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I am afraid I am caught in the position of
absolutely agreeing with Jim Mork on an issue. The City would not be hurt
by the loss of many senior managers appointed by Sharon. The City's brain
drain started under Sharon. Good people were either forced to retire or
jumped at the chance to get out. With poor managers being hired or appointed and
then those managers hiring people who would not threaten them by being overly
competent.
There are some truly good people working for the City, but they are either the old employees, (who haven't retired yet), or some one who slipped through the cracks of Sharon's and Jackie's old group. Of course some may have just developed a competency after being hired. I have known at least two planners who were thought of as "twits" leaving for other jobs and being talked about by the City like they were a loss. Even though the Neighborhoods breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing they were leaving. RT Rybak had promised to clean out the management and hire others who were truly qualified and competent. Those who would strive to return the "Great City" he remembers, but I guess he got caught up in the bureaucracy and talked out of it by advisors who were friends of incompetent bureaucrats. Or it could have been the dead wood is really "competent" at flattering RT's people into keeping them. If RT would do an evaluation of the appointed managers, fire the dead above the ears group, hire some gifted ones, and allow the new managers to replace the unsatisfied workers with bright new people, then the City might get some people creative in problem solving. I doubt this will happen. Suggestion: Create an MCDA Board made up of "qualified" residents, rather than City Council members. Then you will see the Council and Mayor far more willing to make changes. To paraphrase the pepsodent commercial, "You'll wonder where MCDA went - when you replace the Board with Residents". The Council is not going to change or limit MCDA while the Council gets to make the decisions about where the money goes. That is something that RT apparently discovered after coming to office. We all need to remember that the City Council and Mayor ARE MCDA. The bureaucracy is just a bunch of their employees. That is why you will have a hard time limiting MCDA. Council Members would have to vote to loose their main economic and political power. Anyone who believes that is going to happen needs to call me. I have this wonderful mangoele swamp in Costa Rica to sell for vacation cabin sites. Wonderful Eco-tourism sites. NRP and the City budget problems can be solved, but RT is going to have to get some new advisors. Advisors who think outside the box. Advisors who define neighborhoods as "problems" while RT is talking about "empowering" neighborhoods do not help the trust cause. RT also needs to get back in touch with the neighborhood activists who elected him. The residents of Minneapolis do not trust, or have confidence, in some of the people presently advising RT. Get some others who the people might trust and engage the residents and neighborhoods in the solutions. The solutions maybe hard, but mutually arrived at ones are easier to swallow. Start by the Council, the Mayor, and the Senior Staff taking a 10% pay cut. Until that happens I personally am not going to believe they are even interested in truly addressing this crisis. True leadership always makes sacrifices itself before asking others to do so. It is a matter of trust, how about showing a willingness to build it? Jim Graham, Ventura Village |
