I Feel So Misunderstood By David Hernandez.

This is a small neighborhood.  Words travel fast enough.  If David Hernandez feels that I'm picking on him, or if he thinks I'm mad at him, or if he's mad at me, it doesn't take terribly long for his unhappiness to get communicated to me.  And he doesn't tell me himself.

Of course I've used blog posts to discuss David Hernandez.  He's our INTERIM manager, and that kind of issue is what this blog is about.  It's perfectly fair to say I've criticized David, for things he's done, things he hasn't done, and the way he does or doesn't do things.  And if it makes him feel any better, my main complaint is really not about him.  It's about the Commission that has ceased functioning, and has not been able to get past step 2 (step 1 was either firing a manager or accepting a resignation from one, and step 2 is choosing an INTERIM replacement), so it can move on to step 3, which is finding a properly credentialed and experienced PERMANENT manager.  Frankly, I'm told David likes his INTERIM gig, and has even leaned on Commissioners not to end it so fast.  But David can say whatever he wants to Commissioners.  He doesn't control them.  He can ask the question, and it's their job to tell him the answer is no.  And when I say it's their "job," I don't only mean it's their responsibility.  It's actually their job.  We hired them, we pay them, and they have a job description.  Replacing an INTERIM manager with a PERMANENT one, ASAP, is part of their job description.  And they're (the majority of them are) not doing it.

If I have ever pointed out imperfections, or even outright failings, about David, it was just to underscore the point that he's an INTERIM guy.  That's what he was chosen to be.  That's what he agreed to be.  He was not remotely "vetted" the way we vet people to whom we want to offer the job of PERMANENT manager.  And that was OK.  We didn't need him, and we didn't choose him, to be "that" guy.

As it happens, unhappily enough, David has a ton of work to do.  He has massive responsibilities that even the most carefully vetted and selected PERMANENT manager doesn't have.  David was chosen in February.  We all knew that in the summer, it would be hurricane season, and budget season would start.  But that was months away (from February), and it should have been most likely that we would have our PERMANENT person by then.  But who knew that we had this increasingly loudly ticking clock from CITT?  Did everyone understand, and remember, the FEMA problem?  And no one at the time could have predicted the problems brought to us by the coronavirus.  Or that American police would assassinate George Floyd.  (And some black kid in Atlanta yesterday or the day before.  The crime for which he was executed on the spot by police was falling asleep in his car in a fast food take-out line.)  These are really big issues, singly, for sure, but even more so in the aggregate, and they all land on the desk of the manager.  I suppose it's not nice to say it this way, but if David Hernandez had any brains, he would be agitating to get out of the hot seat he occupies.  He wouldn't need me to scold our Commission for not doing their job.  He himself would be scolding them.  Or threatening to abandon his post, because it's not what he expected to be agreeing to do, and it's too much, and it's over his head.

But no, he likes his comfy chair.  With the side pockets to hold the money.  And if anything about his performance dissatisfies someone like me, it clearly doesn't dissatisfy David.

Last night, I got an e-mail from the Village.  I guess it's an "e-blast."  I'm not sure to whom it was blasted, or when.  This e-mail was entitled "Video Statement from David Hernandez, Interim Village Manager 06 12 2020."  So David, and whoever was working the video, made a recording.  David states clearly that he is the INTERIM Village manager, although it's not clear David has much of a clear understanding what "Interim" means.  And David recapitulates a number of issues with which he and the Commission are presumably grappling.

On the surface of it -- for the first couple or so minutes of this video -- I thought it was a nice and frankly helpful recapitulation.  David and the Commission aren't really doing anything.  But they're paying attention to a few problem areas, and David might have some suggestions about some of them.  One of those areas, which has earned attention, and seemingly increasing criticism, from many of us is waste disposal.  In particular, the possible problem might be our particular contractor, WastePro.  Fair enough.  Over the past three and a half years we dropped many balls, and that was certainly one of them.  But here's the problem, David-wise.

David included in the title of this e-mail a date: 06 12 2020, which was this past Friday.  I received this e-mail late in the day (7:22 PM) on Saturday, June 13.  By the time I watched David's video, it was Sunday morning, June 14.  I'm prepared to assume that David was telling the truth about the date of creation of this video.  I have no idea what time of day David would say it was created.  But when did he send it out?  Did he send it on Friday, June 12, and I mysteriously didn't get it that day?  Or did he somehow not send it until Saturday evening, June 13?  (The video, just to the right of the number of views, says June 13.)  What difference does it make?  David talks about a special bulk trash pick-up that WastePro will perform on Saturday, June 13.  Never mind that it took me over 12 hours to get to David's video.  If I had watched it the instant I received it, it would already have been too late to put out anything for WastePro's special pick-up.

Of course there will be special bulk pick-ups in the future.  If I have anything bulky, which I don't, that has to go out, I can catch it next time.  I can sit on whatever I might have wanted to be rid of, for a few or several more months.  This, in itself, is not a huge deal.  But this kind of bad aim is of a type.  It's a milder version of David's allowing Chuck Ross to find vitally important documentation, then David's accusing Chuck of who knows what, and claiming the whole accomplishment for himself.  And being out to lunch about the FEMA problem.

I have no wish to complain about David.  He was chosen, urgently, to be an INTERIM guy, and replacing him, as immediately as possible, is what should have happened.  My gripe is with the majority of the current Commission.  If I have identified any examples of why we need the "right" person, it wasn't because I'm mad at David.  It's because I want to get the attention of the majority of the Commission.

We (the majority of our current Commission) have failed repeatedly to do this job.  Our next chance is two days from now, Tuesday evening, June 16, at 6:30.  I have written to the Commissioners to urge them to set aside anything else on their agenda, and formalize and begin the process of choosing a PERMANENT manager, as we ALWAYS have done in this circumstance.  It's not less important, and less urgent now, because there's so much going on.  It's MORE important, and MORE urgent now, because there's so much going on.

We're a modest municipality.  We need to stop acting like a two-bit burg.  If it doesn't just feel that way, then we have a Charter that reminds us that's the way it is.