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Todd covers local government in the Finger Lakes. He has a JD degree the Lincoln Law School of Sacramento. Send tips to todd@fingerlakes1.com.
Geneva City Manager Sage Gerling and Assistant City Manager Adam Blowers presented the City’s annual State of the City address Wednesday, February 10. Gerling and Blowers presented an upbeat message that focused on the City’s successes during a challenging 2020.
Afterward, Council predominantly ignored the successes of City Staff touted by Gerling and Blowers and instead focused primarily on negatives. Some of the issues raised by Council did not even relate to the State of the City presentation, such as Councilor Ken Camera (Ward 4) challenging legal opinions offered by the law firm Hancock Estabrook, LLP during the Police Reform Board (PRB) process.
Opportunity
While most people don’t think about it very often, common language is essential to day-in, day-out commerce. Companies and others
[2] employ standards to ensure that a meter is the same length world-wide, calendars ensure that everyone shows up for meetings at the same time, and everyone agrees what “payment in US dollars” means. It is trite, but no less important, to note that without some common language, commerce would be impossible.
At the same time, most language is imprecise, complicating work life in countless ways. Leaders struggle to answer basic questions like “How many customers do we have?” Managers find it tough to work across departmental silos, and technologists spend more time dealing with “systems that don’t talk” than they do implementing new technologies. Most of the added effort needed to accommodate the lack of common language has become so embedded in work life that people don’t even notice it.