ISSUE #17: Control of the Agenda is Control of the Outcomes
Bad process leads to bad outcomes--this is a feature, not a bug, for the Ketchum Council
Note: I am in London this week, raising money for Ukraine's defense. I wrote this post before the Council meeting, but you are reading it after that Council meeting. This post is not so much about the substance of a particular Council meeting as about the overall poor governance process of Ketchum enshrined by the Council’s approach to its biweekly agenda.
CONTROLLING THE AGENDA IS A POWER MOVE
Have you attended a Ketchum City Council meeting? Despite the Mayor’s claims of transparency, figuring it out for the first time isn’t easy, but once you know how it works, it's pretty easy. You can show up in person at City Hall at 4 p.m. every other Monday, or you can log in via Zoom, which is a bit harder because the link is buried on the City’s meetings website. It’s that “video” button in the picture above.
I would encourage everyone to get on the distribution list for the City’s biweekly email, “Heard on the Street” (aka “The Mayor’s Missive”). To do so, email participate@ketchumidaho.org and ask to be added. The email previews what the public is allowed to comment on at the next meeting.
After attending a few meetings, you start to appreciate how the Troika of Bradshaw/Breen/Hamilton asserts its control over Ketchum—one of their tools of power is control over the City Council agenda.
Here it is for last Monday’s meeting. Let’s look at each section and analyze what is on there and what is not there. Here’s the link to the original. Bear with me on this, as the good part comes at the end of this blog.
COMMUNICATIONS FROM MAYOR AND COUNCILORS:
1.Public comments submitted
Public Comments.pdf (1.56 MB)
CONSENT AGENDA: ALL ACTION ITEMS - The Council is asked to approve the following listed items by a single vote, except for any items that a Councilmember asks to be removed from the Consent Agenda and considered separately.
2.Recommendation to approve minutes of May 6th, 2024 - City Clerk Trent Donat
05.06.24 KCC Minutes-draft_final.pdf (0.17 MB)
3.Authorization and approval of the payroll register - Finance Director Brent Davis
4.Authorization and approval of the disbursement of funds from the City's treasury for the payment of bills - Finance Director Brent Davis
240520 - PAR.pdf (0.14 MB)
5.Recommendation to receive and file monthly Treasurer's financial report - Finance Director Brent Davis
240430-Treasurers Monthly April 2024.pdf (1.56 MB)
6.Recommendation to review and approve Right-of-Way Encroachment Agreement 24909 between the City of Ketchum and J Brown Development LLC - Associate Planner Paige Nied
7.Recommendation to Approve Amended Right-of-Way Encroachment Agreement 22837A for the 380 N 1st Avenue Mixed-Use Building - Senior Planner Abby Rivin
8.Recommendation to Approve Reimbursement Agreement 24912 Between the Ketchum Urban Renewal Agency (KURA) and the City of Ketchum for the Main Street Rehabilitation project - KURA Executive Director Suzanne Frick
9.Recommendation to approve Contracts with Ketchum Computers, Inc. (24910), and Speed Goat Technology, LLC (24911) - City Clerk & Business Manager Trent Donat
IT Consulting PACKET.pdf (0.38 MB)
10.Recommendation to approve Resolution 24-009 for the surplus of Wastewater items - City Clerk & Business Manager Trent Donat
11.Recommendation to approve Resolution 24-011 authorizing a lease of water rights to the Water Supply Bank - City Administrator Jade Riley and City Attorney Matt Johnson
PUBLIC HEARING:
12.Recommendation to approve land exchange with Sun Valley Holdings, LLC related to Main Street project - City Administrator Jade Riley
NEW BUSINESS:
13.Confirm City Council policy direction for allowance of snowmelt within City Right-of-Way and recommendation to deny the Right-of-Way Encroachment Permit for the heated driveway located at 308 E Canyon Run Boulevard - Director of Planning and Building Morgan Landers and Senior Planner Abby Rivin
14.Briefing regarding Fiscal Year 2025 General Fund Budget development and Capital Improvement Plan - Finance Director Brent Davis
5.20.24_GF Budget and CIP_packet.pdf (0.58 MB)
15.Update on potential Fire Department Consolidation - Fire Chief Bill McLaughlin
5.20.24_Fire Consolidation_final.pdf (0.47 MB)
COMMUNICATIONS FROM MAYOR AND COUNCILORS:
It’s not actually what it says it is. It isn’t communications from our officials; it is the emails of public comment to our officials that have been sent to the city since the last City Council meeting. They post a link to those submissions. Then they…ignore them. This is part of the process over substance approach towards governance that we will find repeatedly as we observe the Council in action.
CONSENT AGENDA
The “consent” agenda lumps many items into a single vote with no discussion or public comment. A Council Member can pull an item from the Consent Agenda for discussion by the Council (but with no public comment) if they think it merits some consideration.
Item 3. The payroll register is never attached to the consent agenda, so I don’t see how a Council Member could conduct their fiduciary oversight responsibility. They are asked to approve something they aren’t allowed to look at. None of them seem to mind—they do it every two weeks like clockwork.
The big one buried in this consent agenda is Item 8: “Recommendation to Approve Reimbursement Agreement 24912 Between the Ketchum Urban Renewal Agency (KURA) and the City of Ketchum for the Main Street Rehabilitation Project.”
I encourage you to click through and read what this is and ask yourself: Doesn’t this one warrant an open discussion? Why did the Mayor bury this in the consent agenda? Is this good governance? Is this “transparency?” Of course, it is not. It is expediency to continue to railroad something through the process with the minimum of transparency.
