Recently after the City Council vote on campaign contributions to secure their incumbency for life, several commenters on this board (and by several I mean three) volunteered to sign up for an effort to remove the offending city council members by recall.  So I am wondering what they are waiting for.

Under state law and Santa Clarita ordinance, a council member can be served with a notice of recall after serving 90 days in that office with the signature of 20 registered voters.  The 90th day past the election was July 12.  We are now ten days past that day.  Where is the recall effort against the four offending council members, other than the sainted Bob Kellar?

I was. I’ll let Laurie Ender tell the story:

As part of the City’s initial research on the issue, it was noted that under city management, library services could be enhanced without raising taxes or fees.  Some of these enhancements include increasing hours at the Canyon Country Library and the Old Town Newhall Library by nearly 20 percent each (to match the hours at the Valencia Library); increased local control of library services and programs and better tailoring them to the specific needs of area residents; and opening all of the local libraries on Sunday.

There’s a lot to talk about here. First of all, there are two separate issues.

1) Should the City of Santa Clarita take over the three County libraries in Santa Clarita? And 2) How should the City manage the libraries if and when it does take them over?

On the first question, the math seems irrefutable. The City says we’ve been sending $6m+ every year to the County, and they don’t spend all of it here on materials and staff. In fact, last year, some $416,000 went to the County and didn’t come back. The City estimates $14 million in special library and property tax revenue has been lost in this way since 2003.

What can the City of Santa Clarita do with that extra money? Ender and the others say they can expand service hours and programs. More bang for our buck.

So, on its face, it appears to be in our economic interests to take over the libraries.

As to the second question, there is little doubt that the City would privatize the operation of the libraries. They do that in virtually every other service-oriented operation they run (the Transit system, for example, is run by a private corporation).  It’s likely they’ll look to Library Services & Sciences Incorporated,  a Maryland-based for-profit library management company that got its start in the hey-day of Ronald Reagan’s privatization push.

By some accounts, LSSI has saved local library systems from total ruin and failure. The company moves in, usually offering existing librarians a job (albeit it at a lower salary and without a pension), reforms the system, and turns a small profit.

But other LSSI contracts aren’t so clear cut. Library Journal.com reports that when LSSI took over Calabasas’ County library, it launched a volunteer initiative in order to save on personnel costs, cynically using the public’s goodwill to save money on human resources. In Finney Kansas, LSSI took over the library there, decreased staff spending on highly trained MLS librarians by 9% and cut spending on materials too.

And, as the City points out in a FAQ, experienced and trained local librarians -employed by the County- wouldn’t automatically keep their jobs under the City’s new management. They’d have to apply to work for the private corporation, and they’d lose whatever benefits and pension they had under the County system. Either that or they can transfer somewhere else in the LA County system. What a raw deal for the Librarians who live in and have served this community for years.

Whatever the City is planning, it’s obviously been at this for awhile. Shortly after Ender’s article ran, the City launched SantaClaritaLibrary.com, a slick new website devoted solely to selling this idea to the public. It features comparison charts of local library hours before and after the City’s hoped-for takeover. It has a list of articles about library privitization from organizations as diverse as the International City/County Managers Association to the conservative Hudson Institute.

Speaking as someone who still loves libraries and would kill for more hours (especially on Sunday), I’m intrigued by this idea, but I’m not sold. The City’s FAQ leaves a lot to be desired; I don’t think they could guarantee, for instance, that our local libraries would be able to check out materials from other Los Angeles County Libraries. And would the county end library programs at our three libraries? And what’s with the jumbled brainstrom in the last paragraph of the Financials page that says the $25 million budgeted for the new Newhall library could go somewhere else, like a new Valencia public library?

Finally, there’s a matter of trust, but not just any old trust, I’m talking about the public trust. Knowledge, information, literature and education materials belong to the public, to we the people. Libraries are the warehouses of that free information.

I guess what I’m saying is that I don’t trust the City of Santa Clarita more than the County of Los Angeles Public Library just because the City is local. This isn’t like other City/County issues; the LACO Public Library is well-regarded and is overseen by its own board. They run a good system and even when library dollars escape the SCV, they still get spent on other parts of the system.

This should be an interesting debate come August 24, when it will be on the City Council’s Agenda.

