I’ve said it before: Doesn’t the outrage about the City Manager’s lapses seem disproportionate?
Yeah, he probably didn’t need an unscheduled $60,000 raise, but the whole City Council approved it.
And sure, he paved some streets that probably didn’t need it the most, and installed some speed bumps where they didn’t belong, but jeez. How long do those two relatively minor transgressions need to be discussed?
Let me remind you that our previous City Manager retired a Deputy City Manager for telling the truth, and no one raised a murmur. Among other egregious behaviors, tolerated, or endorsed, by her board of managers, the previous City Council. What’s changed?
Mr. Gonzalez is disruptive. He’s directed work to outside firms with whom he’s worked before. Local A&E firms pay the bills with whatever walks through the door, but they make their real money from government contracts. Obviously they’re not happy with our tax dollars feathering the carpetbaggers’ nests.
And, by trimming staff, he’s refocused the City’s priorities, and also saved a lot of money. For instance, did you notice that none of the museums currently have directors? If the machinations of city government weren’t so opaque, we might know of other instances, but it is, and we don’t.
So there’s something going on there. More than meets the eye. But the principals can’t talk about the real issues, so they have to make mountains out of speed bumps.
Funny, I was thinking the same thing.
Not only did Saint Joyce retire Jane, they paid her salary while she was on “paid administrative leave” long enough to get her to ten years of “service” so she could draw a pension from the Rest of US for life. But we can’t discuss that because it is a “personnel matter.” You have to wonder if the city manager chose to put every member of his “team” on paid leave if that would be offlimits for discussion…a “personnel matter,” you know. Nothing to see here, move along now.