City manager finalist forum
As mentioned below, the three finalists for the city manager position met the public this evening at City Hall. The forum was structured similarly to the police chief forum last year: each candidate had the opportunity to speak about themselves for two minutes, then a series of questions were posed which each candidate had the opportunity to answer, and finally, each was given two additional minutes to sum up.
I was caught up in some personal conversations outside, so i missed the opening statements and perhaps the first question or two. I'm not going to try to put together a transcript, but i'll try to highlight some of the areas that i think showed the differing philosophies of the candidates.
For example, when asked why Durham appeals to them as a place to live, George Kolb, recently the city manager of Wichita, Kansas, responded that he considers Durham to be a "benchmark" city among those that have a council/manager government. He was familiar with the HOPE VI project and the public/private partnerships in downtown redevelopment, and considered those to be models that other cities strive for. Randy Oliver talked about Durham being recognized nationally in the fields of medicine, education, and sports. He was excited by the Durham "renaissance" and the melding of cultures & ideas appealed to both him and his wife. Patrick Salerno, recently city manager of Sunrise, Florida, noted that Durham is small enough to be able to effect change, yet large enough to have the resources to accomplish that.
The one question that generated the widest range of responses dealt with using Strategic Planning to develop the three top priorities of the next managers administration. Mr. Oliver said that a strategic plan needs to extend beyond the next fiscal year or budget cycle in developing, and also beyond the city government in implementation. He mentioned that Peoria had identified 30 partners, ranging from utility companies to neighborhood groups, that were needed to help implement the strategic plan, and that room was made at the table for all of them to be part of its development. Mr. Salerno stated that the felt strategic planning was an outmoded concept base on "where you've been in the past." He preferred a process he called "scenario planning,' in which 2 or 3 "plotlines" were laid out along "what-if" scenarios, and contingencies developed to keep moving toward the vision at the end of the scenario. Mr. Kolb felt that the city needs to have both sustaining values and a definitive mission, with specific goals measured on a regular basis to see whether those were being kept. he also placed value on having a vision of what the community should lool like in 20 years.
All the candidates agreed that there is no specific number of departments that is optimum for the city administration. Mr. Oliver talked about the complexities of Durham's structure, though, and pointed out that we have a number of both "departments" and "offices," which probably reflect differing staff sizes and missions. Mr. Kolb listed a number of specific tasks that need to be accomplished, and indicated that organizing the administration to perform those would dictate the department structure. Mr. Salerno offered that he would need to know what the service levels and expectations of the community were before developing a logical organizational structure.
There were additional differences among the candidates in response to questions about sustainability, especially of our water supply (Mr. Oliver was very specific about tiered water rates, for example, while Mr. Kolb talked about the use of porous asphalt to build parking lots that didn't increase runoff, and Mr. Salerno was more general about the "interdependence of the environment, the economy, and social justice.") and about the use of economic incentives for attracting new business. Mr. Oliver talked about how Peoria got stock options from Caterpillar in exchange for policies easing the creation of the Caterpillar spinoff Firefly (i feel like i'm talking about little known science fiction TV shows here) which makes environmentally friendly(er) lead free batteries. I guess if the business is successful, the city cashes in its options and makes more money than it gave away in incentives, which is certainly innovative. I wonder if that's legal in North Carolina.
All in all, this was an interesting and worthwhile evening. I'm sure that council chambers would have been overflowing if Barack Obama hadn't been speaking in Chapel hill tonight, or Bruce Springsteen playing in Greensboro. As it was, all 7 members of council were present tonight, which is a good thing.
At the post forum press briefing, Matt Dees of the N&O asked each of the candidates to talk about the circumstances for their recent "mutual agreements" to terminate their employments in their respective cities. Hard for me to judge how effective their answers were. I also had the chance to ask Mr. Kolb about the details behind the Sunflower Community Action case, linked to in the post below. In that case, community activists, upset over the pace of the city's efforts to force a property owner to bring a house that was being used, literally, as a dump into compliance with city codes, held a demonstration at the city managers house. The city DA then decided to prosecute the demonstrators on charges of, ironically, illegal dumping, after they left their picket signs behind. I'll say that i didn't find Mr. Kolb's description of the case to be reassuring, although to his credit he didn't shy away from it despite being apparently surprised that anyone in Durham knew of it.
It looks like i'll be the first to get my impressions of the forum posted tonight. I'll put up links to other coverage of the forum in the morning, and flesh out any details i may have missed. I'll probably have some pictures, too, but i'm too tired now to post them.
UPDATE: Actually, looks like Kevin hit the submit button about the same time i did. I'm not certain i'd rank the finalists in the same order he did, though.
