A Small Town with a Big-City Workload
Recently, I spoke at the Carmel Woman's Club about the many initiatives we’ve completed and have underway at City Hall. Preparing that presentation reminded me of the extraordinary volume of information our small city must process, and how important it is that all this activity produces meaningful results.
Carmel has approximately 3,200 residents, yet the complexity of running our village bears little relationship to its population. Between City staff, Council, commissions, residents, consultants, and attorneys, an enormous amount of information is generated, reviewed, discussed, and acted upon every day. By the time my term ends in December, I will have signed approximately 160 Council resolutions.
Consider These Numbers
City Council and Planning Commission agenda packets can reach 1,000 pages for a single meeting. Councilmembers and commissioners must absorb this material, consider public comments, and make informed decisions.
Public Records Act requests can exceed 70 per month. Some involve multiple departments and workflows, requiring staff to locate documents, review them, make necessary redactions, and coordinate responses.
Studies and estimates from California and Vancouver suggest that a public meeting can cost around $10,000 when staff preparation, reports, attendance, and follow-up are considered and we spend more than $400,000 annually on legal services alone.
Add public safety, permits, planning applications, infrastructure maintenance, financial oversight, and resident inquiries, and the scale becomes clearer.
The Hidden Cost of New Initiatives
Much of this work is essential. Transparency, public participation, and careful legal review are fundamental to good government. But every hour spent processing information is an hour unavailable for something else.
One of my biggest lessons as mayor is that the true cost of a new initiative extends far beyond its initial approval. Every new program, policy, or Council directive can create work lasting years. Research, staff reports, public meetings, legal reviews, implementation, and ongoing monitoring all require resources.
Therefore, adding something to a priority list doesn't necessarily make it a priority. Every new commitment competes with existing work. Before taking on something new, we should ask how much staff time it will require, how long the commitment will last, and what other work may have to wait.
From Discussion to Results
Coming from a business background, I've always believed information should lead to decisions, and decisions should lead to results. Government is different. Legal requirements and public participation make the process more complicated. But that makes disciplined management even more important.
Before an item reaches a Council agenda, we should be able to state clearly what decision needs to be made. And before launching a major new initiative, why not include a workload estimate alongside the financial cost? Knowing how many staff hours, meetings, and legal reviews might be required would help us make better choices.
We've worked hard to establish clearer priorities, strengthened project management, improved financial reporting, recruited experienced leadership, and invested in modern equipment for Public Works and emergency services. The objective now should be to help our talented employees spend more time delivering results.
Artificial intelligence offers another tremendous opportunity to organize documents, research issues, summarize information, and reduce repetitive work, while maintaining human oversight.
Measuring What Gets Done
As my term approaches its end, one of my strongest takeaways is that Carmel doesn't lack ideas, committed residents, or dedicated employees. What we need is a continuing focus on translating that energy into completed projects and measuring the results.
We shouldn't have to choose between transparency and effective government. We need both.
Ultimately, our government shouldn't be measured by how busy it is, how many meetings it holds, or how many reports it produces. It should be measured by what gets done.
To hear a podcast generated from this column, go to cli.re/workload.
Dale Byrne
Mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea
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