Praise publicly; criticize privately.
That's a piece of employee management advice that has been around forever, and the Auburn City Council would do well to heed it.
At a very perplexing council meeting last week, members failed to get enough votes to go into an executive session to discuss City Manager Glenn Aho's review.
Two members had not filled out the review form, while another said she didn't turn one in "because I kept changing my answers."
Doing good employee reviews does take some thought and candor. An employer or manager usually needs to honestly answer some questions about the employee's performance over the past year, review accomplishments and set goals for the coming year.
This can be a lot of work for a supervisor with dozens of employees. But the Auburn council has only one: the city manager.
Aho welcomed the review and encouraged it, pointing out that he needed constructive feedback to improve his performance.
We certainly appreciate the desire of some councilors to avoid executive sessions, which are really another name for closed-door meetings.
Usually, as a newspaper, we are in the position of objecting to illegal secret meetings.
But, in the case of employee reviews, there is a legitimate exception in Maine law allowing for those discussions to be conducted behind closed doors.
Last week, the council needed five of seven votes to close the doors, but Councilors Belinda Gerry, Mike Farrell and Dan Herrick all voted against it.
That's unfortunate, because employees thrive on feedback from their employer. Performance suffers when goals and expectations are not discussed.
This has been a time of unprecedented challenges for the city of Auburn and for municipalities across the state.
State revenue sharing has been slashed, leaving towns and school districts making deep cuts and raising taxes.
And that's the part that sticks in the council's collective craw. They have been forced up against the wall by state cuts and stuck with the distasteful prospect of raising taxes to preserve basic services.
It has been a very bad time to be a town councilor or selectman, and an even worse time to be school superintendent or municipal manager.
Some people and organizations rally and pull together in a crisis. The Auburn council has spent its time splintering and bickering.
At times, the council has seemed angry about the process and determined to take its wrath out on the person closest at hand, namely Aho.
The council has shown a tendency to demand that things be done without providing the collective input or leadership to do them.
The failure of some members to do a simple employee review is the latest example of the problem.
It's called Leadership 101, and some councilors seem to be failing the course.
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What a bad spot for all.
What a bad spot for all. Councilors Herrick, Gerry, and Farrell were elected to break down, peruse, challenge every dollar spent. Remember the tax revolt a few years ago. We needed to cut the waste. In the first year they did it, small perhaps, but my tax bill went down. Mr Aho responded to his bosses, and he made it happen, not an easy thing to do. The Baldacci Administration got reelected years ago with less votes than TABOR. The Admin said "we heard you loud and clear." No new taxes. The problem is.....they didn't raise "state" taxes per se' They just cut the money normally sent to the cities and towns.....sooooo our cities were cut short. Our councilors and our city manager had HUGE fiscal shortfalls. Quite a burden. I applaud Mr Aho's work. I also applaud our councilors who never hold back. The difference is just approach, and can be quite contentious. And abrasive. But this is not a bad thing. The best decisions are made this way. These three councilors have alot more on the ball then what appears on TV or in the press. So, having known all for years, there must be more to this than we are seeing. I think, those three should do the eval and if they have complaints, let him have it. From what I have seen Mr Aho will defend himself very well. This lack of evaluation is going to get in the way of decisions that need to made, so for ***** sake do it. Baldacci will leave office with over a billion in structural deficits, guess what? After he has his vaca in FRANCE in October, How much money will the state cost shift to propery taxes in 2011? So...we need a plan. I guess TABOR was not as drastic as advertised. Thanks LSJ for this forum.
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.Not the whole story
The council went into executive session a number of times regarding Mr Aho's review and contract prior to this council meeting. The councilors opposed to going into executive session weren't just trying to be jerks, they had said what they needed to say prior to this meeting. This all came out after the meeting when the councilors are talking among themselves. If you would attend a meeting, you could have a clearer picture of the way this council works.
The editorial board of this newspaper seems intent on dividing the Auburn council by distorting and/or omitting pertinent facts. Please check the minutes of meetings or call the councilors or city manager to find the truth prior to venting here...it just takes a few minutes...
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.This reads more like it was
This reads more like it was written by one of Joe's assistants could it be Pat?
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by having 'councilors are talking among themselves', then this council is violating the law. ALL CITY BUSINESS MUST BE DONE IN PUBLIC. Councilors making deals among themselves is illegal, and turning this city into Lewiston.
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Tron, the councilors usually chat among themselves or to constituents while they are getting their things together to leave after the meetings. They are not holding private meetings. City business is being done in public. I am not a councilor, just a member of the public who attends meetings. They are not "making deals" as you state, just shooting the breeze. Why don't you attend a meeting and not just be an amrchair councilor. I'd love to see you there...
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Tron you have it right. I could never understand the reason for Executive session. It's suggessts that we are not mature enough to handle the truth.