Ray Gronberg's article in the Herald Sun is here. N&O has coverage of last night's meeting here, and bios of the three finalists here.
I was caught up in some personal conversations outside, so i missed the opening statements and perhaps the first question or two. I'm not going to try to put together a transcript, but i'll try to highlight some of the areas that i think showed the differing philosophies of the candidates.
For example, when asked why Durham appeals to them as a place to live, George Kolb, recently the city manager of Wichita, Kansas, responded that he considers Durham to be a "benchmark" city among those that have a council/manager government. He was familiar with the HOPE VI project and the public/private partnerships in downtown redevelopment, and considered those to be models that other cities strive for. Randy Oliver talked about Durham being recognized nationally in the fields of medicine, education, and sports. He was excited by the Durham "renaissance" and the melding of cultures & ideas appealed to both him and his wife. Patrick Salerno, recently city manager of Sunrise, Florida, noted that Durham is small enough to be able to effect change, yet large enough to have the resources to accomplish that.
The one question that generated the widest range of responses dealt with using Strategic Planning to develop the three top priorities of the next managers administration. Mr. Oliver said that a strategic plan needs to extend beyond the next fiscal year or budget cycle in developing, and also beyond the city government in implementation. He mentioned that Peoria had identified 30 partners, ranging from utility companies to neighborhood groups, that were needed to help implement the strategic plan, and that room was made at the table for all of them to be part of its development. Mr. Salerno stated that the felt strategic planning was an outmoded concept base on "where you've been in the past." He preferred a process he called "scenario planning,' in which 2 or 3 "plotlines" were laid out along "what-if" scenarios, and contingencies developed to keep moving toward the vision at the end of the scenario. Mr. Kolb felt that the city needs to have both sustaining values and a definitive mission, with specific goals measured on a regular basis to see whether those were being kept. he also placed value on having a vision of what the community should lool like in 20 years.
All the candidates agreed that there is no specific number of departments that is optimum for the city administration. Mr. Oliver talked about the complexities of Durham's structure, though, and pointed out that we have a number of both "departments" and "offices," which probably reflect differing staff sizes and missions. Mr. Kolb listed a number of specific tasks that need to be accomplished, and indicated that organizing the administration to perform those would dictate the department structure. Mr. Salerno offered that he would need to know what the service levels and expectations of the community were before developing a logical organizational structure.
There were additional differences among the candidates in response to questions about sustainability, especially of our water supply (Mr. Oliver was very specific about tiered water rates, for example, while Mr. Kolb talked about the use of porous asphalt to build parking lots that didn't increase runoff, and Mr. Salerno was more general about the "interdependence of the environment, the economy, and social justice.") and about the use of economic incentives for attracting new business. Mr. Oliver talked about how Peoria got stock options from Caterpillar in exchange for policies easing the creation of the Caterpillar spinoff Firefly (i feel like i'm talking about little known science fiction TV shows here) which makes environmentally friendly(er) lead free batteries. I guess if the business is successful, the city cashes in its options and makes more money than it gave away in incentives, which is certainly innovative. I wonder if that's legal in North Carolina.
All in all, this was an interesting and worthwhile evening. I'm sure that council chambers would have been overflowing if Barack Obama hadn't been speaking in Chapel hill tonight, or Bruce Springsteen playing in Greensboro. As it was, all 7 members of council were present tonight, which is a good thing.
At the post forum press briefing, Matt Dees of the N&O asked each of the candidates to talk about the circumstances for their recent "mutual agreements" to terminate their employments in their respective cities. Hard for me to judge how effective their answers were. I also had the chance to ask Mr. Kolb about the details behind the Sunflower Community Action case, linked to in the post below. In that case, community activists, upset over the pace of the city's efforts to force a property owner to bring a house that was being used, literally, as a dump into compliance with city codes, held a demonstration at the city managers house. The city DA then decided to prosecute the demonstrators on charges of, ironically, illegal dumping, after they left their picket signs behind. I'll say that i didn't find Mr. Kolb's description of the case to be reassuring, although to his credit he didn't shy away from it despite being apparently surprised that anyone in Durham knew of it.
It looks like i'll be the first to get my impressions of the forum posted tonight. I'll put up links to other coverage of the forum in the morning, and flesh out any details i may have missed. I'll probably have some pictures, too, but i'm too tired now to post them.
UPDATE: Actually, looks like Kevin hit the submit button about the same time i did. I'm not certain i'd rank the finalists in the same order he did, though.
Ray Gronberg's article in the Herald Sun is here. N&O has coverage of last night's meeting here, and bios of the three finalists here.
Labels: Durham, local government, local media
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