The next city manager of Loveland will be the current assistant city manager of either Merced, California or Ocala, Florida or even perhaps the city manager from Maryville, Missouri.
We applaud the council for identifying professional qualifications this time in seeking a city manager instead of relying on Loveland’s closed loop good ‘ole boy network. In addition, all the citizens of Loveland should be grateful for the many hours the council has spent sifting through over 500 resumes to make their final choices their own instead of relegating the work to a scapegoat committee.
Now comes the awkward invitation to the city to meet the council, staff and citizens in an effort to size-up in person each of the candidates and their qualifications August 19-20. See LovelandPolitics story.
Any comments?
It seems weird to me they would be parading the three candidates around together. I watched the meeting and one of the female council people asked if they could bring their “significant other” also at that dinner. How do you say “awkward.” The city manager works for the council I believe not their significant others. Anyway I was glad to hear the mayor say they will think about it. Funny article since i never thought of it as a realty tv dating game but now that I think about it it really does seem like it. Will they all line-up together on the last day and eliminate the two who they didn’t choose?
My suggestion is they only meet the candidates in private and not force them into social situations where they and their significant others may feel very uncomfortable. Thanks for the story. As always you made me think about it in a way I didn’t consider before.
Conrad
Let’s hope that each, or at least the selected candidate, will better listen to the Citizens through their elected officials, the Council. Recent managers have been selected, it seems, for their ability to lead Council by the nose…thus relieving Council members of any need to actually think about the impacts of decisions.
What skills does the City need most? Well, utilities experience certainly helps, as does understanding of technology. As for “economic development”, that’s usually code for giving away our tax dollars to private interests (just look at how well the million-dollar Vnet subsidy has worked out!). It’s real purpose is to generate short-term profit booms for a select few in the real estate industry.
So the most important traits are: a respect for representative democracy, and the understanding that he, like every official, is supposed to work for the public, not just the self-anointed elite.
Agreed. The vNet subsidy was a perfect example where staff drove council. Six months ago the council voted unanimously to enforce the “personal guarantee” signed by Beierwaltes to refund the city their money if he failed to comply with the agreement.
Since that time, instead of real enforcement the staff instead brought proposal after proposal to the council to settle the matter in defiance of the second direction in July to enforce the agreement even if that meant going to court.
Once the interested parties (vNet and Russound) were able to influence Carol Johnson and Hugh McKean directly, Heckel, Klaseen and Rice fell like dominoes.
Especially disappointing was Donna Rice’s abandonment of her campaign promise to vote to litigate, if necessary, to recover the funds wasted on the scandalous incentive.
City Managers are supposed to enact the direction of the council instead of spending their day trying to figure out ways around it.
I cannot believe the cowardly behavior by 5 of our City Council. Please take note, the people OK with giving our tax dollars away are the so called “conservatives.” Please remember this when you vote!
An outsider is going to decide how Loveland should exist? Thanks for the vote of confidence. Why were no local candidates considered? Is this what can be expected if $100,000 is provided for an arts council manager – or whatever that admin position is called?
Has anybody looked closely at the graph provided by Loveland Politics?
Loveland City per capita spending is 2-3 times higher than the locations where these finalists are currently located.
Does this insinuate that Loveland is spending too much money?
Doug,
Hopefully current and future Council members, elected by the public and hopefully bearing their interests, will decide “how Loveland should exist”; not a hired, unelected City Manager. Again, policy should be decided by the elected body, while the Manager (and rest of staff) are supposed to implement those policies and make sure they’re being followed.
The problem is therefore with Councils which in the past (and at times still) just abdicate their authority and their responsibility to the citizens, lazily rubber-stamping whatever is being thrown at them by or for the connected.
I don’t have a personal problem with an external hire per se, especially if there is no qualified local who hasn’t already been corrupted by the good’ol’boy regime. But they better know who’s boss “i.e. We the People”…and the Council better let them know that.