Meeting the Mayor and City Manager

Olga on second floor balcony - city hall


What an exciting City Works Academy last Tuesday! City Manager Marc Ott gave us a very upbeat and energizing talk on his quest to make Austin the best-managed city in America. I really appreciate his high ideals for our city. He communicates in a passionate, organized, and soft-spoken manner that demands respect. Department heads have echoed his thoughts on managing our city. So I feel good knowing that excellence in city government is the name of the game in Austin.

Mayor Lee Leffingwell emphasized that he and the city council of seven represent the 800,000 citizens of Austin. Austin is unusual in that our city council meetings usually last from 10am to 5:30pm. (In contrast city council meetings in Dallas usually last three hours, said Leffingwell). The city council meets every two weeks. Ten days before each city council meeting the City Manager and City Clerk prepare the agenda for the city council, so the council members can peruse the agenda and make comments. Agenda items come to the Office of the City Manager from the various city departments. Here's a sample of the agenda for October 14, 2010: http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/council_meetings/public_meeting_agenda.cfm?meetingid=226
Take a look!

After our overview from Mayor Leffingwell, he took us on a tour of city hall. I really like the modern architecture of our city hall. The city hall faces Lady Bird Lake and the greenbelt along the lake. The second story balcony overlooks the lake as well as the cityscape - quite beautiful at sunset. A unique feature of city hall is the use of art by local artists. Local artists are selected to hang their works in the city hall for a year. Then the art is replaced that of other artists. I was delighted to see some wonderful filigree glass art by a friend who creates her art at South by Southwest Glass Studio. This was the first time I saw and heard out mayor. I'm not easily impressed but he impressed me: again someone who knows his way around city government. has a good grasp of the issues facing our city, and has - important - a wonderful sense of humor.

Who knows what our City Clerk does? Perhaps you imagine a little person with a pencil in her hand stuck behind a desk in a dark corner somewhere? Well, drop that thought! Our City Clerk, Shirley Gentry, is an energetic, tech saavy lady. Even though her primary job is to provide information to the City Council and City staff, general public, candidates and voters, her job supervising a staff of eighteen and a budget of almost $2 billion. I've already talked about the city council meeting agenda - often a fifty page document. One of her largest tasks is managing the records of our city. I know this job well, having worked in records management for several years. It is the one of the most under-appreciated and essential functions for our city. She also sees that our city website stays up to date. Candidates for municipal elections work through her office.

I'm not sure why the people who deal with budgets and money always talk to us during the last hour of our three hour sessions. By then it is 8:00pm and we are getting a little glassy-eyed from all the information we've already taken in. We head from the city treasurer, Art Alfaro. Be happy. Our city has a A+++ bond rating. We are not having problems servicing the $4.7 billion city debt. We also have a chief financial officer whose job it is to see that the city meets basic accounting practices. The office also manages our city budget process - we have a city budget that is balanced. Austin must be the envy of many cities around the country!