A recent letter to the editor has spurned many people to contact me wondering what Mr. Burley is referring to.
I guess you could read his letter here; it is not a very well written piece of fiction, and surly does not portray anything that the Davison City Council has undertaken.
From what I read, I think that Mr. Burley thinks that the City Council Search Committee is making decisions in private and or already has a candidate selected. Even though he was at several meetings, where the City Council discussed and voted on the committees recommendations. He references the “chosen one(s)” several times in his ramblings, but I have no idea what he is referring to, nor do I think he does.
There has to be more here, but I can’t find it.
I do understand the skepticism of government. Our country was founded and continues to move forward with a healthy dose of skepticism toward politicians and government.
Local government is that which is closest to the people and delivers most of the services that affect people’s every day life. It is also the level of government that you can see and talk to your local representative almost on a daily basis. Local city councils live and sometimes work in the community they represent. Most don’t have future political aspirations and in Davison they make a whopping $25 per meeting (and that was after the recent 20% raise).
One of the strengths of a council/manager form of government is the day to day operations are not affected by one issue council members or council members who want to put their friends or family on the “government payroll”.
There are ethical standards for city managers and formal and informal education. City Managers are not politicians but have to deal with politics everyday. This is done so those who deliver the services don’t have to.
Being a city manager is definitely a career in the proverbial “fish bowl”. The hiring process for managers has been established and governed by many laws and regulations. This is why it is wise to hire a firm that specializes in the process to help a community through the process.
In Davison the city council selected a committee to move the process through its steps. This committee interviewed two firms who do executive processes. The committee brought back their findings to the entire council and explained the “pros and cons” of each firm. The committee recommended that the city council use the Michigan Municipal League (MML), and specifically the consultant of Bill Richards. The city council voted unanimously to hire the MML.
At the public meeting a date was set (a Saturday) to have Bill Richards come in and start the process. This was an open public meeting attended by the entire city council and some of the current staff showed up and participated.
Mr. Richards has a great background and wealth of knowledge in the Human Resources arena. One of his recommendations was to create a new job description so that everyone understood what was expected, the job description would be within current laws and then the job posting would be developed off of this document. This was also brought before the city council and voted on.
The committee also did research (utilizing a state-wide database) a wage/salary range. This information was brought back to city council and explained. City council voted to set the salary range and then at a later date re-voted to confirm the salary range. (There were some very qualified candidates who did not apply due to the rumor that city council was going to slash the managers compensation almost in half, that is why council wanted people to know that rumor had no validity). Even the second vote was unanimous.
Frustration.
I hear a lot about the frustration people feel when someone with very little information states something as fact or “opinion” and people treat it as so. I often hear “I read it in the paper it has to be true.” My advice to these people is ask your elected officials or someone who knows something and don’t rely on people who just try to make people look bad.
