Consider this: in most public planning agencies, managers serve at the will of elected officials and city or county administrators. Planning staffers generally have some protection via civil service or unions. But planning managers are the link between staff and the elected officials/ administrators, and managers edit plans, staff reports and environmental documents.
Does anyone else see the problem with this system? In my long career, which has included jobs in the public and private sectors, and both city and county governments, every single innovative, progressive or just plain intelligent idea has been gutted, deleted, watered down or ridiculed by planning managers before it ever saw the light of public review. Any good work by staff or consultants is completely useless if it can be censored in advance by the powers-that-be.
I firmly believe that this anti-democratic (and just plain dumb) system is the reason behind the bad planning that is evident throughout the United States. The environmental and social costs of bad planning should be evident to all of us, and are the root causes of the frustration and burnout that afflict planning professionals at all levels.
For my entire career, I have been waiting for the APA to get off its too-comfortable butt and address this core problem. How? By fighting for job protections for planning managers. By establishing travelling groups of experienced planners to shake up communities where good managers and staff are threatened by elected officials and administrators who are in the pockets of special interests. By shedding light on corrupt decision-making processes through media education. Only a national organization with major resources could undertake such efforts, but first you have to want to try.
Despite my personal best efforts it hasn't happened, and I'm getting out. No one with a sense of professional responsibility can spend his or her entire working life in such a sick and dysfunctional system.
Watch for me at your next public hearing.
Does anyone else see the problem with this system? In my long career, which has included jobs in the public and private sectors, and both city and county governments, every single innovative, progressive or just plain intelligent idea has been gutted, deleted, watered down or ridiculed by planning managers before it ever saw the light of public review. Any good work by staff or consultants is completely useless if it can be censored in advance by the powers-that-be.
I firmly believe that this anti-democratic (and just plain dumb) system is the reason behind the bad planning that is evident throughout the United States. The environmental and social costs of bad planning should be evident to all of us, and are the root causes of the frustration and burnout that afflict planning professionals at all levels.
For my entire career, I have been waiting for the APA to get off its too-comfortable butt and address this core problem. How? By fighting for job protections for planning managers. By establishing travelling groups of experienced planners to shake up communities where good managers and staff are threatened by elected officials and administrators who are in the pockets of special interests. By shedding light on corrupt decision-making processes through media education. Only a national organization with major resources could undertake such efforts, but first you have to want to try.
Despite my personal best efforts it hasn't happened, and I'm getting out. No one with a sense of professional responsibility can spend his or her entire working life in such a sick and dysfunctional system.
Watch for me at your next public hearing.