TTC Series 300

Effective relations with administration; involvement and influencing state and federal legislative processes; effective lobbying through the League of California Cities organization; exploring the various distinct roles of clerks; exploration of challenges, tools and personal powers; advocating and impacting budget decisions.

The local legislative process; developing meeting agendas; recording and processing official minutes; action, summary and verbatim minutes; consent agendas; developing ordinances and resolutions; overview of parliamentary procedures; Ralph M. Brown Act.

Development and maintenance of  a Records Management Program; records indexing systems; implementing records retention; identifying the benefits of a RM Program to cost-justify the expense to the City; imaging software and systems; what to do before you digitize your documents.

Current trends and future of media opportunities; choices for marketing and reaching the public; identification of audiences including general public, elected officials, internal and external staff, regulators and related agencies, the media and special interest groups; effective messaging; when to contact and when to avoid media; establishing yourself as a local authority; on the record vs. off the record conversations; privacy rights; keys to successful interviews; social media and monitoring and supervising.

Dealing with problem employees, hiring/firing decisions, motivating and rewarding employees; time management; employee/management relations; moving into a supervisory role; the role of a supervisor; hiring and keeping the best employees; working as a team to achieve success; the role of management; the role of employees; establishing and meeting goals; communicating with others to get things done; dealing with difficult employees.

Responding to legal inquiries; tracking lawsuits and researching complaints; researching professional background and status of attorneys; personal preparation for interviews and testifying; various court systems and understanding their authority.

Principled bargaining and successful negotiations; treating people fairly and commitment to fair interactions; techniques for better negotiation skills; interactive and didactic training; identifying and managing potential threatening situations; differentiating between threatening and non-threatening individuals; identifying specific skills and techniques to help de-escalate possible volatile individuals; understanding of mental illness and  its impact on public service employees; identifying techniques including  verbal and non-verbal responses to successful interest based bargaining; identifying options and support systems and establishing working relationships.

Learn the thinking process behind writing email, memos, letters, reports, and proposals; reduce writing time; condense document length to save reader’s time; use appropriate organizational formats; improve clarity; organize details and data; write authoritatively and persuasively; eliminate grammatical errors; select an appropriate style. (Participants bring their own on-the-job writing samples to class for immediate application of the principles learned).

Using specific examples and case studies, this workshop will examine how to handle ethical dilemmas faced by City Clerks with regard to elections, FPPC filings, the Brown Act, Council requests; and candidate requests.