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personal interests community city of yachats mayor administrative policies

One of the first things I tried to do as the new mayor did was to establish a new set of standards under which the city government would be expected to function...
with a new commitment to a business-like atmosphere of equality, fairness and openness.
These concepts took the form of Administrative Policies adopted by the City Council on April 13, 1989.

1. Year Planning
Established yearly public planning sessions for the City Council and each City Commission/Board in conjunction with appropriate city department heads to review previous year’s goals, discuss short,
medium, and long-term goals, do preliminary groundwork for recommendations to balance goals with available funds, set realistic time tables, consider establishing a Reserve Fund for long-term projects,
produce a report for the City Council, and schedule a mid-year review for evaluations and adjustments.

2. Work Sessions
Established City Council and Planning Commission public Work Sessions to review the list of topics for the next meeting Agenda, establish if applications have been correctly filed,
if the commission/board has first jurisdiction, arrange to collect supportive information, arrange for co-ordination with other city entities, and finalize an agenda.
Prohibited the discussion of the merits of specific topics until a regularly scheduled, posted public meeting.

3. Agenda Deadlines
Established deadlines and requirements for submissions to the City Council and City Commissions. Set rules for late submissions.
Set standards for materials submitted.

4. Complaints
Established a specific system for handling public complaints. Required complaints to be submitted in writing, dated, and signed.
Required that all complaints to be addressed by city officials at the next regularly scheduled meeting.

5. Commissioners Duties
Established specific duties for City Councilors acting as Commissioners/liaisons to City Commissions including attendance at meetings, interpreting city policy to commission members, silence on agenda items
until brought before the Council, year planning, acting as a liaison, and making oral reports to the Council.

6. Use of City Staff
Established limits to the use of paid city staff to the Mayor, Commissioners and Commission Chairs and defines the type of work that may be requested to do.
Set that emergency needs must be approved by the Mayor or Council President.

7. Agenda Packets
Established timetable for availability of packets for Council, Commission, and Board members. Set standards for packet contents.
Stated that, to save money, hard to reproduce materials will only be made available in limited quantities at Work Sessions, scheduled meetings, and available for inspection at the City Hall during regular business hours.

8. Minutes of Meetings
Required that all official Minutes will be fashioned after minimum State requirements and that audio tape recordings of entire meetings shall be kept on file.
Set specific items to be covered including, time, dates, locations of meetings, attendance, motions, vote results, substance of topics discussed, document references, public participants, the nature of any emergency meetings required,
and referring to audio tapes for verbatim speeches and statements.

9. Commission Vacancies
Established the procedure for filling Commission and Committee vacancies. Instructed City Recorder to maintain a working list of all citizens filing an application for service and calls for the reading of such lists at public meetings.
Established a two minute period at public meetings to be available to anyone seeking an appointment up for consideration.
Selections shall not be limited to those who have filed applications.
Required that recommendations to the Council shall include a minimum of two names for a single vacancy or, if multiple vacancies exist, at least one more name than the number of vacancies open.
Commissions and Boards may choose not to make a recommendation.

10. City Newsletter
Established guidelines for a city newsletter to inform the public of current city business.

11. Grant Officer.
Established the volunteer position of a City Grant Officer to pursue the acquisition of “free” and “matching” monies for city projects.

12. Residential Building Permit Processing.
Established a uniform process and checklist to expedite outright residential use building permit applications to eliminate the potential for subjective treatment by city officials.

an early draft of the 1987 administrative policies

page last revised december 2020