Trafford Publishing: Right in the City: A Dog's Tale

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Right in the City: A Dog's Tale

by Douglas Ayres

372 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #01-0588; ISBN 1-55369-186-5; US$30.00, C$39.80, EUR25.90, £18.00

Ever wonder what it is like spending almost a half-century as a city manager, in cities from coast to coast? It's nothing like that. Douglas W. Ayres did it and, even more important, has written about it.

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about the book      about the author      excerpts      catalogue info

About the Book

    Douglas W. Ayres did "right and good" for his government employers by following hard lessons learned in his poverty stricken youth when dealing with men who never missed a meal. From fact-to-face conflicts with men like Gray Davis, currently Governor of California, to Jack Kent Cooke, owner of the NBA Lakers, he learned how to get things done the RIGHT way for citizens who never knew it.
    He built parks, police protection, parking structures, public buildings, water systems, paramedic support, airports and other beneficial things in communities where the power structure wasn't sure they wanted those things.
    To keep a superior group of employees from being fired enmasse for non-residency in the city limits he orchestrated an amendment to the constitution of the State of California.
It's all part of being a good city manager.
It's all here, in this series of unrelated anecdotes that spell one message: it takes work. Hard work. And smart work!

Comments about the book

"...former city manager Ayers takes on more than a few of his old employers as he exposes the idiosyncrasies of local governments across the nation. It has been described as a fun and sometimes frightening read."

Gary Winkler, Roanoke College Magazine

"... He's published Right in the City: A Dog's Tale, a memoir of sorts which is - though folksy and subjective - nonetheless remarkable for its candor, attention to hypocrisy, and bemusement with the folly of everyday political posturing. Some of Ayre's 'tales' are simple anecdotes with lessons of their own - a public works staff forced, for example, to re-sign streets overnight three times due to City Council vacillation. Others are substantive and reflective, such as the author's description of his decision to participate in civil rights actions while employed by a municipality in the Old South."
Dana Cooke, Maxwell Perspective

"...the book is an extremely good read. Doug does not hesitate to share his opinions and management philosophy and it is a pleasure to read something that is not watered down trying to please al readers'' viewpoints.

Norm King, Executive Director San Bernardino Associated Governments

About the Author

    Doug Ayres likes to work. He started parking cars at the famos Greenbrier Hotel in West virginia, worked his way thru college and then managed his way thru almost a half-century as a city manager or a manger of city managers.
    At first he worked to get ahead. Then he worked because he was good at it and enjoyed it. Then three major graduate schools asked him to teach how he did what he did. Now he works and writes to get even.
    Enthusiasm, the great elixir, is in his blood. Retirement meant boating his way through every inland waterway and along each coast of the U.S. and Canada. It took ten years, during which time he wrote about his peccadilloes, intrigues, victories, and defeats and especially about the flaming egos he encountered during his five decades at the highest levels of government. His dog Thunder led the way in boating and in discerning the patterns followed by elected officials - the "dogs" Doug had to support before his loyal pooches Thunder and Lightning came along to sniff out the imposters.
    As a reader will see, in Right In The City, a Dog's Tale, Ayres worked well at telling his readers what it's like being a city manager - the good, the bad - and the warts. And how the warts got there or were exorcised.

Excerpts and Table of Contents

THE BOOK

    RIGHT IN THE CITY, A Dog's Tale, is comprised of four "Books", being a trilogy plus one. Each "Book" consists of a series of interrelated mostly humorous and somewhat instructive anecdotes about my 50 years of intimate involvement in local government, and all the foibles and failures and successes attendant thereto. And some of the fascinating and disgusting people encountered on the way.
    The Tales are arranged in thematic order by Book. The order assures a reasonable flow of thought, with a bridge paragraph or so at the end of each Tale. The "bridge" generally holds the moral, philosophy, thought or "practical management" principle that can be drawn from the related truelife incident.
    The title of each "Book" was developed from observing the behavior of my late doggie "Thunder", and realizing the broad analogy of his activities as compared to the machinations of local elected officials, and even some appointed officials, and those dependent on or controlled by government. "Thunder" was my resident philosopher for 16 wonderful years. He had more common sense than some of the elected government officials who I encountered during my 50-year career. Thunder would bark at the bad, lick the good, and ignore anyone who did nothing. He had common sense.
    The theme of each Book is as follows.

