The horses are in the gates for the selection of the next City Manager.
From ElPasoMatters.com:
Four high-ranking city officials have been named finalists for the El Paso city manager position to replace Tommy Gonzalez, who was fired by the City Council more than a year ago.
Chief Financial Officer Robert Cortinas, Deputy City Manager Mario D’Agostino, Climate and Sustainability Officer Nicole Alderete-Ferrini and Deputy City Manager Dionne Mack were announced as finalists by Mayor Oscar Leeser during a Friday news conference at City Hall.
I’m pretty sure that all of the candidates have the administrative chops. That’s just table stakes.
What I’m wondering is which of these candidates have the values requisite to instilling a culture of honesty, respect, and service.
We haven’t had that in either of our two hired City Managers.
Remember our first City Manager Joyce Wilson? She and members of City Council seem to have plotted, with their private email accounts, to gift us a ballpark. And then they refused to share their correspondence, even though their secret correspondence qualified as “city business” and was therefore subject to the rules of the Texas Public Information Act.
That is just chief in a litany of her misdeeds.
And under former City Manager Tommy Gonzalez, City Government was petty and vindictive.
And greedy.
Remember when Ben Fyffe, the Managing Director of Cultural Affairs and Recreation signed that Cease and Desist letter to Cruz Morales because he was hosting basketball tournaments at Barrio Park?
(Go read that post. I’ll wait.)
Here’s a good part from that post you just read:
El Barrio Park is about the size of four bedroom house on the west side. It’s not even big enough for a full-size basketball court. The park is located two blocks south of the canal in the Chamizal neighborhood, at the corner of Raynor and Findley. Cruz Morales lives a couple blocks away. He takes care of the park like it was his own.
And now the Parks and Recreation Department is complaining?
“We’ve been doing things at the park for eighteen years, and we’ve never had any problems till this year. Now the city is asking for permits, all of a sudden,” Mr. Morales told me over the phone.
“We’ve had volleyball tournaments and basketball tournaments. Thanksgiving food giveaways, toy giveaways for Christmas. People have been doing events at the park since the seventies and eighties, and I took over those projects about eighteen years ago. And we’ve never had a problem with the city before.”
Remember when Nicole Ferrini called a press conference to advise the community that El Pasoans Fighting Hunger was not complying with the record keeping requirements for HUD?
She had to walk that back when HUD said El Pasoans Fighting Hunger was in compliance.
Then, Ms. Ferinni tried to convince City Council to rescind their commitment to giving El Pasoans Fighting Hunger the $1.5 million they had promised for a kitchen. A kitchen to provide hot meals to poor people.
It looked like a petty pissing contest to me. It still does.
And now Ms. Ferinni is candidate for the job of City Manager.
Here’s what Rick Bonart wrote in guest column for the El Paso Inc.
The city manager position must be filled by someone who is not just good enough or merely ready to move up the ladder but who is a rock star. We need someone with a proven track record of successfully doing the job. Isn’t that the point? Tommy Gonzalez was removed because the El Paso City Council didn’t like what was going on at City Hall. Why replace him with one of his subordinates? All you will get is more of the same. The culture will not change for the better.
They should start the search for the next City Manager right now. Not in any official capacity. But our elected officials should be looking at prospects to replace this sorry selection of candidates. Someone who will restore honor and respect to City Government.
I’d recommend former Army command officers. Like Col. Cary Westin. He’s the best City Manager we’ve ever had, even if he is only interim.
A good mayor may be able to change the perception of city government, but the Mayor and City Council only have one employee: the City Manager. Everyone else in city government answers to the City Manager. City Council trying to change the culture at City Hall is like an ant trying to drive an iceberg.
The way you might know the CM is an OK person is by how much they are NOT in the news; just doing the grunt stuff behind the scenes to keep streets clean and the trolley on its track 🙂 And yes, kind of like Col. Westin is doing now. I know two of those applicants and there is one of them, I can guarantee you, will be front-and-center in the news every week.
I totally agree that a fine way to tell if the city manager is any good is by how much they are not in the news. That should be the goal of all candidates for the job. That said, I still want to know who the hell is responsible for the sorry state of our streets, which in addtion to not being very clean (I can’t see the white lines on most of them), are still sadly in need of extensive repaving. Not patching. Repaving.
We’re less than four months from electing a mayor and five members of city council. Can’t we wait until they’ve been sworn in to pick a new city manager?