Advice Column: Help from The Senior Advisors March 2024

”Seniors Moments”  is a new advice column where the innocent and the guilty shall remain nameless.  Send your real or imagined, funny or tragic, but always educational problems to the Seniors team, composed of anonymous ICMA Senior Advisors (who shall also remain nameless to protect their reputations ).

Dear Seniors,

I had a situation come up with week, and I think it is resolved, but would love to know if I made a misstep.  My governing body is split.  Like, really split.  The two sides don’t like each other, don’t trust each other and don’t really want to do anything to resolve it.  I’ve asked and brought up several options.  They are not interested.  So, we just walk it out with each issue.  

We have a position opening up that is a Council hire.  It is going to be a mess.  There is a strong internal candidate who is related to a member of the governing body, which as you remember, is divided.  

Here is my specific question about my possible misstep.  We went into closed session to discuss an interim and recruitment.  One Council member recused themselves.  One member was absent.  There was direction to me with a 2-1 split on the decision regarding the interim.  The Mayor (who only votes in case of a tie) was on the side of the 1.  I had direction on a path forward based on the direction of the 2.  When updating the absent Council member, that absent member was firmly on the side of the 1.  This would have made the Council evenly divided with the Mayor having a tie vote- if there had been a vote, which there wouldn’t be, since it is closed session.

I sent an email to the Council letting them know that the absent Council member was on the side of the 1, and that I recommended that they take the issue up again at their next meeting, since they were divided.  The ones who had been on the prevailing side immediately took my email as an indication that I was trying to restart the discussion to get the other outcome.  In their mind, this was like a Council action where it should not have come up again.  In my mind, I needed to get this settled and resolved with some level of consensus so I didn’t try to bring in an interim and have it fall apart at that time.  Absent a vote, and knowing that this issue is still ongoing, I felt like Council needed to get this settled.  I understand why the Council members on the prevailing side did not want to talk about it again.  They won the day and wanted the issue closed.  However, since there was more action to be taken on the issue, I didn’t think the issue could be closed yet.

Long story short, in the end, I did a lot of talking to Councilors and we have come to the consensus point.  The ones who prevailed at the meeting have still prevailed.  But one of them still really feels like I was putting my finger on the scale.  I gave her my thoughts about this still being in flux until the interim was seated and that my goal was to keep Council all fully informed and talking, but she is still offended. Her side prevailed- with my assistance in talking to other councilors- and she is still feeling like I am for the other side.

I can make my words clearer in an email in the future, and will take that seriously, but in the bigger scheme, did I do something wrong?  

Sincerely,

It’s going to be a long election year

Dear "It's Going to be a Long Year.”

It is easy to second guess or "Monday Morning Quarterback" when most of us would probably have taken the same approach.  Your intent to ensure full knowledge and the full engagement of all of the Council members who would make the final decision was a good one.  On the other hand, the best intentions can sometimes go awry, and, as you acknowledge, those who show up to vote are the ones who determine the result.  The prevailing side was understandably disturbed to find that they might not have "won."  Nevertheless, it seems to have worked out, with your assistance, so that the original 2-1 decision stood. 

In retrospect, perhaps you could have suggested that the absent Council member inform his or her colleagues of his or her position; maybe inform the Mayor.  It probably wouldn't have changed the result, but it would have kept you out of it.  Another option could have been to stay out of it altogether, but that probably wouldn't have worked either.  

In the end, you have explained your intentions and have apologized...you did apologize, didn't you? Continuing to defend yourself won't do any good.  It's over more quickly if you just say, "I'm sorry, I have learned from this and will do better in the future."  You could ask for suggestions on what "doing better" might look like.  Then, move on.  If one or two Council members can't get over it, that's their problem.  Just be careful the next time you are in the room with only three voting Council members if you know that two of them are mad at you!

Best wishes, 

The Seniors

 p.s. As always, if this response seems lacking or raises further questions, feel free to reach out and contact a Senior Advisor directly. We are here to assist you navigate your local government management career and enjoy paying back the support that helped us through our careers.

The full list of Senior Advisors with contact information is available here.