5:30pm…we’re live in the Springfield City Council chambers for a public meeting regarding the new City Manager. A variety of members of the committee are here and two members of the public are here along with a few media types.
Initial thoughts: Tim Rosenbury’s glasses remind me of Harry Potter; Nancy Riggs has really cool hair; Wes Pratt’s mannerisms reminds me of Randy Jackson’s in a good way and committee members outnumber the rest of us by a 4 to 1 margin.
5:34pm…Gary Deaver is waiting to see if more people show up to the meeting.
5:35pm…Ralph Manley pats me on the shoulder with a kind word. I guess there’s no hard feelings from my op-ed piece in the News Leader last week.
5:36pm…Councilman Deaver calls the meeting to order and reminds everyone that the committee will be here until about 6:45pm if people want to show up and express their view.
5:37pm…Councilman Deaver updates about the committee progress. He says many of the committee members have sounded off on the difficulty of finding someone to run a city of our size. “We need to look for someone who has experience with a city that’s growing versus a city in decline.” Several meetings have been held with city staff groups about these issues.
I notice committee member David Rolling looks like actor Kevin Tighe. (The guy who owned the bar Patrick Swayze worked at in Roadhouse.)
Mayor Pro Tem Deaver said that once the committee sets up the key attributes they feel are most important they will list them on the website so the public can rank them and let the committee hear their views.
5:41pm…Councilman Deaver opens it up to the public that’s there. The first response was from a man who said he has confidence in the people who are on the committee and he was interested in learning more about the process that has happened to this point. He said it was an interesting time and part of the changes in Springfield like a new school superintendent and new University presidents. He said it was an exciting time and Mayor Pro Tem Deaver agreed and mentioned some of the things that are happening like the College Station project coming out of the ground (which I passed on the way to the meeting and it’s looking good.) He talked about the arena site and finalizing things at the meeting tonight regarding changes to the arena deal.
Mayor Pro Tem said that the internal auditor “will be another calling card to attract a quality city manager. Springfield is set to go to the next level.” “We have a really good process in place.”
5:44pm…Deaver said that City Manager Bob Cumley’s departure date in June 2008 not a drop dead date to get someone in place but rather that he wants to make sure the process is done right.
5:45pm…The ratio of committee members to public (including media) is down to 2 to 1.
5:46pm…Deaver says that many of the staff have turned in the forms also available on the website about what they want to see in the new manager. He said that his phone number is in the phone book if people want to share their views and there have been a lot of good suggestions made to this point.
5:47pm…Bob Horton praised the city for the openness of this process.
5:49pm…Roseann Bentley said the important thing was the ability to reach out and partner with others and that we have to think regionally about Southwest Missouri as the Queen City of the Ozarks.
5:50pm…Councilman Dan Chiles shows up with yet another snazzy looking tie.
5:51pm…Deaver said to Jack Stack that Mr. Stack said we should go into the communities of final candidates and ask people in that community about how involved they really were in their community. Mr. Stack agreed and said that going there and checking it out makes a bigger difference than just calling people on the phone.
5:52pm …Wes Pratt said that whoever is the final candidate needs to work with a diverse community. He said specifically that he’s not talking about just racial diversity but all kinds of diversity. He said the feedback he’s getting is that Springfield is not welcoming to diverse populations and that the feeling of being welcoming starts from the top. He said that he moved back to Springfield to get involved in the local fabric and that he’s been very welcomed and that Springfield is welcoming but that some perceive that is not the case.
5:54pm…Tim Rosenbury was asked about talking with people who left Springfield and want to return about their perspectives regarding what they miss about Springfield. Mayor Pro-Tem Deaver recognized the council members present..Ralph Manley, Cindy Rushefsky, Denny Whayne and Dan Chiles. He also said that Mary Collette wasn’t feeling well and not here because of that. (Get well soon, Mary…take a Tylenol and get to council tonight!!)
5:56pm…Deaver says that honesty and integrity were some of the top attributes mentioned.
5:57pm…Ann Marie Baker, co-chair, is introduced and given a chance to speak. She said that they want to do things to separate them from the other Springfields in the United States and widen the net for our candidates.
David Rolling said that “we want to portray the capacity of this area and the city of Springfield.” “We can not only resume the exceptional potential but take on the challenges that we face today.” (Blogger’s note: RESUME the potential? I didn’t know our potential was stunted…I see potential all over this community. I’m guessing that was just a bad word choice on Mr. Rolling’s part.)
5:59pm…Matt Schelhing talks about selective they are going to be during the process to make the best recommendation possible to City Council.
