SPEAKER
Musings of a City Manager
San Mateo City Manager Larry Patterson
AKA ‘Carnac the Magnificent II’
Fellow Rotarian Patterson stepped out of the finer’s circle and up to the podium to reflect on the city and his role in its management on the occasion of his impending retirement at the end of this year after 18 years in city service, four of them as city manager.
John Root said he’d known Larry for years and got to know him better when Patterson and Susan Manheimer were students in the 2001 Leadership San Mateo class; Root had to separate them to restore order.
“Anyone who knows Susan,” Patterson said, “knows I was listening.”
He said his last gig giving a Rotary speech was at the invitation of Martin Harband, who wanted him to talk about Caltrans. “I had nothing to say. Instead I came as Carnac and ignored Martin the whole time. I didn’t know if I’d be back.”
As time moves on toward his December retirement he said he’s feeling “a little more freedom” to talk about the more esoteric aspects of city government. “The worst the council could do is fire me.”
To begin he asked, “how many here wanted to grow up to be a city manager?” Oscar Lopez-Guerra’s was the only hand raised. “OK,” Patterson said, “no one.”
He acknowledged city staff who had attended as guests: “They came to protect themselves.”
Serving the city council has been “the best part” of his career; he noted that council members don’t have the easiest of jobs and current political trends are making it more difficult. The region and, he suggested, the country, are now going through The Great Sort, a phenomenon he learned reading the book of the same name.
“People are sorting themselves” into groups of common interests, economics and beliefs. That has changed the political landscape because candidates for public office are losing out to the “landslides” of voters who turn out for those issues and candidates who mirror their personal opinions, affiliations and political beliefs. San Mateo largely has been spared this fragmentation, he said, but it’s not unknown on the Peninsula.
He talked about the eternal conflict between self interest and the public good, quoting Hamilton —“it is a maxim, that, in contriving any system of government…every man ought to be supposed a knave, and to have no other end, in all his actions, but private interest” — and Hume — “one must suppose men to be inherently corrupted by their lust for power and property…one must design government to harness these passions and make them subservient to the public good.”
Often, he said, “community interest has been replaced by self interest.”
He presented one model in which a city council is viewed like stockholders in a corporation and a city manager a CEO. Swarming around them like bees are “issues” all cities face: Growth, citizen revolts, utility problems, infrastructure, community services and on and on. But this model errs in putting government at the center. The new paradigm, one “Arne (Croce) stole and I stole from him,” puts issues at the center and stakeholders, including councils, managers, community members and other governmental resources ‘round about. The organization is responsible, in a way, to the issues, or at least to their resolution. “This model is realistic,” Patterson said, in that it allows for interaction between citizens and government in common purpose.
Change has come to city-level political campaign financing; Patterson charted fundraising for council races in 2013 at $20,503; in 2017, $55,231 and, in the same year, $82,260 for the rent control measure. The big difference is the activity of Independent Exenditure Committees, committees allowed after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision gave corporations carte blanche to raise and spend unlimited amounts of money on candidates and issues. “This is a big change in San Mateo with the potential to split the community,” he said.
At the same time, “very few people are interested” in the process. San Mateo population is 100,000, of which 52,000 are registered voters. But fewer than 12,000 vote. It takes only 7,000 to 9,000 votes to be elected to the council. In prospect is a lawsuit — one of dozens a single-purpose advocacy group has filed — forcing the city to go to district elections. Citizens only get to vote for one of the five council members under district elections, a disestablishmentarian strategy cloaked as citizen “empowerment.” In some cities district elections have resulted in councils with seven or even 11 members.
“This will change how the council functions,” Patterson said.
“I’m thinking to myself this is pretty much of a downer,” he said. “I come in as Carnac and I wind up like Bob the Bummer.”
So he reversed. “I’m proud of San Mateo.” In other cities he worked with difficult councils whose members attacked each other and even resorted to recalls. “The (San Mateo) council is working together on the horizon…San Mateo is blessed with people who termed out,” meaning they’d gone through their lawfully limited number of four-year terms and are leaving office without having been challenged or beaten for reelection. He gave the example of Jack Matthews, who, all told, gave 20 years of service to the city on the planning commission and the council.
And he gave the example of the city’s adoption in 1968, in the middle of the anti-Vietnam War fervor, of the 101st Airborne Division. The city just went through a week-long celebration of the 50th year of that adoption with a parade, speeches and parties. He said he and council member Joe Goethals were having lunch at Pausa with a few Airborne soldiers during last month’s celebration when a man and woman approached and put two $100 bills on the table and thanked the soldiers before leaving. “Who was that?” he asked Goethals, who knows everyone. “I don’t know,” Goethals replied.
