Times: Hercules government long on ceremony, short on transparency

— by Jeffrey Wisniewski — 9 November 2009 — Comments Off

Tom Lochner’s report echoes concerns that have been raised on this blog (what I have termed an easy-bake council)… “Some Hercules residents are calling for a more open city government, complaining that City Council meetings are long on ceremonial matters while much of the business of the city gets conducted out of public sight. Million-dollar items routinely breeze through the council on the consent calendar virtually without comment, let alone vigorous discussion. An example is a $55.98 million construction budget for the Sycamore Downtown Street Development that passed on consent June 9. The council, meanwhile, devotes a lot of meeting time to commendations, proclamations and homilies boosting Hercules; reports from council members on their activities on other agency boards such as WestCAT, the League of California Cities and others; conferences and dinners they attended; and personal vignettes. Financial matters mostly go through the Finance Subcommittee consisting of Mayor Joe Eddy McDonald and Councilman Kris Valstad before going to the council on the consent calendar; subcommittee agendas are not posted on the city Web site, and there are no minutes.”

I have previously reported on the consent calendar issue (including a whopping $4m item): “[...] all of which will be likely passed (unanimously) in the consent calendar, prefaced by Councilmember Kris Valstad stating that all spending measures have been approved by the finance subcommittee (which is made-up of Valstad and Mayor Joe Eddy McDonald).“