Before you ask the Michigan Department of Treasury's Rapid Response Team (TRRT) to meet with officials from your unit of government please review the following information that we call Point, Comment, Suggestion (PCS). These points, comments and suggestions are from actual interactions that the department has experienced with other local units of government. As you review PCS please freely discuss how key officials within your unit of government are communicating with one another. When you finish your review of PCS, commit to improve your communication process by putting into use the following suggestions.

Point
Are the City Council Members and the Mayor's office having direct fact based discussions with one another?

Comment
If your answer is no, bear in mind that the ideal situation would be to find out why not, however, we recognize that circumstances are rarely ideal, but many situations share common factors.

Suggestion
Have a limited number of representatives from each office designated to begin direct fact based discussions on a regular basis.

Point
We are at a loss to know who the right people would be to start having these meetings as everyone wants to get in on the act and be a part of the process. What do we do?

Comment
Well, you are planning to meet with us because of financial issues aren't you? Doesn't it make sense to have the people with the greatest insight into your finances to talk directly with one another?

Suggestion
Designate the Chair of the Council Finance Committee, the Administration's Budget Director and Finance Director. If theses designated person decide that they need others in later meetings they can agree among themselves to extend the necessary invitations.

Point
Our City Council or Office of Auditor General hired the outside independent auditor, not the Mayor's Administration. They won't give the Mayor's Administration access to the auditors and since we didn't hire them the auditors won't talk to us, what do we do?

Comment
Ask yourself these fundamental questions - has the auditing firm been retained and paid? Make sure that the auditing firm has been officially engaged with a formal engagement letter. If the audit firm has not been paid by your unit for work that has been performed leading up to the audit, or for retention under the engagement letter, please authorize their payment. Why? You usually get more cooperation from people when you have honored their statements for services rendered. The audit firm expects to be paid just as you expect to receive your paycheck at the appropriate time in your pay cycle.

Suggestion
If you have an auditor in place performing your annual audit, or planning to begin work on your annual audit grant access to the Administration's Finance Director and Budget Director to speak with the audit team if the need arises.

Point
Whenever we have had meetings in the past there is one official who says yes when he really means no, commits to action, then doesn't follow through with it, answers questions by saying "yes but", how do we work with someone like that?

Comment
A person who says one thing and does another is usually very insecure. A "yes but" or "Yabut" answer is one that is qualified and is not giving you information that you can rely upon. A "Yabut" also sends a contradictory message to the people whom you are communicating with. Nothing that we will do can change the person's personality; however, there are small steps that others can take to manage the issue.

Suggestion
Clear, Concise, Communication (CCC or the 3 Cs) will never let you down; clear, concise, communication is the key. If a person gives you a Yabut answer call them on it and ask them to clarify their answer. Ask them to tell you If the answer is no, or is it I don't know if I can do what you are asking me to do? If the answer is really the latter then ask the person to commit to finding out what they actually can do and letting you know what the definite answer is as soon as they find out. Many times the person may not be aware that they are giving you a mixed message.

Point
What do we mean by clear concise communication?

Comment
As easy as it is to say "concise communication" the reality is that it takes work to accomplish as it will require a level of discipline to follow each point through to its conclusion.

Suggestion
During the course of your discussions as people commits to positions or courses of action then there should be a summary of the commitment and a deadline when the action will be taken will be taken. - CLEAR - Seek to understand.

These points should be agreed to by all of the meeting attendees. - CONCISE - Seek to be understood

This course of action will clearly identify what everyone has committed to do and if a person does not follow through with their action they may be held accountable at the next meeting. - COMMUNICATION - Information is transmitted

Point
I want to follow through with my commitments that I make during meetings but I find that what I think is a good idea during a meeting I am many times prevented from taking action on because my boss does not like the idea or course of action. What do I do when that happens to me?

Comment
It is always frustrating when you are not given the authority to commit to action before you enter a meeting. You have a few choices to consider and the right one will be up to you and your boss to decide upon.

Suggestions
Three related suggestions can be considered and followed:

1. The easiest course of action is to ask your boss to attend the meeting with you so that he or she can give binding approval to the course of action in real time.
2. If suggestion # 1 isn't possible then ask your boss for specific authority before the meeting so that you will know how far you can go with a commitment made during the meeting. If your boss agrees to this option ask him or her to be flexible enough to have you call during the meeting if additional authority is needed to close a point.
3. If all else fails and you commit to a course of action during a meeting only to find out later that you are unable to keep your commitment then communicate directly with the person(s) who is expecting you to follow up with them and tell them that you will not be able to do what you said that you would do earlier, and the reason(s) why.

Point
Whenever the Mayor's office has an idea for a project or proposal they will wait to present it to us at the last possible minute before the meeting that we are then asked to vote on it. That really makes us angry and many times we vote down her ideas just because of the timing issue and not because the idea was a bad one. How can we get past this hurdle?

Comment
Have you asked yourselves as council members why the Mayor waits until the last minute? It could be that the administration is unsure about the project or proposal. It could be that no one has communicated a problem to the Mayor about her timing. It could be that no one has ever explained the process of seeking input to the Mayor.

Suggestions
The following suggestions may help you with this issue:

1. Have a private calm direct discussion with the Mayor or her designee about how the council feels when new ideas are presented with little or no time to consider them before a vote is expected.
2. Seek an agreement that if an idea has to come to the Council just before the vote that the Council will table the proposal until their next meeting to give themselves a chance to review the idea and in the interim to ask the Administration any questions that they might have.
3. Ask the Mayor to seek input from the Council telling her that by seeking Council input she is not asking for Council's permission to pursue her idea, but rather she is building a broad base of support. You might even tell her that she will be farther ahead by seeking any ideas that people chose to share with her. When she gets lots of input she remains free to use or not use any of the ideas that she collects. However, If she decides to use the input that others give to her, they will view her in a positive more trustworthy light as time goes by and her professional relationships will be enhanced.

Point
On the rare occasions when the City Council and the Mayor's Administration actually meet there is one Council person who always seems to be angry and communicates with the Mayor's Administration in a very unprofessional and hostile manner. How can we deal with him?

Comment
We are all products of our backgrounds and there are those of us whose backgrounds have not adequately prepared them for effective interpersonal communications.

Suggestions
Follow the "Golden Rule" is the best advice that we can give to you. Treat others with whom you interact in the same way you would like them to treat you. Examples of what we mean by the "Golden Rule" follow:

1. Address the person to whom you are talking to by their first name.
2. Avoid using "he, him, she, her, or it" when referring to a person.
3. Be polite - defined as using "please" and "thank you."
4. Resist the urge to bring up past harms or slights - why? Because you can't change the past and if you are truly focused on the future you have to stay firmly rooted in the present as you develop the strategic plan for the future.
5. If you can't say something personal that is nice or positive about someone don't say anything at all.
6. Under no circumstances should you say anything behind a person's back that you would not repeat to their face.
7. When asked for your opinion give it honestly but remember that everyone at the table has feelings and express your opinion in a way that does not hurt someone else's feelings.
8. Remember that respect is a two way street and if you give it freely it will be returned to you.
9. If the respect is not returned to you stay on the high road and refuse to lower yourself to the point of the person who has failed to properly respect you and your views.
10. Remember that humor can mask how we really feel and it is not acceptable to hurt someone then to say "I was only joking."