Senior Moments
”Seniors Moments” is a new advice column where the innocent and the guilty shall remain nameless. Send your real or imagined, funny or tragic, but always educational problems to the Seniors team, composed of anonymous ICMA Senior Advisors (who shall also remain nameless to protect their reputations ).
Dear Seniors,
I have the opposite problem of most managers who I talk to. One of my governing body members asks me so many questions. About everything. Every code, every policy, and all the past history. And then, when I provide answers, or research, it just leads to more questions. My original attempt at resolving this was to provide more information, hoping that this member would then have their questions satisfied. But to no avail- more information and research simply leads to more questions. They are retired relatively young, so maybe they just have endless time, but I don’t! Help!
Overwhelmed by One
Dear Overwhelmed,
Well, we do have to admit that we find this problem much more heartening than the opposite problem - haven’t all of us had governing body members who make the non-reading of their agenda packet a point of pride?
You have indeed tried the first suggestion that the Seniors would have suggested. Whether by means of a weekly report or emailed research, more information frequently does the trick. For this one, however, something new must be done to assuage your pernicious interrogator.
First off, we love a good “white paper” to keep both bored interns and underinformed folks busy. This can then be distributed to all the members of the governing body to keep them on the same page. Additionally, making sure you copy the other members may help quell the instinct of the overwhelming one, since everyone else is going to know how many questions they are asking. Another suggestion is to not be so fast to respond to an inquiry that requires some research or thought. Perhaps you could advise the member, via email copied to the entire governing body, that you have assigned the responsibility for the response to a staff member (even if that is you) and will have an answer in a week to ten days.
Second, training, training, training. Have a robust orientation and onboarding process that includes plenty of written material and make sure that all important documents, policies, ordinances, minutes, etc., are on the website where they can look for themselves. Give them a copy of the relevant VACo or VML handbook. In addition, send them to VML and/or VACo conferences and training sessions, to the Sorensen Institute, or even to the Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution at GMU. Giving them more connections and resources that are not you and your staff will, hopefully, give them the information they need and the time you need.
Finally, might we suggest interesting your member in some other hobby. Maybe they could get involved in the local volunteer rescue squad or fire department, join a dating app for lonely politicos, or take on a worthy cause such as eradicating the lantern fly or saving the big-eared bat?
We wish you luck and more hours of sleep,
Seniors
p.s. If this response seems lacking or raises further questions, feel free to reach out and contact a Senior Advisor directly. We are here to assist you navigate your local government management career and enjoy paying back the support that helped us through our careers.
The full list of Senior Advisors with contact information is available here.