Thursday, August 13, 2020
The Road Continues Just as Long and Just as Winding.
Problems were widespread tonight. They began with the interim manager and whoever else put together the agenda, and established the meeting times. The first of two meetings was to start at 6:30. The agenda, aside from inexplicably starting a few minutes late, calling the role, listening to Dan Samaria perform his version of a military/patriotic pledge of allegiance, and trying to figure out why no one could understand Mac Kennedy, included public comment (Ginny kept looking for more), four resolutions, old business (the insignificant matter of searching for an attorney), and various reports. And then, we added more old business (WastePro, the amicus brief, FDOT, and supposed manager recruitment). The amount of time allotted for this agenda, which took 3 1/4 hours, was 30 minutes. Dan Samaria said about one item that this was the first time he was ever able to look at a document, and understand it. Dan didn't say what he did to help himself this time. Dan offered another insight for consideration tonight. Dan was, you know, reading Business Insider today, as he presumably does every day (Business Insider describes itself as a "fast-growing business site with deep financial, media, tech, and other industry verticals" -- certainly sounds like Dan's kind of concern; I assume most one-man exterminators follow Business Insider), and he ran across an article about a suit from a former attorney with Fox Rothchild against the firm, about some unspecified issue that had nothing to do with Fox Rothchild's representation of the Village. Dan never explained why he thought this was important for the Village to know, but it ate more time.
Regarding the brief discussion of the manager search (22 applicants so far), it is worth noting that neither Ginny O'Halpin nor Will Tudor has any idea what it's like when the Village has a good manager. Dan Samaria is adrift, but he tends to cling on to Ginny and Will. So the decision may well be made by people who don't know what they're looking for, or how to find it, and who don't listen to people who know much better and have a purposeful and adaptive focus. Then, we have the problem of Roseann Prado, Village clerk and interim Village manager, who "feel[s] uncomfortable" seeing if applicants have the minimum requirements that the Commission sets. Roseann gave no insight as to why she would feel uncomfortable determining if an applicant has a college degree, speaks English, has worked in municipal services for at least five years, or whatever minimum requirements we would set.
FDOT has stopped the 6th Avenue/SR 915 project for now, awaiting consensus from us. It's been a while since anyone here bothered asking us for consensuses, so it was nice to know we generally matter.
We're pursuing things with WastePro.
The second meeting was scheduled to start at 7:00. Maybe on some planet, but not this one. This was the second budget workshop. This particular group of Commissioners -- at least a majority of them -- couldn't get through this in three months, let alone a couple of hours. The reason is that they have no idea what they're doing, or what any of this is about. So this meeting began at 9:55, and lasted until...
During the break, our finance director, Paul Winkeljohn, said that we shouldn't attempt more than a cursory overview at this time of day, because "budget meetings that start at 10:00 don't get much of use done." By 10:30, I agreed Paul was right. It's hard to maintain attention for that many hours, especially without the benefit of backup.
As an aside, it was frankly remarkable listening to Paul Winkeljohn present material. He's clearly knowledgeable, efficient, and goal-oriented. It continues to be a complete mystery how the majority of the current Commission chose Roseann Prado for interim manager, instead of choosing Paul. It reminded me exactly of the line about "snatching defeat from the jaws of victory."
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As a sort of a follow-up to the last blog post paragraph, I sent the following e-mail to one of our neighbors who said we can't have professional management for the salary we pay: "We could have had Paul Winkeljohn, even as interim. His firm quoted us a price that was a little more than we usually pay, but not much more, and not more than we paid the grossly incompetent and self-absorbed David Hernandez. Not much more than we paid the useless Krishan Manners. We just don't have the wisdom to choose these much better people. It's not that we can't afford quality professional management. It's that we choose poor quality and unprofessional management. The problem is our judgment, not our resources."
ReplyDeleteAnd I was a little careless, and a little glib, about saying we don't have the wisdom to choose good managers. We have had that wisdom. We've done it three times, and maybe four. (It's unclear to me if Frank Spence was a good manager. We didn't have the chance to find out. And his mind was elsewhere.) But without question, Ana Garcia, Heidi Siegel, and Sharon Ragoonan were good managers. And "back in the day," we were smart enough to choose good managers, and not entirely too taken with ourselves to concede to their expertise.