Nancy Riggs talked about the subcommittee to find a search organization to bring us candidates. She said they want to find someone that will look beyond the candidates just looking for a better opportunity and find someone who was here and wants to come back or who is happy where they are but could be brought here to bring new life into the position.
6:00pm…Mayor Pro Tem Deaver said he hoped this meeting shows the variety of experiences in the community that are contributing to this effort. He was asked a question about if the committee had a time line to hire someone and the answer was they didn’t want to create an artificial time line based on City Manager’s Cumley’s departure.
6:02pm…The subcommittee on the city manager’s job description is progressing and the key thing was the “intangibles of what we want our manager to be…the leadership skills, to be an articulate spokesman for our community, someone of high integrity and high ethical behavior…things beyond the mundane job description of their duties.”
6:03pm…Mayor Pro Tem Deaver said that all of this is just the first step of the committee. After these projects are done they will all move as a group toward screening candidates and narrowing down the list to three to five candidates they will invite to the community.
6:04pm…Councilman Ralph Manley said he was excited to see all the distinguished members here to contribute to the community. He said in addition to what has been mentioned is that people skills is very important and should be added to what’s being searched for in the new manager.
6:05pm…Councilman Whayne was given the chance to speak and he said that the representatives of the different committees have covered much of what he would say but that he agreed with Ralph that people skills is very important to whomever is going to get the job. “How much they’re engaged in the city where they are…where they come from…will say how much they’re engaged in the city here.”
6:07pm…Councilwoman Rushefsky wants to “turn it around just a little bit.” “I know that this community and especially you [Mayor Pro Tem Deaver] have gone out of your way to make this open.” “There are a lot of people out there who want to complain, who want to throw in their two cents” but they won’t show up to these meetings. She expressed disappointment that there were very few citizens at this meeting and that “all of these benches should be filled.”
“Where are you? What do you have to say? Why aren’t you here?”
6:09pm…Mayor Pro Tem Deaver said that e-mails and comments from the public have given a lot of good questions along with city staff groups that have contributed information to the process.
6:10pm…Roseann Bentley asked if there was a place on the internet that could be created for people to leave comments. Mayor Pro Tem Deaver said there was already a place on the website for people to leave their comments about what the committee should be looking for and that later they will list all the key attributes on the website and get citizens to rank their top five and then use those as a guide from the community about what they should be looking to find.
6:11pm…Bob Horton said he wanted to echo Councilwoman Rushefsky’s comments. He said that what is being done talking to city staff is good but that the input of other citizens is so important. He said the committee needs to make sure that voice is heard. However, the public hasn’t taken this opportunity to express themselves and that the committee needs to find other ways to get citizen input.
“However, we can’t read people’s minds. There’s no way for us to know that unless people make their feelings known.”
He asked Evelyn Honea if she could think of the three city managers she’s worked under and if she could pick and choose qualities of each of them what would it be. Mr. Deaver then interrupted to give Ms. Honea a chance to gather her thoughts.
6:14pm…Alice Reinholt, resident of a year. She said she chose to come here and by coming to city council meetings she’s been able to see some of the workings of the city. She said the primary attribute of the city manager would be to look at the situation with new eyes. “This may require someone who is not from Springfield…ideally it would be someone who is familiar with Springfield but has gone elsewhere to get experience as a city manager.” She was asked why she moved here and she said she lived in St. Louis but the taxes were just so high it drove her away.
“The only thing that made me think twice about moving here was looking at crime statistics on the internet.”
Mayor Pro Tem Deaver asked now that she was here how she felt about the crime rate.
“Normally I feel safe walking in her own neighborhood at night. Like any city, there are areas where I wouldn’t be alone by myself at night and I’m getting to know those areas.”
She drew a laugh when she said she’s also learning which parts of our community the thunderstorms usually hit.
6:18pm…David Agee said that he spoke to a person who moved here only a year ago and he said that his perception was that power in this town were people who always lived here and that people who left here bring back different perspectives.
6:20pm…Evelyn Honea said the first thing she would want and has seen in all three is a passion for public service. The second is to gain the respect of whom they work. To reach out and gain the respect of the employees under them. She said she agrees with all the other things but that the top two are passion for public service and ability to get respect of staff.
6:22pm…Mayor Pro Tem Deaver brings the official portion of the meeting to a close but invites the community who may want to comment to come in and talk to the committee members who will be in attendance until the start of the City Council meeting. He reminded people they can give input via the City’s website.
Ralph probably doesn’t remember what you wrote, I mean that was last week man!