It has been 17 years and 284 days since the city’s pledge to build the West Branch Library.
On August 8, 2015 I posted a blog entitled The Perfect City Manager. In it I offered some qualities that the city council should consider in hiring Glendale’s next city manager:
- Responsiveness to all
- Respect for all
- Practices open government
- Respects and values all employees
- Conservative fiscal philosophy
- Previous city manager experience
- Intelligence and adaptability
- Willingness to embrace the entire community
- No favoritism practiced
Very recently the 5 finalists for the city manager’s position were announced and the city council is scheduled to interview them in an executive session on October 15, 2015:
- David Garcia, City Manager, Coachella, CA
- Craig Malin, former City Administrator, Davenport, IA
- Kevin Phelps, Deputy County Executive, Pierce County, WA
- John Pombier, Assistant City Manager, Mesa, AZ
- Susan Thorpe, Assistant City Manager, Corpus Christi, TX
They sound impressive, don’t they? That is until one does some basic internet research on them by simply typing in their names. For any that do decide to do their own research, I would advise that you search more than just the first page of articles that come up associated with their names. In my cursory search I found:
David Garcia
David Garcia was fired as city manager in Chula Vista, CA in 2008 forlooking at photos of women on his office computer. Apparently there were complaints from 3 employees. Garcia also underwent counseling allegedly after threatening one employee.
Craig Malin
Craig Malin on June 18, 2015 was fired by the city’s mayor. Apparently he and city attorney went rogue and developed city policy without input of mayor and council potentially costing city big bucks for a city project.
PLEASE NOTE: Since this posting I have received an email from Mr. Malin that says in part, ” Your blog states that I was fired on June 18 by Davenport’s Mayor. That is not true…after setting records for tenure and performance in Davenport, I simply moved on.” Here is a link to Mr. Malin’s website: http://www.craigmalin.info/. A recent news article found on the web stated that Mayor Gluba had fired Malin. Even though the article specifically used the word “fired” perhaps a better nuanced description would be that Mr. Malin left under a cloud. Here is a story from the Quad-City Times: http://qctimes.com/news/local/government-and-politics/i-will-never-resign-craig-malin-says/article_e0f24403-646d-570e-8669-48c4bddeaa78.html . The news article said in part, “The issue of communicating details over a casino development was the reason Gluba said he asked Malin to resign last week. Gluba says Malin failed to disclose to aldermen all pertinent details of the city-funded Elmore extension project, including that the city would pay for site grading on the casino’s property.” Please refer to this link as well: http://www.qconline.com/news/local/malin-leaving-with-k-package-gluba-says-it-s-time/article_df6a8ae0-5ef2-5867-9ac6-73a2294d08a3.html . Legally Mr. Malin was not fired but rather agreed to resign.
Kevin Phelps
Kevin Phelps was one of two finalists for city manager of Lakewood Co. He seemed to have had support of 4 councilmembers informally. But then something happened. Apparently the council met a second time with the community panels that had also interviewed the finalists and everything seemingly changed and Phelps was not selected.
John Pombier
John Pombier was hired as a Deputy City Manager in Mesa. He oversaw solid waste, facilities maintenance, human resources and public safety. Prior to that he has been an attorney all of his professional career, lastly as Chief Prosecutor in Mesa. His long, professional background is primarily legal, not city managerial (only 4 years) and the departments (solid waste, facilities maintenance, human resources and public safety) he was tasked to administer are low profile requiring little interaction with the public. He has not been tested in what is, essentially, a highly political job.
Susan Thorpe
Susan Thorpe seems to have bounced around in Texas serving in various positions in Texas communities typically for 3 to 4 years until she landed in Peoria where she served as Deputy City Manager for 7 years. She has been an Assistant City Manager in Corpus Christi since January of 2013. She seems to have stayed in a majority of her positions for relatively short periods of time.
Slavin Management Consultants seems to have performed quite poorly in this recruitment process. These candidates probably should not have been presented at all in light of their past histories or limited experience or histories of transient positions. None of them seem to possess the strong qualities needed to become the next city manager of Glendale. I suspect there are many people who are disappointed with the results considering the amount of time and resources expended.