NAFF’s latest video provides a good summary of Tuesday night’s council meeting and confirms, to me at least, that the rage over the Mayo expansion, the G&L donations, the campaign contribution changes and a myriad of other issues and problems has reached critical mass and boiled over.

It’s taken quite a while to get to this point. Let’s review where we are and how we got here.

For years we’ve heard from TimBen Boydston, David Gauny and others on that side of the camp that something is sick in the City of Santa Clarita. They (Boydston more than Gauny) have alleged, along with many others, that the City’s Staff and its Manager (Ken Pulskamp, or as Bruce McFarland calls him, “The Don”) have too much power and influence over City affairs, over development and such. They allege that, contrary to the natural structure of a Council-Manager form of local government, it is Ken Pulskamp who is calling the shots and directing the Council to do things.

Oh sure, it’s probably more subtle than that, this group would say. It’s not like Ken Pulskamp calls up the City Council and tells them how to vote. It’s more like KP and the professional City Staff exercise an inordinate amount of influence by determining what rises to the Council’s attention, and they, as a result, get what they want.

Which isn’t always what the people of Santa Clarita want, at least according to TimBen Boydston and David Gauny.

So what about this theory? Well, consider this from the City staff’s point of view. These people are professionals, having trained for years in their respective disciplines. They went through what by all accounts is a pretty rigorous hiring process. They obtained certifications, credentials and advanced degrees specific to their disciplines and to local government and, what’s more, many of them live here as well. They win awards. Magazines write about them. They’re justifiably proud of their accomplishments.

The City Council, in contrast, only works part time and has a few weeks off during the summer. Some of them are pretty adept at the technical odds and ends of city planning, finance, and perhaps traffic and transportation. Few are probably adept at engineering or interfacing with other technocrats in other segments of government. The bottom line is they are part time citizen representatives, and they depend on the staff for professional and informed advice because, let’s be honest here, they’re largely clueless when it comes to running a city. But they love showing up at ribbon cutting ceremonies.

The staff, meanwhile, is interested in furthering their local government careers. They read the planning and transportation journals, they attend society meetings and conferences, they educate themselves further. In general, they know their stuff, they want to do a good job and put some cool projects on their CVs.

And -this is key- no professional planner thinks generic, low-density suburban projects have a real future in our community or elsewhere.

And so, as technocrats are wont to do, they think big and dream up big plans. Like One Valley, One Vision. Like the Non-Motorized Transportation Plan. Or the North Newhall Specific Plan. And a dozen other large-scale, multi-year planning efforts that, in their considered opinion, rationally address the economic and infrastructure challenges facing Santa Clarita in the years and decades ahead.

And Ken Pulskamp is their voice to the City Council. I repeat that: Pulskamp is not just in charge of the staff, he is the public face of the staff.

Which is why the Gaunyites and Boydston camps hate him so much. Because they look at these big plans and think, “Holy shit! The City staff is remaking us brick by brick into the San Fernando Valley! They are planning to bring another 250,000 people* here! What about we the people?”

To some extent, I see their point. Is it right for a City Manager to not just implement policy, but to formulate policy as well?  After all, Ken Pulskamp is not elected by the people, but Bob Kellar is. Shouldn’t policy making be left up to the elected officials?

In our case, I’d argue that the City staff and Pulskamp can and should attempt to formulate policy for the reasons I cited above. The City staff is professional, educated, and knowledgeable. We should consider their plans, opinions, and knowledge.

Why? Other cities do it. In a 1997 survey of City managers, the International City/County Managers Association reported that 80% of City Managers think they should be involved themselves in policy formulation. What’s more, a 2001 survey of City Councilmembers in Council-Manager cities revealed that a majority of elected council members considered the City Manager to be a very important part of the policy formulation process.

On the Council side of things, a National League of Cities study in 2001 reported that Council Members of cities with populations between 75,000 and 200,000 spent only about 25 hours per week working “on council related matters.” My bet is that number would be even lower in Santa Clarita. Does anyone honestly think the five of them spend 25 hours a week working on policy matters related to Santa Clarita?

I can send you the sources I cited by email if you like (they are not linkable), but the point is this: many cities depend on their staff and management to formulate policies. The elected leadership, in contrast, has neither the time nor the chops to really create successful policy in all circumstances. This is the reality, and it’s not just in Santa Clarita.

