This is a piddly little comment, but the type of thing that drives the public crazy when dealing with the government. And, I have used it to provide some details on a behavior pattern that can delay positive change in government.
Recently, I checked the Lake County website to see if there was a Board meeting tomorrow, August 31, which is the fifth Tuesday.
Nothing is listed and the last meeting listed was last Tuesday, the 24th.
If you go HERE to the Board's Agenda page, you should see what I mean. Nothing is listed past August 24, although today is August 30.
I then click a link on that page to see the official list of "regular" meetings (which don't include workshops), and that page is out of date, and only shows meeting dates through June.
So, I call the County offices and get a nice lady who says "this is the fifth Tuesday, and they don't have meetings".
So, as an experienced business guy, I always ask that a solution be implemented so other people won't have to waste time calling because the agenda gives NO CLUE that there is no meeting.
I suggested that they should enter a date for EVERY Tuesday (including fifth Tuesdays and workshop Tuesdays) and indicate "NO MEETING SCHEDULED". But, I get pushback. Pushback is when people in an organization don't want to improve things, so they say things like "but we normally don't list fifth Tuesday meetings... ", rather than say "that is a good idea, I will see if we can do that...".
But, after some more dialog, she agreed to ask a manager.
I have seen this "pushback" pattern several times:
- A County manager at the Impact Fee committee who pushed back a request from the School Board to defer collections of impact fees to the date of "Certificate of Occupancy", rather than require payment at the earlier, normal permit filing date. The School Board (I was also at their meeting when it was discussed) was trying to help local businesses by letting them pay later in the construction process. But, the manager killed the idea by saying "we can't do more than one payment method..." and the committee didn't challenge it, or ask for a cost study to see what the cost would be. So, one staff person, by using pushback, killed an effort to help the Lake County economy. She could have said "that could be done, but it may cost more, so I will prepare an estimate and get back to you within a week..". But, that didn't happen.
- A County attorney pushed back an effort by one Board member to ensure a zoning change (the recent reptile farm issue) would only be used by the current owner of a property, by asking for legal wording to restrict the change to the current owner. The attorney pushed back by saying it would be too much work to monitor such changes. She could have helped the Board's comfort level by saying it could be done, and she would define the cost within a week. Actually, it is common in corporations to have legal tickler systems, now automated, to remind attorneys or compliance staff to know when such issues are coming due. In this case, it seems that a standard section in zoning documents for properties should include a section about zoning changes that revert to a prior standard when ownership changes. In these days of computers, it should be easy. So, the Board did grant the change, but without any comfort that a tickler process would exist to ensure a future buyer wouldn't use the changed zoning to "bring in elephants" rather than domestic reptiles.
- About two years ago, after the tornado hit the mobile home park in Leesburg, I went there to examine the damage and what caused it. Mobile homes rely on tie down systems to attach them to the ground. Installation standards have had major changes for mobile homes since around 1985, and after various hurricanes. A County building inspector was there to warn people about doing business with unlicensed "gypsy" contractors that usually appear overnight in such situations. I took some pictures of a couple trailers that had clearly shifted on their supports due to weak attachment systems. I asked the inspector if they inspect and recommend attachment upgrades when approving building permits for mobile homes, and she said no. Even though they might have required smoke alarm or other upgrades, there was no process even to educate owners of older homes about the positive aspects of upgrading the tie down systems to prevent damage to older homes in future storms. She gave me pushback, and I left. She had no interest in carrying the idea back to management to reduce future storm damage in older mobile homes.
Pushback is a method used by people to delay change and avoid doing the work to justify system improvements. Pushback based upon emotional decisions and not analytical knowledge wouldn't be accepted in many larger corporations, where ability to devise changed systems is important.
In contrast, I need to mention that I have seen a number of "can do" staff at the County - at Board meetings you can see some directors that do not practice pushback, but move ahead and determine the cost of a proposed change and after evaluation and discussion, implment change.
One way to reduce pushback patterns is to hire or promote managers who encourage ideas being forwarded to them and work to justify or deny the change based on fact, not feeling. Another way is to rotate staff managers every three years. Then the rotated managers are open to change and bring new skills and energy to make things happen.
So, the question is whether anyone might try to motivate and educate more staff to be "can do" people.
vj
