doing the job the mayor has taken over but he is even less competent than the mayor. He was clearly picked for his position by the mayor for his compliance and lack of initiative so she could handle the minutiae of running the city herself with the city administrator as a buffer. He is on paper the defacto head of most city departments but in fact is unable to run his own office effectively. This leaves the city rudderless except in those instances where the mayor takes an interest.
A medical analogy to a politician causing a problem on purpose or by negligence comes to mind when reading the foregoing: iatrogensis-physician induced, purposefully or through avoidable error or negligence. It seems that the city is plagued by a mayor instigating or causing a problem and then assuming decision-making authority instead of allowing the expert to make the decision. Micromanagement in lieu of delegation. The result is the mayor’s micromanagement of the so-called problem is worse than the originally generated problem, which may not even have been a problem at all, just something Mayor McCloud had to control. The foregoing is very bad governance and usually leads to very bad politics for the office-holder.
While the incompetence of the mayor and her mismanagement of the city is obvious to anyone who cares to look, it is amazing that Carmel voters have re-elected her again and again. They either don't care or they are permanently on vacation.
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