It appears to be time to start over as horrendous as the idea sounds. Council should hire a different consultant with the expectation of a stronger crop of candidates. Yes, it means the process will take longer but Glendale merits no less than a top notch city manager. It seems as if this crop of candidates, wonderful people all, will not fill the bill.
© Joyce Clark, 2015
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But who applied that we don’t know about? Could be that these were the only viable candidates. This city is in turmoil, we’ve got a recall election, Coyote issues and even Cardinal’s issue to some extent with their bullying, taxes being forced down taxpayers throats and until things settle down I wouldn’t want to be a city manager. Maybe any potential candidate did their own research on the city of Glendale and decided, I’M NOT TOUCHING THAT WITH A TEN FOOT POLE!
I really don’t even want to be a citizen in it right now, for many, many, many reasons.
It is really too bad that Dick Bowers doesn’t want to stay on or can’t stay on. He seems to be the only person in many years who truly cares about the city and not his own self interests.
Who would want this job????? This is the caliber of candidates you are going to get for Glendale, given the dire straits. Who wants to take a job where you can’t look forward–you can only keep your head above water.
Thanks for the info Joyce. I love being able to search on the internet, just amazing what you can find! Good job and I totally agree with you. I hope they do what you suggest. I think Mr Bowers would consider staying until a good candidate comes along as I’m sure he knows we really need a GREAT one to deal with all the issues. I’m just afraid if the person they hire isn’t good it will just be another crisis and set us back even longer.
Good points. Just being real here. The Coyotes mess has done harm to both sides. Like it or not, the way Glendale has been portrayed in this isnt a feather in Glendale’s cap. Once again, right or wrong the cancelling of the management agreement didnt make the COG look good to most of the outside world. Throw in the Camelback Ranch fiasco coming up, the dysfunction of the council…………why would someone leave a good job to go to Glendale. The way the last city manager was hired and then fired would chase away many qualified people. Not trying to be rude, but there is a price to be paid for all thats happened the last few years. That may not be fair or accurate, but its the perception that most outside of Glendale have.
Always fun to read your posts, Joyce. I have three comments. (1) I agree with the other posters that it’s highly likely that the city will not be able to consider — because they cannot attract — the best candidates. There has been so much corruption for so long that any person with bright prospects will steer clear. It’s just not worth it. (2) I think you’re being a bit hard on three of the candidates. In the case of those who “climbed” or transitioned frequently in their careers, I actually think government would benefit from more of those folks. Ambitious, smart people like new challenges and like to climb to learn more and earn more in their careers. Many of the problems in Glendale can be traced to people who felt entitled to their jobs and their perks, and came to believe they were invaluable or invincible just because of their longevity. Let’s inject some new thinking! The old ways were horrendous and corrupt. In the case of the candidate who was not loved by the mayor and council, perhaps that was because he was trying to do the right thing. Perhaps his communication was good, but the politicos choose to ignore it or point fingers simply because they didn’t like the message. The candidate who should not even be considered, of course, the candidate who was looking at porn on the computer. In that case, the search firm needs to refund at least a portion of their fee. It’s ridiculous that he was even offered an opportunity to interview. Finally, (3) I would like to propose that the city throw out whatever form of contract it typically offers a prospective manager in favor of one that clearly delineates goals and metrics. No, not the broad goals and metrics we all get in our evaluation plans, but one that specifically identifies detailed metrics designed to measure ethical behavior, transparency and adherence to the best methods and practices of public administration, as defined by some entity from outside the city.
The more new faces — with different approaches — the city can hire, the better. Time to hire-in more people from the private sector, too, to break down the tired old “good old boy” approach to governance in Glendale. That includes not only the executive staff, but hires at the mid-level-manager positions, too.
Tonga, excellent comments…well said and I am persuaded by your reasoning re: “transitioning candidates.”
I would suggest that the COG has at least 2 tough negotiations coming up. A new arena manager and once thats done negotiating with the Coyotes. Would it not be better for the city to have Bowers handle those issues? Would hiring a new city manger before that not be the best idea?