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get rid of farrell & herrick and try to council Belinda.Next time the Sun Journal writes a story slow down do a fact check get it right before you get it wrong
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.so, tron,
(against the wishes of my granddad, who aolways said "only a fool argues with a fool"), ALL city employees should have their reviews in public? (fire, rescue, police, clerks, custodians, librarians, public works,.....) I changed my mind---please do not volunteer to do anything for the city. Just keep sitting on your butt(head) and running your mouth. You are too just plain dumb to do anything else.
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.What, one has to ask,
do you have to hide? What is it? And does it make you unfit to serve the public? We need to know.
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.What an interesting question
What an interesting question posed by someone who refuses to answer anyone else's questions....and please, stop with the we, i don't see much of any support for your posts here...you won;t sign a release so I can look at what benefits you get fro DHHS - so "what do you have to hide?"......hmmmm..and when did you last serve the public/
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.Tron, I wonder how long it
Tron, I wonder how long it would take to slander someone at a performance review of a public employee. About 15 secs I bet.
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.Too funny, someone got way
Too funny, someone got way too defensive of my posts...no surprise there, just shows the level of intelligence...but anyway, has anyone considered that if you have the performance appraisal in public and everyone can see it, what happens the next time the city manager has to negotiate with unions? If the unions now know the position of each councilor towards the manager, they can and will use that information to their advantage in discussions for labor contracts at renewal or perhaps earlier. The result is they can then piut councilors against each other or against city manager and in the long run, thats never good. Its sad that some people here would rather get defensive and argue than actually think logically about the long term ramifications, and that my friends is truly the definition of having your head planted firmly between your butt cheeks!.
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.executive sessions
planning boards, selectmen, city councilors have the ability to go into is granted to them by state statute.
http://www.mainelegislature.org/legis/statutes/1/title1sec405.html
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they're confusing public with private employment. If you work for a private company, your review is with your employer, and everyone involved in management has access to your review. So should it be when the employer is the taxpayer. Difficult concept for some people, because they've got the heads up their butt and cannot distinguish between public and private.
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I couldn't have put it better myself. It's weird how these people don't think things through, rush to judgment and look foolish, all while not lifting a finger or their butts out of the recliner to actually step up to the plate. In my town, the selectmen gave up their stipend this year and we work our butts off. Guess what--no raise in txes, no reduction in services and we are rocking economic development projects, on and on. Maybe these folks don't care about having performance reviews in public because they don't have jobs??? And by the way, our town manager hasn't taken a raise in 3 years, and our employees did not get raises this year. Because we are ALL part of the team! (oh, and some of them are democrats...)
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.For those who think the
For those who think the annual evaluation should be done openly, I have one easy question - do you want your annual review done openly and in public for your job? Do you want your finances, your disability claims, anything else all there for public review? This is a double edged sword and while people want to see some of the results, some of those people also report to the city manager as employers AND taxpayers and I'm not sure that I'd want my staff seeing my annual appraisal in public. So, is it okay to air YOUR employee review in public? your disability claims? (after all thats my tax dollars paying for it) do you want your co-workers to be able to see what you earn and what your boss thinks of you...
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.Completely true thinkingman.
Completely true thinkingman. When was the last time anyone had a review in public or why would you want one on public?
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.Agreed, thinkingman. And,
Agreed, thinkingman. And, for all the "fixit001"s and trons out there - Yes, the people of Auburn are the employers and deserve to have a voice at the evaluations. And, guess what? THEY DO! That's what their elected officials are for - to represent the voters at the Town Manager's annual evaluation. And that's why it should be done in a closed session (yes, I know that sounds contradictory, but think about it...).
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.Herrick should quit.
In the past he voted on an issue that was related to his own business, and ended up financially bennefitting from it. Herrick represents himself , not his constituents . As far as Aho goes. Aho makes more money than 95% of the tax payers that pay him, so he doesn't need a pat on the back too. Why don't we spend a little more time at council meetings trying to help the Police officers that put their lives on the line every day to protect us, instead of wasting all this time on someone that makes more money than any other city employees. Why doesn't the sun journal write an article about all the retirees in auburn that have paid their taxes on their properties and houses for 40-50+ years, only to lose their spring clean-up,have their street lights turned off, and less snow plowing??. Those tax payers got less services while Aho got a raise. Maybe someone at the sun journal can talk to one of the big bosses there and do something unheard of for them. A human interest story on how many services these senior citizen home owners have lost just since Aho has been hired.
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The Journal FAILs to think that gee we are the employers the entire city not just the council it is we the city that PAYS EVERY CITY MEMBER (overpayed) and we should all have a voice at thier preformance meeting!! i guess the paper just wants to be on good terms to cities fathers most likely to get good access to news within the city well why not after alll corruption is par the course in the area right.
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.Yep they must be republicans, my guess...
they probably skipped out on that leadership class and went to moping and brooding class instead.
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.what ' legitimate exception ' are you referring to?
why do people find it desirable to always do things behind closed doors? There is absolutely no reason to make an employee review of the manager in secret. He is hired by the entire city, and the entire city deserves to know how he's doing. Stop hiding behind closed doors, the open air law is there for a reason, the public has a right to know what's going on.
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