BOOK I: DOORMAN TO A DOG

    During a 50-year career in and around the top echelons of a large number of local and state governments, I learned that a successful and durable professional non-partisan administrator must accommodate a wide variety of egocentric elected officials that are scattered among the true "public servants". To so accommodate, and thereby to survive and prosper, the professional must literally deferentially open the doors for that select number of elected "dogs". Open the door as I did for doggie Thunder, with care and caution for the feelings and sensitivities of my loving pooch.
    Thus this Book relates how those persons who were elected, or those who got them elected, evolved into the political animals they became, and how those rising the fastest became the "big dogs". And how they did it. The "good guys" also are praised appropriately.

BOOK II: SNIFF AT EVERY DOOR

    When doggie Thunder and his human "parents" occupied a large hotel or motel, he invariably could find his way home once let off the elevator. Thunder systematically sniffed at the door of every room until he found the one from whence we had come, and then he would sit down and wait for us to catch up to him with the key. Then we opened the door for him, and followed him inside. He was our leader. Thus it is for those elected officials with their direct minions who leech off them and their egos. They are the leaders and we must follow. Follow with deference and understanding of how to assist the other elected officials and appointed employees to cope.
    Elected officials need campaign contributions, political advantage and leverage, a personal following, and other unfair advantages. Thereby they must utilize a number of interesting techniques to secure and to maintain themselves in office. The theme of this Book II is to disclose the humor involved in how those advantages are secured, built and maintained on both a short and a long-term basis. And how their egos are built to monumental proportions thereby. Now don't get me wrong - the ranks of elected officials who I encountered were rife with exemplars of character, intellect and trustworthiness. They almost always prevailed, but over the vaulting ambitions of those who will be illuminated in this book and its "Tales".
    To be elected, to remain elected, and to rise in elected rank the "dogs" scattered amongst the elected corpus must figuratively "sniff at every door" to divine the political, ego, economic or personal satisfaction advantage which lies behind it. And to divert that "advantage", no matter how perverse it may be, to their individual usage. This Book spins tales and draws conclusions about how political office is sought, secured and maintained, and some of the idiotic things done by those relatively few politicians and their appointed minions who maintained them.

BOOK III: TINKLE ON EVERY TREE

    In his later years Thunder loved to take long, slow, ceremonial walks. He had a bad back, but it was not until his life's end that he got to where he couldn't symbolically lift his leg and squeeze yet another drop out. On almost every tree he passed. But he remained our loving leader. We had elected him to be. He was consistent, loyal and deserving, just like the vast majority of the elected officials I encountered during my 50 years of public service.
    So it is with me. I was consistent, loyal and deserving. But, now, in my later years it is my desire to get even for the slings, slights and slurs aimed my way by the long series of those egomaniacal elected officials for whom I worked or to whom I had to give deference appropriate to their high office and burgeoning egos. Not all of them; not even a majority; but enough to want some measure of recognition and, if you will, even retribution in the only manner available to me - making make fun of those few and providing instructional anecdotes for the benefit of future leaders, both elected and appointed.
    This group of Tales is my tribute. Delayed, but specific. I did not get mad, but now I am getting even. Getting even with the dogs and being laudatory of the good guys. "Guys", for I unfortunately never had the experience of working for and within the civilizing influence that I later in life discovered females bring to City Councils and other elected bodies. But even some of those females eventually fell into the same egomaniacal habits of their male counterparts and became dogs or, more precisely, the proper term applied to female dogs.
    Eventually a successful professional urban administrator secures sufficient personal economic security, knowledge and sheer "guts" to figure out ways in which he/she can "get even" and/or "play with" the elected officials who deserve such treatment. And these less sensitive politicians have an amazing ability to aggravate and alienate the professional bureaucracy that carries out the policies passed into law or directive promulgated by the elected officials. Thus a shrewd and accomplished administrator has all sorts of opportunities to "get even", if desired. And, played right, in the process earn a reputation among the solid legislators as being a principled aide to their honorable and upstanding goals.
    This Book divulges ways whereby a bureaucrat can "get even". Or at least how I got some degree of personal satisfaction and took some measure of retribution on the minority of elected political dogs I was forced to support in my five decades in local government.

