Council meets about the City Manager job

The Pensacola City Council will convene a special meeting today at 4:30 PM to discuss the City Manager’s job, which is to be vacated by current City Manager Tom Bonfield upon the completion of negotiations with his new employers in Durham, North Carolina.

Presumably Council members want to start the ball rolling on the selection of an interim City Manager. Maybe they’ll decide on a structured process to help them make the decision, which they will later throw to the wind in favour of picking the candidate they know the best.

Christopher J. Lewis, candidate for Mayor, has these thoughts on the process:

Having watched the current City Council unexpectedly punt on first down from good field position, early into the second quarter of the recently aborted city attorney selection process, I agree with those who believe it best that they recuse themselves from the actual selection of the next city manager.

Sometime during 2009 the Charter Review Commission may recommend, and the City Council may forward to the voters,a proposed new City Charter that may or may not include a provision for a strong mayor-council form of governance. I anticipate that there are more risks than benefits to this dramatic change, to include establishing a highly politicized “Boss Hogg” style of city leadership, but I will have my one vote in the polling booth like everyone else.

If we do elect a new strong mayor they will likely not take office until January 2011. Unless current City Leader/Manager Bonfield unexpectedly returns from Durham to Pensacola to reestablish residency so that he can run for election as our mayor after next I cannot see how anyone will be able to just show up at city hall on the first day of that term of office and excel from a cold start.

We will want to retain a first-rate city manager in place for at least a one year transition period extending into 2012. Reviewing other city web sites, I routinely see the city manager described as the chief administrative officer of the city. I believe it is incorrect to assume that a new city manager will flee at the prospect of a change in position title. In fact, with a strong mayor deciding “what” to do, key decisions being ratified by the city council, a chief administrative officer, much like an executive officer in a military command, should be given the authority to sort out the details of “how” to accomplish the mission.

The current City Council should soon initiate a nationwide search for our next city manager. City Manager Bonfield came to Pensacola from Temple Terrace, Florida, [a city] that currently has a population of about 24,000. I believe our current challenges would be better addressed by recruiting a deputy or assistant city manager or county administrator from a city or county at least twice the size of Pensacola, ideally to include one with at least an airport or [sea]port, or both.

Their numbers are few but we should initially limit our search to or at least give initial priority to persons already holding the International City/County Manager Association – Credentialed Manager (ICMA–CM) designation. The ICMA web site JobCenter has the mission “to create excellence in local governance by linking qualified local government professionals with professional positions in local government.” The expense of using this resource should be minimal.

The current Employee Services Director can present to the next City Council a list of fully qualified applicants. They can then decide how to make the final selection. Given the gravity of this decision I believe the next city council should realign priorities if necessary to ensure that they interview as many fully qualified applicants as feasible. The current City Council can now reprogram sufficient monies for this purpose into the not yet formally approved Fiscal Year 2009 budget.

Whomever accepts the employment offer made by the next city council should be given at least an initial three year contract to include relocation costs both to and later from Pensacola. Ideally they will want to stay and we will have by then realized that even with a strong mayor leader, if we collectively choose to go down that road, we will still need a strong city manager, even if the sign next to their door is later replaced to read “Chief Administrative Officer.”