“That’s the sign of a really good community,” Patterson said. “And any community that can have this strong of a Rotary club has to be a great city.”
Business Meeting
The Pledge — Paul Rogerville
The Thought — Bob Mendoza
On acronyms: IBM, the Itty Bitty Machine Company; I Bought a Mac.
The News — Peter Webb
Observing that Steve Parker, scout leader, had three scout sons to oversee on a camp-out, related how Sherlock Holmes and Watson were in the woods in a tent when Homes quizzed Watson about the stars overhead. Watson blathered about millions of stars, etc. “What do you think, Homes?” he said. “Someone,” Holmes replied, “has stolen our tent.”
Also: “Don’t bite the hand that looks dirty,” “Don’t change horses until they stop running,” “Two’s company, three’s musketeers,” “Better late than pregnant.”
Sunshine Report
Joyce de Russy has undergone a procedure recently; a card circulated.
Oscar Lopez-Guerra conveys the thanks of Joan Norcross, who appreciates the expressions of condolence on the occasion of Al's passing.
Joan Norcross
Visiting Rotarians
District Governor Jayne Hulbert and husband Gene Duffy
Josie McHale, a woodworker, from the San Bruno club; Jayne Hulbert of the Marin evening club and also our distinguished District Governor and a commercial banker; Gene Duffy, also of the Marin evening club and the distinguished husband of the District Governor; Mary Chigos of Palo Alto University Rotary and also a director of Mission Hospice; Noemi Avrem, principal of Avrem/Gumbinger Architects, of the Foster City club, and community banker Craig Judy of the Hayward Rotary Club. Gene Duffy reminded those who may have forgotten that he is a Duffy of the Duffys who ran Duffys at 6398 Mission St. in Daly City. Those were the days.
Josie McHale also took a moment to tout Rotary Interact. Twenty-three clubs in the district host Interact clubs with 2,000 Interacters. McHale encouraged every club to get involved in Interact.
Guests
Sheila Canzian introduced Jamie Moore, deputy city librarian; Dave Skromme introduced Lisa Hammond who, they discovered, went to high school with Dave in Michigan. Horses were banned from the highways soon after.
Birthdays
Since there were no balloons, no advance notice of a birthday table and no reason to go up to the front table, no one occupied it. P-Chris announced a “free scramble,” an undignified way to acknowledge those who have managed to clock another year, and the table was soon filled with birthdayarians and those who just wanted the corner piece of cake.
De-fining Moments
Conducting one of the last of these conundrums — if you’re ‘de’ fining, why are you fining? — PrezChriz displayed a photo of Mark and Linda Avelar aboard a boat off Los Arcos in Cabo, only it wasn’t Mark and Linda it was Jim and Marleen Mason’s photos pasted atop the Avelar’s heads. There were others on the trip to Baja, but no matter what the Prez did, no one finked. A sign of waning authority (my god, is it true the debunking is less than a month away?).
Gary White has given 160 presentations to 9,000 people for the Climate Reality Project; presented with a fine of $160 or $9,000 to mark those milestones, Gary opted for $160 minus Chris’ proffered $10 discount (see how authority wanes?).
Marsha Edelman stepped up and did what Oscar Lopez-Guerra wishes he could do: demand a President’s Club from Chris for all the Eckert realtor signs scattered around town like leaves stripped from trees. So Chris took a vote. All those against? None. All those in favor? Pretty overwhelming.
“Let this be a lesson to the district governor,” the Prez said to the District Governor. “The club doesn’t have your back.” It doesn’t have your shoes, either, but that doesn’t stop it from walking all over you.
Don Leydig suffered for a 2014 Facebook posting — when does a president find time to excavate these things on social media? — of the Olde Knights Dinner. It became so convoluted that Don volunteered instead $150 to celebrate his and Lani’s upcoming 50th wedding anniversary.
Now this was a setup. P-Eckert has been sitting on an email from Martin Harband sent from a Vienna McDonald’s. In the exchange there was an offer to share a book, a suggestion of bribery, a definition of bribery offered up by beagle Harband and, víolá!, the black bag offered to Chris, contents unknown. $150.
On the screen scanned images of John Goodman, The Rock and Lady Gaga. What they have in common is a Ford 150 pickup truck. Come to find out Tom Huening has a new one, too, that cost “north of $70,000.” Who knew? Guess who? $150.
Speaking of (underpowered) trucks, Clarke Funkhouser bought a new Jeep and the old red one is up for sale. PrezChriz promised his best efforts over the next month to sell Clarke’s old one. With a $150 commission.
