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Tyer Develops 'Guiding Principles' For Next Four Years
By Andy McKeever, iBerkshires Staff
08:13AM / Sunday, March 20, 2016
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Mayor Linda Tyer took office in January and has been spent the last two and a half months crafting a strategy for governance.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — How can we?
 
That's a question Mayor Linda Tyer wants city employees to consider when faced with any issue — whether it be a constituent complaint, a specific project or idea, or long-term planning. 
 
"I want us to spend more time thinking about how can we do something than the reasons we can't or shouldn't," Tyer said. 
 
Tyer has spent less than 100 days in office but has been putting together the framework for the next four years. Since taking office in January, she has been delving into the various issues, getting caught up on ongoing projects, building her administrative team, and handling the day-to-day needs. 
 
"It has been a very interesting and challenging transition,"  the new mayor said.
 
Through the adjustment period of moving from a department head as the former city clerk to now overseeing the entire municipal operation, Tyer crafted what she calls a "mission" or "guiding principles" for everything this administration will face in the next four years. 
 
"Government is a partner with community organizations, businesses, and community activists. We are a partner to all of that and in that partnership, I've been able to narrow down and focus on 'what is our mission?' and how do we adjust our organizational culture inside of government to help accomplish the mission," Tyer said.
 
How can we? That's one of five principles she is instilling in her staff. The others include recognizing the "shared responsibility"; being proactive and planning for the long-term; communication; and professional development. 
 
"They are part of what intuitively I knew I wanted to do but I wanted to put this into words, in writing as part of our mission statement," Tyer said. "I want all of us to be working within these principles."
 
How exactly are those incorporated? Tyer has an example. She took office in the midst of a spree of armed robberies, that heightened in January. She met with Police Chief Michael Wynn and, looking at the issue through those guiding lenses, crafted a plan.
 
"We put together a plan and we communicated that plan through social media, through communication to the small retail establishments that were experiencing the robberies. We put together a list of things you can do to stay safe and how you can help. We pushed that information out," Tyer said. 
 
"That hits two things. There is a shared responsibility for us to communicate to you what we know — within reasons protecting the investigation side of it — and also to acknowledge that either the homeowner or business leader has a responsibility to us. That hits the communication mark, too."
 
When the next robbery happened, the clerks did what they were supposed to do, communicated with police exactly what they saw, and an arrest was made. 
 
"I think that we had been pushing information so much that I think people responded to it. They were able to observe what was happening and they shared the information with police," Tyer said. "Once we had this situation under control and we had an arrested, we wanted to communicate that back out to the public. Thank you, citizens, for your good work and this led to our ability to arrest accused perpetrators."
 
That plan was proactive, recognized the responsibilities of all parties, and centered heavily around communications among departments, stakeholders, and the public. While this situation didn't fit into the long-term planning or professional development principles per se, there will be other issues that do.
 
"It is important that there be some guiding principles, a mission, a philosophical standard about how we work," Tyer said. "I really believe that."
 
As for professional development, Tyer says she plans to boost opportunities for staff to learn more and master their disciplines even more. 
 
"We want to give them opportunities to participate in professional development. I mean that from the frontline employee to the directors to myself. I've really encouraged the department heads to seek out opportunities and encourage their employees to participate in professional development," Tyer said. 
 
Each department has a budget line for professional development but she is looking to consolidate those into a single line item and bring together larger opportunities to reach more employees. Attendance to the trainings would be free, allowing the worker to expand their skills. 
 
"I think it is really about building morale, building confidence, encouraging a commitment to their work," Tyer said. "I think a lot can be said for being a workplace that supports and respects them."
 
The professional development piece ties nicely into the "organizational culture" she is looking to create to complement those guiding principles. This culture is based on building a good relationship with the City Council, employees and boards and commissions, as well as citizen's engagement. 
 
"Again, those guiding principles should be applied to this organizational culture that we want to strengthen," she said. "When we have a long-term project we are planning for, how are we communicating that at the beginning of the members of the City Council so they are a part of it from the beginning. And what is their shared responsibility in it?"
 
 

With that culture and philosophy,Tyer is now looking to craft long-term public safety plans as well as plans for city buildings.

For the Police Department, she has already begun discussions on ways to modernize the department that "includes personnel, that includes specialized units, and that includes facilities." She's doing the same with creating a replacement plan for the apparatuses in the Fire Department — including the commission of an audit on the condition of the existing fleet.

 
"One of the things that has been a surprise to me is the condition of our public buildings," Tyer said. 
 
Tyer has two goals for the future of city buildings. First she wants to restructure the maintenance department, which is now headed by Denis Guyer, to become more efficient. 
 
"We have some ideas how it would help on the school side as well as it will help on the municipal side. It really is a partnership. The building maintenance department is responsible for all municipal buildings including the schools," Tyer said.
 
From there, she wants to develop a long-term strategy for the use or elimination of buildings. That means listing all of the buildings, assessing their condition, and planning ways to use and fix them or shutter them.
 
"Unfortunately, there has been a systemic neglect to the point where some buildings aren't salvageable, some buildings are not conducive to a good work or learning environment but are salvageable," Tyer said. "Putting those into categories and understanding where we want to make investments is a big conversation."
 
She hopes to have that process moving along in the next three months. Also in the next three months, she hopes to give a boost to code enforcement. Blight was a major talking point in the campaign and she plans to bring together a task force to look deeper into the city of Boston's problem properties task force and see if much of that data-driven process can be adapted to Pittsfield. 
 
And, to create a windows and doors ordinance, which would require owners of abandoned properties to replace broken doors and windows with doors and windows instead of a piece of wood.
 
As important issue of hers in the campaign, Tyer is anxious to move a task force along but there is already a group in place that she wants to work with before settling on a plan. 
 
"I want to engage with them first and not kick down the door and say 'this is what we're doing.' I want to pull that group together separately and start having conversations with them," she said. 
 
So far, Tyer says that's been her biggest challenge — keeping herself from diving too deeply into one issue when there are many needing attention.
 
"Part of the challenge for me professionally is that I have a tendency to want to get in the weeds and learn everything and master the subject, problem solve, and build systems. I come into the office of mayor with that work style so every meeting I have, whether it with a department head or community organization, I leave that meeting saying 'I want to learn about this, I want to master this topic," the mayor said. "It's not realistic that I'm going to be in the weeds as much as I'd like to be."
 
"I still will be a hands-on, frontline, nuts and bolts kind of mayor but to the extent that I want to master every topic, I have to rely on the experts."
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