Clark County councilors should adopt some of the best practices of corporate America in terms of space allocation. Currently, there are three offices. In corporate America, part-timers would share offices. Therefore, I propose that one of the existing offices be allocated to the council chair, districts 1 and 2 share an office, and districts 3 and 4 share an office. The two currently unused offices can be checked out via a reservation system to be used for meetings. In the shared district offices, there can be two desks, one guest chair for each desk, and a locking file cabinet or credenza for each councilor.
I retired from a multinational technology company as an executive project manager. This type of arrangement was the norm in their branch offices. We all were expected to be out on our customers’ sites or working in large conference rooms as a group to address our customers’ needs and come to resolution on project plans and action items. If you were in the office, you were not perceived as being customer-centric.
The citizens of Clark County are the councilors’ “customers.” We have both the expectation and the right for our councilors to be responsive to the needs and demands of our growing county. I would expect that these part-time councilors would spend the bulk of their time in the “field” or working with multiple groups to achieve that goal, rather than cloistered in the office.
Louise Anderson
Vancouver
