BY DAVE PRICE
Daily Post Editor
With all the talk about how the many consultants the city of Palo Alto has hired, I predict that at the next City Council meeting, somebody will suggest that the city needs a consultant to manage the consultants.
According to a story in Friday’s Daily Post, the city has a mere 44 consultants. That’s one consultant for every 1,500 residents. The consultant who manages consultants could keep track of how much money we’re spending on consultants, what they’re supposed to do and whether they’re accomplishing any of the goals that were set for them.
But our consulting problems are far worse than that.
We should also have a consultant study whether we have enough consultants. We don’t want to find out a year from now that another city has more consultants. That would constitute a “consultant gap.” (This could be far worse than the “mineshaft gap” of the 1960s!)
Think about the implications of a consultant gap. How will a lack of consultants affect the socio-emotional health of our teenagers? Who will want to live in a town without enough consultants? How will council members make decisions without the advice of consultants? If council doesn’t get its hands around this problem now, the consultant gap will emerge a major issue in the next council election.
We simply cannot allow Cupertino or Sunnyvale to have more consultants than we do!
Council should immediately form a blue ribbon task force to address the consultant shortage. The task force should be assisted by a consultant who makes at least $1,000 an hour, to ensure that we get the highest quality work. A good consultant can help us address this crisis, and we can all sleep soundly at night, knowing our city is well consulted.
Editor Dave Price’s column appears on Monday.
Did I detect a note of sarcasm?
They need consultants because they’re not capable of doing their jobs. If the city hired more intelligent people, they could cut back on consultants.
I’m amazed the city can’t keep track of the number of consultants they hire or how much money they’re getting. You’ve got to wonder about a city manager who needs 13 assistants and a full-time PR department to keep the public and news media in the dark.
Consultants will do the jobs that American’s won’t do!
Hire the consultants to harvest lettuce, as in “let us” spend some more taxpayer money.
Maybe you were joking about a consultant to manage the consultants, but that’s exactly what they’re thinking. My God, this consultant thing is out of control. Does council think that money grows on trees? Instead of hiring a consultant to deal with every problem, do the hard work of making a decision on your own without hired help.
I think the decisions they make on their own would actually be worse than the ones they make with the help of consultants.