Left, Aldermen Mike Phillips (left) and Jerry Moore during Monday’s Council meeting. (City-Times photo)

“I don’t have any tactful way of saying this, but sometimes, Mr. Mayor, you can be demeaning and condescending to not only Council Members but the public in general.” -Mike Wiza

By Brandi Makuski

Members of the City Council have for months complained about poor communication from Mayor Andrew Havlerson’s office, and Monday night they had their chance to speak out.

Halverson gave the alderpersons a spot on the agenda for the February Common Council meeting to air grievances over incomplete information, rushed votes and last- minute changes to large projects many on the council say has become the norm.

Alderman Mike Wiza said he had several concerns which he has brought up previously.

“Try not to take some of these things personally- some of them you might want to- but one things that jumped out at me today was we get information at the last minute that we’re expected to decide on,” Wiza said. “I understand occasionally circumstances warrant a shorter time frame, but there are other things we seem to get at the last minute and that makes it very difficult for us to make decisions.”

Wiza said it’s not uncommon for Council Members to arrive for meetings finding last- minutes memos on their desks relating to scheduled votes for that night and suggested sending emails a day or more in advance. He also said the council isn’t always kept in the loop and cited the recent DOT presentation on construction exceptions the city might qualify for with the Business 51 project.

“Full disclosure; we were told that it (the Bus. 51 project) must be done this way, but then we had the state Department of Transportation come in and say there are exceptions and we could possibly qualify for. If the Council could hear both sides of it from the administration and the department heads- don’t just tell us the way you want it to be. Tell us the alternatives; that could alleviate a lot of discussion.”

Wza then paused for several seconds before saying: “I don’t have any tactful way of saying this, but sometimes, Mr. Mayor, you can be demeaning and condescending to not only Council Members but the public in general.”

Wiza said Halverson needed to be more lenient with members of the public who might not be familiar with meeting rules- particularly Robert’s Rules of Order- but the mayor should not interrupt speakers whenever possible.

“There’s a Whiting resident who speaks frequently here, and I don’t agree with most of what he says but I will fight tooth and nail for his right to say it,” Wiza said. “If there was more leniency and respect, the general public would feel more involved and less intimidated when they come into this room.”

Council President Jerry Moore said he feels the mayor also doesn’t show respect to the Council.

“We try to maintain a respectful atmosphere with all department heads and yourself and making sure you have information and answers to questions before we call you out on them on the floor,” Moore said. “A lot of the time we don’t get that consideration from you. A lot of times I have constituents ask me questions about items coming up on an agenda that I have absolutely no information for.”

Moore said having to say “I don’t know” to constituents wasn’t fair to anybody in the city.

“We have to represent those constituents and answer their questions and move this community forward,” he said. “Without credible, solid information that just cuts out legs from underneath us. Sometimes you appear to make decisions yourself and I don’t think you respect this body very much. At the end of last month’s meeting we requested this come before us at a special meeting all by itself. Instead of doing what we requested, you once again did it your way.”

Alderwoman Joanne Suomi took a different approach, saying she “won’t repeat” what Wiza or Moore said and pointed out city staff wasn’t being thanked enough for all their hard work.

“I’m going to shed some positive light,” Suomi said. “This has been my fourth year as an elected official and I think behind the scenes I have appreciated what I will call an open door policy, meaning if at any time I needed questions answered or an agenda item discussed further, at no time did I feel I couldn’t call or email.”

Suomi also said she does her due diligence and often reaches out to the city staff for answers.

“I will always say that I stand by the decisions I made because of the information I have. And I do my homework- if I don’t have what I want I use different modes of communication and I have been very impressed,” she added.

Alderman Mike O’Meara said he believes things have worked “really well” in city government but suggests the Council Members are more involved in the planning process.

“Include us in the discussion before there’s a proposal,” O’Meara said. “When we have to make a decision fairly quickly we’d be better equipped because we’d already gone through the thinking process. I would appeal we get more in the planning mode.”

Councilman Randy Stroik also said he’d like to hear opinions from department heads during committee meetings.

“In the business I operate there are usually many alternatives, and telling us what some of those alternatives are and why you came to the decision of what you’re presenting to us makes it easier for us to get to the same conclusion we otherwise might not think of on our own. I want to see the cons as well as the positives. You may have negotiated this a month or more before bringing it to us, so you’ve already considered and dismissed them,” he said.

“As a manager I expect to be able to trust my managers to say I’m full of crap if I truly am,” Stroik added. “Maybe everything is hunky dory inside of the city administration but I’m calling B.S. if it truly is. I need to know the leadership is free to speak.”

Halverson said department heads are always free to speak and he in no way prevents them from sharing opinions. He also said he welcomed the critique, saying there’s always room for improvement with what he refers to as his “personal style” of communication.

“Style is a very sensitive thing,” Halverson told the Council. “You want to feel open and participatory but you also want to keep general order. It’s a fine line obviously, I know there are growth areas for all of us and I’m one of them.”