Summer 2015 June 22 Monday

76 degrees this morning 42:01 minutes walking (re-started sit-ups, barbells)

Started back into my regular exercise routine this morning with walk, situps and barbells. Nothing strenuous.  

Thinking about how my experience of the past 1 1/2 years+- will make me a better manager.  Maybe every City Manager should be required to live in another city for a while as an “ordinary” resident, without any extraordinary contact with local government.  

I recognize some things I would have done different, especially in realizing how local government needs to increase contact with residents, especially on projects or events affecting them.  

Also, certainly the current city emphasizes the dangers of ingrown thinking, and “doing what has been done in the past”.  As I have mentioned numerous times, the planning here is atrocious and the thinking belongs in the dinosaur age.

The type of planning they do here is laughable, except it establishes the “tracks” for perpetuity.  Alllowing “instant slums” by allowing hundreds of apartments without any road or park improvements is unbelievable.  

Also, I have seen businesses allowed busy streets without any provisions for traffic, including allow entrances and exits that contribute to bottlenecks.  

One policy that is beyond strange is their policy on deposits.

We leased the house a year ago and no deposit was required.  That is relatively common anymore.

We always paid immediately (it isn’t enough money to play the game of paying as close to the due date as possible).

Now, when we move, we are suddenly charged a $50 deposit !!!!! Bizarre!  

Anyway, so I call up to ask why I am NOW being charged a $50 deposit after I have been a “good’ paying customer for a year.

The explanation I got was strange to say the least and appears to border on the illegal, mainly it is “where I am moving too” and that “sometimes it is waived for the first year”??? that is beyond comprehension and is the type of confused “group  think”  “We’ve always done it this way” thinking that is displayed in their backward planning.  (We are moving to basically the same type area we moved from.)

Yesterday, I finished cutting up the final boxes we couldn’t give away.  Again, I don’t know why I enjoy (in the sense that it is somehow satisfying) cutting up boxes, but I finished it up.

It also got me thinking also on this City’s antique recycle policies.  Not accepting cardboard, or many types of plastic etc, using the old “recycle” bins in this windy  area etc. is the type of ingrown thinking I have been talking about.

I had a really excellent Fathers Day yesterday, lunch with Aliene, Angela, Kali and Katherine and some really neat cards!   I really enjoyed the day.  

Office day today.  Tomorrow I have my quarterly “ride along” with a more experienced person.  Everyone has to do it, and it probably isn’t a bad idea.  I use it as a learning experience and schedule some of my more difficult and unusual situations on that day!

That’s it for now, Monday, June 22, 2015