And so there you have it. The vocal and boisterous discontent  we saw at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting is a direct result of the City of Santa Clarita’s Council-Manager form of government. It is a form of government that relies heavily on a full-time, professional staff to not just manage city affairs but also to create responsible policy for the entire city.

And the discontent is also a direct result of having part time Councilmembers who lean, in a big way, on the City staff for ideas to solve problems.

This feels undemocratic to some. It feels particularly undemocratic when 100 people show up in the Council Chambers and are ignored.

But guess what? This structure works for most of us, at this time. Life is pretty good here. I think we under-represent some segments of the population and I’m tempted by the idea of Districts, but by and large, I see the City staff making good-faith efforts to plan for the future of the SCV, to grow it economically in an era of rising gas prices and increasing environmental awareness. Whereas Gauny and Boydston see Mayo as a canary in the coalmine, I look at a revitalized Old Town Newhall with a Metrolink station, a community center and a new library and see smart planning paying off. Whereas Bruce McFarland claims The Don is ignoring the will of the people, I see a survey that says most people are happy and want more local jobs, businesses, and things to do (I also see a lot of silly people claiming traffic is a problem and the City, as a whole, cowering in the face of that absurdity).

So in the end, Boydston and Gauny camps are right. The City manager & staff do push policy**, but it is, by and large, good policy that most of the community probably supports.

* The Signal headline that has made more NAFF videos than any other is the one that says SCV will someday have 400,000 people. NAFF and his pals think that’s what the City staff are doing: trying to build out the SCV so that an additional 150,000 people move here. The reality is the staff is responsibly thinking about a future in which 400,000 people, of their own volition in a free market, might want to call the SCV home. And they are planning for that in a rational and logical way.

** And yes, I suppose you could say the staff have an interest in having the people they like on the City Council, because the councilmembers have shown themselves to be amenable to the staff’s good policy

Had Mr. Ferry won his seat with a comfortable lead, we wouldn’t be talking about this. However, the thought of losing the last vestige of freedom to feel important and fulfill his thirsty need for name calling and bullying was a position too unbearable to lose. With the incumbent advantage of well entrenched interests (donors) he knows, as well as the rest of the council, that this will widen the fund raising gap that challengers will most likely never jump in order to unseat an incumbent; at least prevent a 32 vote nail-biter that almost cost Mr Ferry his ivory tower.

In past years I have to say that I respected and enjoyed Frank’s leadership, but I don’t know what has happened to him in the last few years. Everything I have ever known to be respectful, right and good about public service is nowhere to be found with him anymore. He is so proud, emboldened, entitled and in true narcissistic fashion, untouchable so that he has no public humility left. He can’t say I’m sorry and  he can’t give clear, respectful and educated responses to those with concerns. He, as well as others, ignore public requests for answers to important issues like campaign reform. It’s truly the fox guarding the hen house in it’s purest form and he knows it. They have further entrenced their power of incumbency making the peoples’ concerns even more irrelevant.

After speaking last night and closely listening to others who shared their true individual feelings it physically hurt when the first words out of Frank’s mouth were disparaging and dismissive comments and taunts to the audience. Stating he saw an email from David Gauny that was sent out and most of the people who spoke were on that list, I was immediately offended and ticked off that he would marginalize me and everyone who was there speaking their true feelings. Regardless of how people learned about an issue, to suggest that people are puppets and a shill for someone else, and thus disqualified from being important voices of common sense and concern is truly the most arrogant and offensive behavior that I would expect out of a public servant.

It was so cowardly of Mr Ferry to infer that I am some brainwashed Pavlov’s dog  that hears a secret code word from Dave Gauny or Timben Boydston then mindlessly appear in city council chambers salivating and with programed speeches to help their cause. Is he serious? Does he think that our own craniums are unable to think and act for ourselves? Then he taunts speakers with provocative dismissive questions in Lincoln/Douglas debate fashion knowing that he can blast and dismiss citizens with no rebuttal. I understand that he sits for hours and listens to speakers saying a lot of things, but he opens up a can of kerosene and throws it out there and lights the match. This time I flamed up on him to say, “you’re not doing this to me today”!!