BOOK IV: A FEW STRAY STORIES

    Some of the Tales I have recalled and tell simply couldn't be shoehorned into books I, II and III. So this Book IV relates other humorous and instructive anecdotes, which stories only loosely relate to the general theme of this book. The intent is to illustrate the thoughtfulness, intensity, preparation and mental processes of an accomplished urban political administrator. One who had fun and laughed all the way, otherwise I would have turned to another career in business earlier than I did.

Tale 5
THE BILLBOARD "TAX"
    Most elected officials are totally dependent on campaign contributions, both to get elected and re-elected and, despite new laws designed to curb the practice, for lifestyle maintenance beyond the mere subsistence level salaries allowed to the vast majority of elective offices. At the local level this absolute need for money often takes some unusual turns.
    Taxation: The Power to Destroy. In California, as in about a quarter of the several States, there are two legal categories of cities- General Law and Charter Home Rule. California is one of a handful of states where Charter cities have [had until 1996] an exceptionally high level of legal independence from the State Legislature and Governor, once a local Home Rule City Charter is adopted by the City's voters. In California that extraordinary power especially extended to taxes [again until 1986] and, if decided, the power thereby to destroy. While in Inglewood as its City Manager I experienced a particularly educational threat of the use of the power of taxation to destroy an industry. Had the threat been made for real reasons, as opposed to securing political advantage, the battle would have raged for decades. But the results of this threat were quick and certain, and decisive.
    The Mayor Needs Campaign Exposure. Inglewood's municipal elections were approaching, being only four months away. The Mayor, who served a four-year term as such, was up for his second term. Not being the community leader, gregarious hail-fellow-well-met type, and being renowned for his liberal consumption of martinis over his usual "official" lunches, the Mayor was going to be in dire need of contributions and favorable political publicity.
    Each City Council agenda contained a category titled "Council Initiatives". When that item came up on the agenda the Mayor would poll each Councilmember for any reports, requests of staff, statements, speeches or items of interest which they wished to have accomplished or exposed. Truly weird things would come out of this meeting segment at times, particularly just prior to elections, although mostly this weekly agenda event was pretty tame and serene and, at times even constructive and informative.
    The Mayor's 'Initiative'. After hearing from each of the four Councilmembers, the Mayor would trot out his "initiatives". At a meeting three months prior to the election and just prior to opening of the candidates' filing period, the Mayor made the following request: "As a Home Rule Charter City we have extraordinary regulatory and taxation powers. I would like to rid the City of some eye-sores, but in such a way that the affected property owners could make an economic choice. I hereby request the City Attorney to prepare an ordinance taxing each billboard in the City at the rate of one dollar per square foot per month."
    'Voted' Work Requests. Years earlier I had secured Council agreement were an "initiative" item one to require City staff to exert significant effort or in effect revise staff duty priorities, a vote of the full Council would be taken on the request. Thus there would be a formal order for the work to be performed, thereby re-vising priorities previously agreed to per earlier Council "initiatives". The vote was taken and the Mayor's work study request of the City Attorney was adopted 5-0. Without comment by anyone.
    The "Billboard Tax" Ordinance Cometh. A month later the City Attorney in his "Report" segment of the City Council agenda informed all that he had prepared a Draft of the Mayor's requested "Billboard Tax Ordinance", and had distributed it to each City Councilmember and involved City staff. That's all he said. The Mayor said nothing in response. Nothing happened in public on the ordinance or issue until ten days prior to the City election.
    The Mayor's Face Is Ubiquitous. Within two days the Mayor's picture showed up on EVERY billboard within the City, and on a few in adjoining Los Angeles. The text above the picture merely stated "Re-Elect Inglewood Mayor Merle Mergell".
    The Mayor was a male model and extremely handsome and photogenic. What with his picture all over town, on billboards large and small, he won re-election by a landslide.
    The billboard tax ordinance never was heard of again.

