Wednesday night's City Commission meeting was a study in awkwardness for both the City Commission and its interim city manager. What should have been a work session on coming to consensus regarding a possible city manager contract, was deliberately changed by someone in City Hall into a special meeting where votes are possible.
That point was made clearly by Commissioner James Hathaway, who essentially asked what they were doing here since he last remembered voting to hold off discussion on the issue until Jan 12. Who made the change remains a mystery and one can only guess, since it was obviously not any of the Commissioners. It also meant that the ICM had a right to be at the meeting, which is not the way the most frank discussion could have occurred.
The interim city manager, who despite seemingly sensible reports that she had excused herself to allow for open discussion, instead appeared and sat in her chair focused on each word spoken by a commission member.
A class act would have been to excuse herself in the name of open dialogue; that would have impressed me. The videos shot by NSBNEWS.net will certainly show the pained looks on the commissioners' faces, accompanied by their stuttered, incomplete attempts at seeking positions from one another.
If the ICM takes what is offered, we will again pay a premium price for the limited work needed to manage our little city. In addition, if she takes the offer and remains on board, we will also have to fight our way to having any impact on a City Hall that has so far taken a bunker style we-them attitude toward the taxpayers.
So, in the end, the citizens lose yet again, as what could have been a ground-breaking initiative towards reducing other city salaries, instead turned into a session of "how can I look invisible while I vote to give away money again."
Our newly-elected mayor was clearly one of the victims here of forces working against any efforts at a common sense contract, as he appeared frustrated that he could not get open positions from the other members.
The mayor offered some common sense changes to the contract proposed by our $200,000-a-year-plus city attorney, who again appeared more fixated on nice severance packages than reality.
We were subjected to listening to the legalese of a severance clause from an attorney who has almost $500,000 in guaranteed severance of his own signed, sealed and waiting to be delivered in a contract of his own if relieved of his duties. Imagine that.