That is where I had it. I stood up and told him to knock it off and to not throw out such disrespect without giving us another chance to answer him. I felt he needed to know that I won’t stand for that arctic cold disregard for the public. That’s when I took my party and left the chambers. I couldn’t help it. There is right and wrong in all we do that is not governed by law and then there is getting away with all we can within the law. The council knows they have jumped the shark from ethical moral behavior on this issue and it’s their conscience that will inevitably disintegrate while mine is firmly intact.
Sterling King

Upon the completion of twenty-three years of service as City Attorney by Carl K.

Newton, he has elected to retire from the full-time practice of law as of January 1, 2011.

Mr. Newton will still be available at Burke, Williams & Sorensen to work on special assignments and for consultation on behalf of the City on an as-needed basis. Joseph M. Montes, who currently serves as Assistant City Attorney, by way of an amendment to the Agreement for City Attorney Service, dated January 1, 2005, between the City of Santa Clarita and the law firm of Burke, Williams & Sorensen, shall be appointed City Attorney, effective January 1, 2011. The City Manager is hereby authorized to execute an amendment to said agreement designating Joseph M. Montes as City Attorney, effective January 1, 2011. All other terms and conditions of said Agreement for City Attorney Service, dated January 1, 2005, shall remain in full force and effect.

Also on next week’s Council agenda: Benz Road, second reading and adoption of campaign contribution limits, update on the $18 million 21 point business plan, Speed limits for the Cross Valley Connectgor and more. COUNCIL AGENDA

I’m glad you got my note! I got your reply today and I’m excited about our next steps together on July 20th.

And I didn’t realize Tesoro and a slice of West Hills were outside the City Sphere of Influence – that makes this whole thing that much sweeter (eat your heart out, Dave Bossert)!

Love always,

Tesoro, West Hills, West Creek

ps Don’t let the haters get you down!

And if you enjoy a spot of cartography served with a side of LAFCO legalese, spend some time on this bad boy (courtesy Santa Clarita Planning):

West Creek Tesoro Initial Study

There’s a backdrop to the recent Signal story about Kyle Harris and her Garage Mahal conversion in Canyon Country.  From solo rescue efforts to boutique virtual rescue operations to breed-specific and traditional boarding facilities, pet rescue and adoption efforts are quietly sprinkled throughout our valley.

We got a real taste of it recently and ended up working across the rescue spectrum to find our 2 year old Boxer, Mavis.

Along the way we met Hsiawen Hull, a volunteer at the Castaic Animal Shelter, member of the Animal Rescue Volunteers organization in Simi Valley, and the SCV-based “Don’t Shop, Adopt” group.

“Every time you buy a puppy at the store, you kill a shelter dog.”

Hsiawen is passionate about animal rescue.  He explained foster parents learn the temperament, quirks and endearing aspects of each rescued animal, that many are already housebroken, and 25% or more shelter dogs are pure-bred.  All are spayed or neutered, many are healthy, up to date on shots, and in some instances already microchipped.

“Don’t Shop, Adopt” is fervently working to lobby the City Council to ban the sale of puppies and kittens for profit.  That would affect Pet Adventure of Canyon Country and Just Jaws Pets, located adjacent to the children’s play area in the Valencia Town Center. Hull described the process by which puppies end up in the mall window.  ”They generally are sold by a breeder from out of state for $100-$200, packed in a truck and shipped to the pet store, which then sells the dog for $1500-$2000.”  Hull claims some breeders are operating environments that are questionable at best and inhumane, dirty and sickly at worst.  He draws hope for the group’s efforts from a Missouri ballot initiative due before voters this November that seeks to regulate conditions in puppy mills, similar to CA Prop 2, which passed overwhelmingly in 2008 but focused on farm animal conditions.  Still, banning the sale of animals and addressing breeder conditions are two entirely different things.

Hsiawen speaks from experience when he says “every time you buy a puppy at the store, you kill a shelter dog.”  Castaic is known to euthanize, and there simply aren’t enough foster homes to handle the excess of abandoned dogs and cats.  Despite being one of the most pet friendly areas in the County, according to Hull, there are a notable number of ongoing instances of SCV families that abandon their pets due to foreclosure, lifestyle changes, or other unforeseen circumstances.

After meeting a number of dogs, our search led us to a ‘breed rescue’, Boxer Rescue LA, located in Sun Valley.  We were fortunate to be introduced to our sweet Mavis, whose primary form of communication involves her tongue and tater-tot tail.

What's not to love?

