My only comment is about the staff morale being up. As I have noted in the past, that is not the only thing to judge by. We have over 400+ permanent staff and many, many more seasonal workers. But it isn't hard for morale to be up when there was such a vacuum that needed to be filled by someone - anyone. As noted in one of the many posts thought - it appears that the top staff are much happier now with being given direction and allowed to use their talents and skills to make the park system a better place. But there are many staff who still aren't convinced and have their doubts.
But more important is that there are several criteria to base one's competency on - not just making the staff happy. Yes, that helps but whomever we hire will hopefully be able to gain respect and loyalty to make staff enjoy their workplace and feel they have part in making decisions that will continue to make this the #1 system in America.
I want to hear about how they plan to address budget cuts and lack of money, their ability to work over at the Legislature, their take on maintaining what we have, their belief in sustainability as an underpinning within the system, and what their contribution will be to improving water quality, and providing opportunities to ALL of our citizens and the children of this city who use our parks day in and day out.
This e-mail list is only a glimpse at the thermometer that let's me know whether we have a good candidate out there or not.
And, I do wish we had a bigger pool - I was a person who wanted 5 finalists.
On to next Tuesday and Wednesday and see where we are after that.
Annie Young
citywide Park Commissioner
At 11:10 AM 11/26/04 -0600, TONY SCALLON wrote:
First I would like to thank the Commissioners (Young and Erwin) who have carried out a reasonable discussion.
I also thank Scott Vreeland for his comments. However, I think they show exactly what the real issue is in the discussion. An attempt is being made for the Park Superintendent decision to be a political issue. The issue is not whether Mr. Gurban is qualified or not. Many of the people posting imply they would not support him anyway.
Yes, this is an attempt to frame the park board election. This is not an attempt to make reasonable discussion on the Park Superintendent's position.
Scott admits he would vote with a different group on the Board. He is very critical of the information from the staff. Yet staff morale is at a higher during Mr. Gurban's 10 months in office.
Chris Johnson continues his character complaints against Gurban. I think this does more harm than good. I have found many of the comments about John Gurban and some Commissioners to be offensive. I think readers should evaluate his minutes and comments based on his obvious political bias.
I believe there are two good candidates. I am impressed with the experiences of both on their public resumes. I hope the critics will allow the candidates to respond and tame down the nasty comments. Political gain is not the goal here. Hyperbole only will make the process worse.
Tony Scallon Howe
PS I have participated in many, many public processes for hiring public administrators. the most important issue is not politics. The most important issue is a reasonable discussion leading to a decision.
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