Tale 6
DISCOVERING AND EXPLOITING PSYCHOSES
    A new Councilmember was elected, which person during his first few City Council meetings gave the City staff "a hard time" on most staff reports which they presented to the Council at its meetings.
    A Dressing Down. The new Councilman seemed to be quite bright and quick, but overbearing and verbally abusive to City staff in the extreme. After several weeks of this behavior, in open Council meeting, I chastised him strongly for being abusive in tenor and word to well-intentioned and well-prepared staff persons. Further, I stated in no uncertain terms my sometimes speech that "City employees are persons first and employees second", and demanded that some level of respect be extended by him to the staff people making reports to the City Council. Since this dressing down was the first the new Councilmember had experienced since being elected, I was a bit lengthier and tougher than usual. I was fearful of his reaction and retribution so had elaborated a bit on my rationale.
    "Wonderful Exchange". Ordinarily I could have expected a violent private reaction of objection from the Council member immediately at meeting end. Rather, this Councilman sought me out to say how "wonderful" the exchange during the Council meeting had been. Several City senior staff personnel had remained "hanging around" after the Council meeting just to observe the expected fireworks between the new Councilman and me. Thus the pleasant exchange came as a total shock to all.
    Next day, at City staff meeting where, among other things, we decided what subjects would be on the next several City Council agendas, and assigned who would take the presentational lead on each subject, I asked if others had seen the same thing as I. Independently they all observed that "we've got a weird one here - all he wants is personal attention."
    Take Him on Again. We decided another staff person would "take on" the outwardly seemingly offensive Councilmember at the next Council meeting. We collegially selected Bill Farnam, the affable and lovable Public Works Director, to be the culprit.The expected verbally abusive two-way altercation did take place at the next Tuesday afternoon City Council meeting. Again, afterwards the Councilmember was extremely pleased, rather than insulted, and expressed his delight to Farnam and me, our having chastised him at the public meeting.
    From then on staff refined the process, finally fully "understanding" the Councilman, and how to "control" him. And hence we did. All he wanted, indeed, NEEDED, was attention; ANY kind of attention, especially abusive attention. The guy was a masochist, at least verbally speaking. We now could mitigate our "attention" and be "nice" to the Councilman. He just needed public attention in the worst way.
    Our homebrew style psychoanalysis was later confirmed, in a most interesting manner.     Pistol Whipped. One day this Councilman came into City Hall with a huge amount of black and blue welts and cuts on his face, which was swollen due to an apparent cumulative trauma he had endured. When the secretarial staff expressed shock and concern with his apparent injuries, the Councilmember proudly related a long, involved and painful (for the hearers) tale of his new wife knocking him to the floor, and then proceeding to pistol whip him into the mashed up condition in which he appeared.
    As he told the story, which by this time had attracted the other Assistants and me on the 9th floor of the Inglewood City Hall, no apparent embarrassment or concern flickered over his face. In fact, later we all agreed he seemed quite proud, almost gleeful, about and apparently had enjoyed the "attention" provided him by a pistol whipping, and his being able to relate the event to such a large audience.
    Yes, one has to be kinda strange and different to run for public office. But there are limits - maybe?

Catalogue Information