Public Involvement in Choosing a Public Leader? This Novel Concept is Stranger than Fiction

Springfield, Missouri finds itself in a situation similar to ours. Their city manager has given notice that he will be leaving in 2008. But, in a strange twist, their outgoing mayor is not rushing to appoint a committee of political insiders, but is instead inviting the public to sign up to serve. Say what?

Eight years ago Geneva had its own citizen’s committee to select a city manager. Twenty four residents from across the community spent countless hours reading, evaluating, and discussing resumes from candidates coming from all over the United States. The committee, which Capraro served on, conducted phone interviews to narrow down the candidates to three top finalists. Every member of the committee agreed that the three finalists brought the experience, expertise, and commitment to become part of the community that we need in a city manager.

City council took the three names, thanked the committee for their work, and then proceeded to hire Rich Rising, who was not amongst the committee’s finalists. So much for valuing the input of the community.

With his term rapidly drawing to a close, we suspect that Mayor Cass might want to repeat this process as his last official action. Hopefully, that will not happen.

The people of Geneva have the talent, the energy, and the time to make this selection the right way. And they should not feel rushed to do so. The City Manager is the Chief Administrative Officer for the city. That means he oversees the day to day tasks that support City Council’s established policies. But that does not mean that the city will perish if the post sits vacant for a few months. We have skilled department heads who are fully capable of managing operations for a short transition period. What is most important in the selection of a new manager is that we get a candidate with the skills, integrity, and vision to build upon Geneva’s strengths and to tackle our challenges head on.

Manufacturing is not a silver bullet for Upstate New York anymore. So those who said we need a manager who can “get another Guardian” are, in our opinion, a bit misguided. We need to reverse our population decline, boost our tourism appeal, and provide better, more targeted city services to residents as a return on their tax investment. Speaking of taxes, we need a manager who understands that the average homeowner is having trouble keeping up with the tax bill.

The best way to get a Manager that can connect with the needs and interests of the people is to have the people involved in selecting the Manager.

Enter Springfield. Because their Mayor is at the end of his term, a current councilor (Gary Deaver) is chairing the search committee, but there is no indication that he is trying to impose his own views on the community. Instead, he tells a local newspaper:

“This will be one of the most important decisions the council makes in quite some time.. It’s my goal to create a process that is totally transparent and inclusive.”

That process begins with a new Web site– which the city planned to unveil last week – where citizens can fill out a questionnaire and offer comments about what characteristics are most important for a city manager. Linked to the city’s home page, www.springfieldmo.gov, citizens also will be able to fill out a volunteer application if they are interested in serving on the search committee.

The voters brought Stu Einstein into city hall because they responded to his promise of a new way of doing business. The search for a new city administrator is the best way to show a commitment to bringing new people, new faces, new voices to the table. We hope that outgoing Mayor Cass will not take advantage of incoming Mayor Einstein's good nature and stick him with the dilemma of either accepting an aggressive move to control the City Manager search process as a lame duck or protesting it and risking being labeled vindictive. The new mayor should get the same break as the old mayor: a fresh start with a new city manager.