Ex-council members agree on business rift

Former mayor Mary Anne McCollum laughed as she started to tell the real story behind the City Council’s decision to move the city manager to the center of the table during meetings.
McCollum was the Second Ward representative on the council, and shortly after she became mayor in 1989, she was frustrated by the trouble she was having communicating with then-City Manager Ray Beck, who was seated at the far end of the table.
A few critics of the city manager’s powerful role in local government decision-making contend that the placement has symbolic importance, but McCollum said that there was a simple reason for the move.
“I’m partially deaf in one ear,” said McCollum, who’s now manager of constituent relations at MU. So she asked if Beck, who is also partially deaf in one ear, could move next to her. Everyone agreed it was a good idea.

“Let’s get this straight,” McCollum said. “To me, it was no big deal; it kept the process moving more smoothly.”
McCollum and eight other former City Council members joined outgoing Mayor Darwin Hindman for a CBT lunch forum March 25. The subject was City Council dynamics. The group was unanimous in its response to this question: Should City Council members have an advisory role in the city manager’s decisions on hiring department directors?
“No,” all of them answered. Chris Janku had one caveat: “Except for general advice as to desirable characteristics at the beginning of the selection process.”
Rex Campbell summed up the overall sentiment about the division of power when he said, “We should keep the line between council people and the administration clean and never allow council people to start dabbling in the administration of the city.”
Additionally, Hindman and the former council members were nearly unified in their answer to this question: Is the relationship between City Council members and the business community worse, better or about the same as when you served?
All but one said, “Worse.”
“An effort used to exist to maintain balanced viewpoints and perspectives,” Larry Schuster wrote on the Q&A. “Now, it’s overtly anti-business and targeted for special interests.”
Campbell said the decision by the Chamber of Commerce to endorse candidates for the first time in its 104-year existence is “the best indicator of the relationship.”

Janku said there seems to be more involvement between council members and special-interest groups. He added that the new dynamic is surfacing in the current negative campaigns and might be a “permanent” mode of operation.
Hindman then made this lengthy assessment: “I’d like to make this point: I don’t think there is a homogeneous business group. People who say they represent business or they represent anti-business, they are expressing a personal opinion.
“I think if you go out and really survey business people, you will find there is a wide, wide range of opinion on that, and people who are reasonably satisfied are not speaking up, particularly.
“To say that the council’s actions are not business-friendly, I’ll take issue with that right off the bat. I think Columbia is a very successful business community. We are using the right strategies with respect to business recruitment and making a big change in moving toward a knowledge-based economy. We are making Columbia the place that people want to live, and that’s what will cause businesses to grow in this knowledge-based economy.
“I think we are a very business-friendly council. We might not be in the eyes of some people who represent themselves as representing the business community, but I don’t think they actually do.”

Brian Ash said: “Both sides are at fault for being a little too closed-minded. There are people who think everyone who is a businessman is greedy and people who think anyone who is trying to put some regulations on business is a tree hugger. There is so much more middle ground. I just wish we would focus on things that can work for both sides instead of digging in their heels and name-calling.”
Ash said that it’s unfortunate that vocal minorities on opposite ends of the political spectrum seem to get all of the media’s attention.
But Schuster said, “People in between are starting to be vocal, and that’s when we need to pay attention.”
Nearly all of the ex-representatives said council members should be paid, though the recommended amounts varied.

Matt Harline, who’s now assistant to the director of administration for the City of Fulton, said City Council members should receive a stipend and greater administrative support.
Janku and Campbell endorsed paying council members $2,500 or less annually and paying a higher amount to the mayor. Schuster endorsed roughly $6,000 to $10,000 in annual pay, and Jim Loveless advocated $16,000 or more, though he added, “I don’t think people would be willing to pay that.”
Ash, the lone dissenter, said some council members are making the job “harder than it needs to be. I was a little more hands-off than others. I liked that I was a ‘volunteer.’ I really think you would do the council a disservice if you take away that volunteer card, and people tell them, ‘Hey, I’m paying you for this, so you do what I’m saying.”’
Loveless empathized and said, “It is nice when you take an abusive phone call to be able to say: ‘I’m not getting paid to listen to this. Why don’t you call me back when you’re ready to be civil?”

Participants

Presenter

Darwin Hindman; Mayor, 1985-2010

Participants:

Brian Ash; council member, Ward 6, 2003-2006
Rex Campbell; council member, Ward 4, 1989-2001
Matthew Harline; council member, Ward 1, 1991-1997
Christopher Janku; council member, Ward 2, 1991-2008
Karl Kruse; council member, Ward 5, 1990-1999
Jim Loveless; council member, Ward 2, 1989-1991; Ward 4, 2001-2007
Mary Anne McCollum; council member, Ward 2, 1985-1988; mayor, 1989-1995
Larry Schuster; council member, Ward 1, 1990-1993