Jim Bernstein wrote: Bad idea! There is no reason to poll any officers no matter what their color or gender. It sets a terrible precedent. This is a mayoral appointment which must confirmed by the City Council. It does not require the support of the police officers. When the mayor appoints a director of public works, or finance director, or city attorney, or any other position, we don't poll the people in that department about who they want to lead them. When the Governor appoints more than 20 commissioners who must be confirmed by the Senate, there is no polling of the people working in those various state agencies as to who they want as their boss.
Mark Anderson replies: I couldn't disagree more. It is ALWAYS a good idea to take into account the culture of the employees whenever a new manager is hired. One of the best ways to determine if a potential leader's style will be effective in a new Department is to ask the people who already work there. If the boss doesn't get the respect, or at least the cooperation, of the people he's leading, he'll have a hard time achieving anything. Of course the agreement of the employees is not the only factor in hiring a manager, but it should be an important one. All of Jim's examples only gives evidence as to why many of the managers in the city and the state aren't very effective. I don't mean to be anti-government here -- much of the business community has the same blind spot. Of course the particular instance Jim is discussing relates to the hiring of a new police chief for Mpls. This may be a special situation, because I think many people here believe that the Mpls police culture should be torn out by its roots, because that's the only way to instill respect by the police for the citizens they are sworn to protect. I have some sympathy for that belief, but I'm not ready for revolutionary change. >From what I've read, the one group that McManus alienated in Dayton was the street >cop. I think Rybak is looking for evolutionary change, not revolutionary, so he's >expecting McManus to work with the culture that's there, and guide it in the right >direction. I just hope that McManus can do this. What I'm afraid is that the street >cops will get so disgusted by him, that they will refuse to work with the forces of >moderation at all, which may result in more thumpers. McManus reminds me a bit of >Bouza. Bouza knew what had to be done, but he just couldn't get it done, because he >didn't have the respect of the cops. Of course many will disagree with me, since I think Olson has been the best chief we've had for decades. Under his leadership, the crime rate has decreased, and the instances of thumping have gone down too. Obviously there's still much to improve, but that's how evolutionary change works, things get better slowly. Olson doesn't have very good political skills, so he didn't explain his actions well at times when it was sorely needed. But his management abilities resulted in an improved Department. I'm afraid that Rybak is replacing Olson with someone who is more like Rybak -- McManus has a slick tongue, but how well does he manage people that report to him? The Dayton street cops think not so good. Since it looks like McManus will be our new chief, I hope they are wrong. Mark V Anderson Bancroft REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