Notice that the Staff memo for this item contains the bare minimum of disclosure. Financial implications are listed as none. That is patently not true. But note that there is nothing in the “policy analysis” section—it’s not required for consent agenda items. The policy analysis for this particular item is pretty darn important. The City is colluding with KURA to conduct a project under the “urban renewal” rubric that has almost no support from the commercial operators in the URA. Seems like that’s a pretty critical policy analysis. If the rationale is that it has already been debated, why not state that and provide a link to wherever the policy analysis exists?
As a general observation, almost all staff memos on consent agenda items provide little insight and are full of jargon like “none” or “adequate funds exist.” How would a City Council member know enough about these items to assent to them? And yet, they do, seldom with a discussion. Every two weeks, like clockwork. This is form-over-substance government and gives me the suspicion that the Council works for the Staff rather than the other way around.
PUBLIC HEARING
Item 12. “Recommendation to approve land exchange with Sun Valley Holdings, LLC related to Main Street project.” This item has nothing to do with Sun Valley. SVH is the owner of the Village Market property. On first perusal, this land swap seems insignificant. It is clear what is in it for the City. But what is in it for SVH? Are they doing this out of the kindness of their hearts?
Or does it improve the future development potential of their property? There is no comment on that by the Staff in their memo, yet it seems like an obvious question. If it does increase the value of the Village Market property, is this really an “equitable” swap?
If I were a City Council member, this kind of “fast one” would tick me off, and I would refuse to consider a vote without being provided with all the information required to represent the community's interests.
Note that the public’s opportunity to object to this was at a meeting held on May 6. Confusing, no?
NEW BUSINESS
The public is not allowed to comment on any of this. It is there to bring the Council up to speed on what the Staff is working on. Usually, this is the most informative part of the meeting.
Item 13 does not disappoint. “Confirm City Council policy direction for allowance of snowmelt within City Right-of-Way and recommendation to deny the Right-of-Way Encroachment Permit for the heated driveway located at 308 E Canyon Run Boulevard”
This is more bad governance. Councillor Hamilton got the Council to oppose snow melt for residential applications, like driveways and walkways. Per the Ketchum Sustainability Plan of 2020, snow melting is an unreasonable contributor to Ketchum’s greenhouse gas emissions.
This is asserted with no analysis. What is the impact on the GHG of snowmelt versus a diesel-powered snow plow truck or a two-cycle gas-powered snow blower? I have no idea. Neither does Ms. Hamilton or the rest of the Council. But that’s their policy.
But is it? They never codified this into the municipal code. As Monty Python would say, “It’s not a guideline, not a rule.”1 That puts the staff in an awkward position and leads to arbitrary decisions. It also wastes staff and Council meeting time. As well as the time it took me to write about it and for you to read about it.
In my view, this is a failure of the Planning Department staff. They should propose the rule they think makes the most sense, along with the analysis supporting their recommendations and the options for the Council. Then, the Council, fully informed of the pros/cons of the various options, could make an informed decision. Which they will not do in this particular instance. They will wing it.
Item 14: Update on the Budget. Ketchum’s budget process is so broken that it will take another post to analyze it in the detail it warrants, so I will spare you that right now.
DO YOU NOTICE WHAT IS NOT IN THERE?
Accountability.
The Council will not hold itself accountable for delivering on the Comprehensive Plan's goals. There is NEVER an update on progress toward achieving those goals, and almost no update is ever provided on ANY of the plans adopted by the Council, other than the Housing Action Plan.
When was the last report on the Master Transportation Plan (adopted three years ago)? Never.
When was the last report on the Sustainability Plan (adopted four years ago)? Never.
When was the last report on how the City’s allocation of taxpayer resources has achieved its workforce goals? Never.
Do you know what else is not in there? Analysis.
The Council does not require the staff to provide an analysis of the options before they vote. This is bad governance, which means they make many bad decisions due to inadequate information. Which they don’t ask for.
Case in point: the Water Treatment Facility. This is the single largest capital expenditure in Ketchum's history. The City engineer recommended updating the 40-year-old plant. The City Council approved that recommendation, with no request for any analysis of alternatives (like a cheaper, newer plan on a smaller footprint with more functionality). They spent more time debating pickleball courts than they did on this issue.
The agenda is almost always purely reactive to short-term issues. Most of those have to do with getting development approved, and this agenda was no different.
This is bad governance. It is bare minimum governance. If you ran a for-profit company this way, you would either go out of business or get fired.
But if your goal is to get development approved, controlling the agenda like this is genius.
Ketchum does not have to be run this poorly. Is it due to laziness? Is it due to ignorance of good governance practices?
Or is it intentional?
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Very informative and disturbing article today. Kudos to you to assist Ukraine.
? Why is the city going ahead with Bluebird 2 without disclosing any update info on Bluebird 1 ?
I heard it is only 10%+- leased. We need to have full information on the impact of 1 before considering 2. Will people live in this type of housing without parking? Will it get leased out? Will the rents be raised after it is leased out? What will the impact on the Ketchum core be when project is completed? We citizens of Ketchum need answers to these questions before considering a second huge project which will take away our only large parking lot.
As a former school board member, this sounds very familiar. There’s a reason regular people feel like they have no voice—they don’t (unless they are supporting more funding for the bureaucracy), but they are told they do.
There are some ways to authentically provide a voice for regular people: citizens assemblies and participatory budgeting come to mind.
I’ve always liked this observation by Noam Chomsky: “The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum....”