Looking at her face and watching my boys experience the joy of having a new four-legged friend in the house, I can’t imagine why anyone would want to pay $2,000 for a puppy from the mall – especially when there are hundreds of other Mavis’s waiting for a home.

Should stores be outright banned from selling puppies and kittens for profit?

Stay tuned: the emotionally charged debate is likely headed to City Hall in the coming months.

View Council Election 2010 – Incumbents in a larger map

All credit to SCVTalk reader Mike D. of Saugus, who painstakingly inputed data from election result PDFs and somehow created the beautiful map above.

How to Read the Map:

Purple precincts are ones in which a challenger such as David Gauny or TimBen Boydston got the most votes. Green districts are ones where incumbents placed first, and yellow districts were ones that I suppose we could call “battleground” precincts.

Some Observations:

• Boydston and Gauny were strong in the older parts of Newhall, Valencia, Canyon Country and Saugus. Areas around Seco Canyon, South of Lyons, and Sierra Highway/Soledad/14 Nexus, and McBean. What is the population like in these precincts? Older? Empty nesters? Long time residents?
• In contrast, the incumbents were quite strong in the newer areas of town like North Valencia, Plum Canyon, and deeper parts of Canyon Country. What are these voters like? New homeowners? Young children?
• It’s interesting to compare the results of adjacent precincts. For instance, look at the spread between Gauny and Ferry in Precinct 1 and 17 (roughly divided by Valencia Blvd). In Precinct 17, Ferry had 19.5% of the vote, the highest and Gauny scored 7 points behind that with 12.3%. Indeed, Gauny finished behind Boydston. But just down the street in Precinct 1, Gauny dominated with 23.4% of the vote, 10 points ahead of Ferry. Obviously this is the Summit neighborhood adjacent to the hospital, but why such a large difference?
• Looks like Bob Kellar’s support for Gauny wasn’t enough to put him into first place in the Sand Canyon neighborhood, but he certainly did well there anyway (finishing behind Weste).
• Boydston won two precincts: Old Orchard neighborhood and SoLy, the area bounded by I-5 on the west and Valley Street (roughly) on the east. He also tied with Gauny for first place in the Placerita Canyon/Circle J ranch precinct
• Look how strong Ferry was in North Valencia, Laurie Ender’s neck of the woods
• In the precincts where Ferry lost, he didn’t lose by that much. Only a few dozen votes in any of these precincts would have swung the election to Gauny
• Newhall, you disappoint me. Only 14.1% of registered voters turned out. On the other hand, check out the Summit neighborhood, the place where Gauny dominated. Only 15.2% turnout. In North Valencia, Ferry’s stronghold, there was 21.2% turnout
• Sand Canyon Precinct gets the “We’re not that Lazy!” award. Only 57% of you voted by mail, meaning 43% of you actually went to the trouble to get in your car (or mount your pony) and ride to the polling station like Normal Americans do. In other precincts Vote By Mail amounted to 70+ % of the vote!

What conclusions and/or observations do you draw from this excellent map? Compare/contrast these results with earlier elections. Are we emerging into de facto Council districts, or was this election just a fluke? Debate and Discuss. (sorry I just finished a class and I’m in testing mode right now).

MANY thanks to Mike D. for the wonderful map and the hard work.

One of those incumbents, Francis Ferry, seemed to be especially weak this time around, but he pulled it out at the end in a true squeaker by a margin of only 32 votes over David Gauny, the closest challenger.

I caught up with Ferry this afternoon to get his read on the election and ask him what his plans are for the next four years.

On the Election Outcome:

“It was a humdinger,” Ferry told me with a hint of excitement in his voice.

Ferry likened today’s count of the remaining ballots to a close sports contest. “It was like a buzzer beater in a game. I’m excited to get another four years,” he said.

Ferry said he’s been there before. His first time running for City Council, he lost by a close margin.

“I’ve been in five elections and I lost the first election very closely,” he said. “I’ve been there and I know the feeling of coming up short.”

He continued: “I don’t want to disrespect the challengers, I know they worked hard.”

On the Campaign:

Ferry told me that he expected his 2010 reelection campaign to be different and perhaps closer than the last three he’s won. For starters, Ferry said there have been a number of contentious issues before the City Council in recent years, including the hospital expansion and public road closures (like Benz Road in Saugus).

He acknowledges that because of his stance on these matters (and more importantly his vote), he’s “alienated some people.”