But in the past three and a half years, we've lost our focus. Some of us bizarrely think we ourselves are experienced and talented enough to manage a municipality. And some of us can't bear the idea that someone else knows better than we do. I keep a collection of quotes, and this is one of them. It's from H. L. Mencken. "As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their hearts' desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron." Clearly, that can happen on a national level. But it can also happen on a local level. Some people have what we call "authority figure issues," and they can't bear the idea that anyone is more authoritative than they are. They want someone whose expertise, or "inner soul," is no better than is theirs.
I thought it was interesting, noteworthy, and frankly sad that in public comment last night, Chuck Ross reminded our little Commission that it was not too late to change gears, and exchange Roseann Prado for Paul Winkeljohn. And they didn't do it. The majority still prefers that non-threatening mediocrity.
You know...
ReplyDeleteI really don't understand why David Hernandez maintains his fixation on BP, or why on earth he follows this blog. I don't even know how he knows about new posts, since he's not included on the new post announcement circulation. And he sometimes responds really fast, indicating he's on to the new post almost immediately after it's published. I guess someone tells him about them. I don't understand why he sent the following e-mail to Roxy Ross, Chuck Ross, and me: "Rox make up your mind ....you did not want Manners you didn’t want David H and you don’t want Roseann. Make up your mind ....or look you all self in the mirror and realize what wrong with this picture. Hello. !!!!!"
I wrote back to David, and I told him that if there's anything he wants to say, he should say it publicly, as the blog posts are public. I'm not interested in private conversations with him. I told him I would give him one hour to tell me he doesn't want his comment to be public, and if he didn't tell me that, I would publish it. That was about 27 hours ago. And I told him that if he tells me he doesn't want his comments published, then he should keep them to himself, since no one else but him cares what he has to say. I got no reply.
So, I sent him the following response: "I don't remember if Rox opposed Krishan initially. She might have, or she might not have. But she and very many of us became extremely disenchanted with him as we saw how he executed, or failed to execute, the responsibilities of manager. Had I been on the Commission when Krishan was hired, I would have approved of him at first, and opposed him (and wholeheartedly agreed to his being replaced) later.
As for David H, Rox was not initially opposed. The vote was 3-1, with Samaria abstaining, and Rox included in the majority, to appoint David H as interim manager. The two problems were David H's behavior as an interim manager, which was not predictable when David H was first appointed, and the refusal of the majority of the Commission to begin a prompt search for a properly credentialed and fully vetted manager.
You are right that Rox never approved of the appointment of Roseann. Many of us didn't approve of that.
Rox was right if she approved of Krishan at first, and right when she lost confidence in him. She might not have been right to have approved of David H's appointment as interim, although she would have been more right about this if the Commission had promptly begun the proper search. She was very right to have complained about David H. She was right not to have approved of Roseann.
So, if you want to spew, at least make sure that what you say is accurate. And say it publicly. Blog posts are public, and comments should also be public. If I do not hear from you in the next hour, I will assume I can transfer this conversation to the post section of the blog. If I do hear from you, and you say you don't approve of your comments being public, then from now on, always keep them to yourself. I am not looking for a conversation with you, and I don't particularly care what's on your mind. A public conversation? Sure. Private whining? No."
Ok this cyber stalking is getting creepy. Bob and I just got an email from David H. Attached was his "exit interview" so that residents will know the truth! Oh sure......the truth as orchestrated by none other than Mr. "Standing Watch". Needless to say I won't be wasting my time on that video.
ReplyDeleteAs for David's comments to you regarding Krishan, himself and Roseann......lots of us totally supported the hiring of Krishan. Gave him a whole lot of "benefit of the doubt". But, it got to the point where that simply was no longer possible. As you said, he too often failed to execute the duties of the manager. Then there was his unsubstantiated accusations lobbed against those of us on the code board. I don't think anyone objected to David initially being appointed interim until it became obvious by his performance, or lack thereof, that he was drowning. His being so combative wasn't exactly endearing either. No matter what he, or some others, choose to believe, what he dealt with here is no different than any prior BP manager has dealt with and is pretty much the norm everywhere. Roseann is a very nice person. That, however, does not qualify her to perform two jobs, especially with all the outstanding issues we're facing. The evidence is clear in the length of time it's taking to get that sanitation RFP up.
None of this drama occurs had even 1 of the 3 obstructionists done the right thing and started the proper manager search as soon as Krishan was let go. The BS about the election is exactly that BS! The election was 9 months out at that tine. Ana was hired only 2 months before the election and I'd say that worked out pretty damn well!