{"id":3849,"date":"2012-10-03T17:53:46","date_gmt":"2012-10-03T21:53:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/?p=3849"},"modified":"2012-10-03T18:48:10","modified_gmt":"2012-10-03T22:48:10","slug":"who-should-be-savannahs-interim-city-manager","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/2012\/10\/03\/who-should-be-savannahs-interim-city-manager\/","title":{"rendered":"Who should be Savannah&#8217;s interim city manager?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"e26b170012445c56d240655bdd03f7bf\" data-index=\"1\" style=\"float: left; margin: 10px 10px 10px 0;\">\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\r\ngoogle_ad_client = \"ca-pub-5595881567027133\";\r\n\/* Medium Rectangle *\/\r\ngoogle_ad_slot = \"8584504377\";\r\ngoogle_ad_width = 300;\r\ngoogle_ad_height = 250;\r\n\/\/-->\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"\r\nsrc=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\">\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p>Short answer: I have no idea.<\/p>\n<p>Long answer:<br \/>\nRochelle Small-Toney is likely to resign today &#8212; or certainly before Savannah City Council formally removes her in their series of meetings tomorrow.<\/p>\n<p>But who should take over on an interim basis while the mayor and aldermen decide on the next steps?<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s look first at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.savannahga.gov\/cityweb\/SavannahGaGOV.nsf\/48439f8e715077e985257296006a43b7\/9d9d91d2720bc09085257325004d15ff\/$FILE\/City%20Organization%20Chart.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">the organizational chart for the city<\/a> (click on the link or click on the screencap below for a slightly larger version):<br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"3850\" data-permalink=\"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/2012\/10\/03\/who-should-be-savannahs-interim-city-manager\/screen-shot-2012-10-03-at-5-09-49-pm\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Screen-shot-2012-10-03-at-5.09.49-PM-e1349298494709.png?fit=670%2C756\" data-orig-size=\"670,756\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Screen shot 2012-10-03 at 5.09.49 PM\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Screen-shot-2012-10-03-at-5.09.49-PM-e1349298494709.png?fit=265%2C300\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Screen-shot-2012-10-03-at-5.09.49-PM-e1349298494709.png?fit=594%2C670\" tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3850\" title=\"Screen shot 2012-10-03 at 5.09.49 PM\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Screen-shot-2012-10-03-at-5.09.49-PM-e1349298494709.png?resize=594%2C670\" alt=\"\" width=\"594\" height=\"670\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<p>So directly under the city manager are the following: two assistant city managers (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.savannahga.gov\/cityweb\/SavannahGaGOV.nsf\/48439f8e715077e985257296006a43b7\/f87fcce6eecb259a852579df006c2375?OpenDocument\" target=\"_blank\">Stephanie Cutter<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.savannahga.gov\/cityweb\/SavannahGaGOV.nsf\/48439f8e715077e985257296006a43b7\/e8bc38fd6793c957852579df006cc475?OpenDocument\" target=\"_blank\">Pete Shonka<\/a>), the bureau chief for Public Facilities, Events and Facilities (Joe Shearouse I think), as well as the police and fire chiefs and the Information Technology Bureau. And note the three other departments listed in the same box as the City Manager: Public Information Office, Auditing, and Finance.<\/p>\n<p>So the city insiders comprise a relatively thin list, but city finance director Dick Evans would be an obvious possibility, if he wants the interim position. Joy Wilkinson, whom I know nothing about, is apparently in charge of auditing. Bret Bell &#8212; a clear communicator and very smart guy &#8212; is head of public information.<\/p>\n<p>The two assistants city managers are relatively new in their positions &#8212; Cutter replaced Small-Toney and Shonka took Chris Morrill&#8217;s slot (Morrill is now city manager of Roanoke).<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve heard generally positive things about Cutter, but I should note that she was in the direct chain of command above the city&#8217;s troubled Purchasing Department, as was the Management Services Bureau chief Sean Brandon. I don&#8217;t know what direct control they had over <a href=\"http:\/\/savannahnow.com\/news\/2012-09-30\/city-savannahs-purchasing-backlog-6-million\" target=\"_blank\">the spiraling problems<\/a> in purchasing, but if we expect an interim city manager to oversee a full accounting of those issues, anyone in that chain would be a problematic choice.<\/p>\n<p>I know Pete Shonka slightly &#8212; he was a regular member along with me and about a dozen others on the technical committee that met regularly while MPC staff was working on the first draft of the Unified Zoning Ordinance. He seems like a smart, thoughtful, and professional city employee. I have no idea, however, if he would make a good interim city manager &#8212; or if he would even be interested in a slot like that.<\/p>\n<p>The mayor and council could turn to a longtime city employee like Shearouse, which on its face seems like a solid idea, or they could reach further down into the ranks.<\/p>\n<p>Or maybe they should look for an interim from outside the current city bureaucracy &#8212; a retired CEO, perhaps, or just a well-regarded member of the community who could steer the ship adequately. I know it&#8217;s a much smaller organization, but remember how Cathy Solomons stepped in as interim head of the Telfair last year.<\/p>\n<p>We don&#8217;t want someone so inexperienced that the mayor and council are compelled to get involved in the day-to-day workings of the city, but there&#8217;s nothing wrong with a few months of just a good manager &#8212; someone who can let all the other links in the above chain do their jobs.<\/p>\n<p>I feel fairly strongly that the interim city manager should not be permitted to apply for the permanent post. <\/p>\n<div class=\"e26b170012445c56d240655bdd03f7bf\" data-index=\"2\" style=\"float: none; margin:0px 0 0px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script async src=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:inline-block;width:300px;height:250px\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-5595881567027133\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"4374909701\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n\n<!--CusAds0-->\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Short answer: I have no idea.<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-p\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/2012\/10\/03\/who-should-be-savannahs-interim-city-manager\/\">Read more &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3850,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8,62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-livingsavannah","category-politics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/Screen-shot-2012-10-03-at-5.09.49-PM-e1349298494709.png?fit=670%2C756","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1gN9R-105","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3849"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}