“I’m an outspoken person. I don’t have a hidden agenda. If you want to know if I want public roads open, I say it out loud,” he said.

“I definitely knew [it would be a tougher campaign] based on the rhetoric of people who came to the microphone over the last two years,” he added.

Ferry also acknowledged that his base of support has eroded somewhat in Santa Clarita. For years, Ferry worked as a teacher, coach and administrator in the Hart School District. He got to know parents and teachers in the area, who supported him in previous election campaigns.

But for the last four years, he’s been principal of Bishop Alemany High School in Mission Hills. “Some of the base I generated as a teacher in the Hart District has eroded,” he told me.

Ferry said he watched the precinct numbers as they came in and knew it was going to be a tight race. He said in previous elections, he received between 7,000 and 8,000 votes (he received just over 6,500 in this year’s election).

On Immigration as the Surprise Issue of the Campaign

Perhaps most surprising to Ferry in 2010 was the emergence of illegal immigration as a big campaign issue.

“I didn’t foresee the immigration issue,” he told me, adding that he didn’t see it mentioned in the ballot statements of any of the candidates, challengers or incumbents.

But, it had an impact nonetheless.

“Immigration changed the nature of the race,” he said. “It became a primary issue for one candidate,” he added, alluding to David Gauny.

I asked him if he thought that Gauny’s use of illegal immigration was a cynical ploy to get out the vote on election day. He said he didn’t know but said that if a candidate was serious about immigration, he should “still be so after the vote.”

He reiterated that he opposes illegal immigration but said the debate over illegal immigration was becoming a “racial issue”  in the last few months. Recall the uproar that met Ferry after he debated Minutemen in the Council chambers during a February Council meeting.

On YouTube and Blogs

That lead to another set of questions I wanted to ask him. Here in the SCVTalk bubble, inspecting the candidates and their statements under microscope as we are wont to do, it felt as if immigration and some other issues might really derail the incumbents chance’s this year.

Not so says Ferry.

“People who look at blogs are a very specific type of person,” he said.

He also alluded to the Not a Ferry Fan videos and other YouTube videos, hinting that those videos didn’t enjoy wide distribution and that the video blogger took his comments out of context, playing his more colorful moments again and again to prejudice the viewer.

Overall, he said, people should be pretty satisfied with the way the City of Santa Clarita is run. “We’re one of the only cities in the state in the black with a 15% reserve. That’s significant for taxpayers,” he told me.

He also touted the Cross Valley Connector, the recently completed roadway that connects Interstate 5  to Canyon Country.

His Plans

Ferry plans to continue to focus on youth outreach in his next four years. He won’t be up for Mayor again soon, so I didn’t ask him about the Mayor Dude campaign.

He also wants to work on Whittaker-Bermite and senior citizen issues.

I asked him what he thought about the claims of some that the Newhall Library was being built without input and that it might face away from Main Street.

He said the building, as designed, is beautiful. He felt that the city is fortunate to have the money to spend on libraries and other services.

As to the way the building is being built, Ferry admitted to not being a details man. “I don’t get into the details on the Newhall library,” he told me, saying that he trusted the experts who made recommendations about the building.

Major Issues Going Forward

If you’ve read this blog long enough, you can probably guess what the major issues in Santa Clarita are going to be over the next four years. For one, Ferry acknowledged the Lyons connection through to Dockweiler (bypassing the Placerita Homeowners) could be controversial. He also said he wants to see what’s happening with the Smiser property off Wiley Canyon, and he wants to ensure that traffic doesn’t affect local neighborhoods.

Final Notes

Ferry didn’t directly name TimBen Boydston, but he did mention the “former CouncilMember” during my interview with him. For some of you this may be a bit of ancient history; but a review is useful. In 2007 and 2008, Boydston and Ferry clashed often as the hospital expansion became a big issue.

In one particularly dramatic moment, Boydston read an email from a City of Santa Clarita planning staff member who, he alleged, was too chummy with a developer lobbyist.

Ferry reacted in his typically dramatic style, standing up from his seat and saying that Boydston was never elected to his post. He memorably shouted, “Give me a break Boydston!”

Ferry explained to me that when a Councilmember attacks City staff, he’s quick to rise to their defense. “Staff can’t argue with a councilmember, ” he told me. “They’re powerless” against elected officials.