Hard To Fire A City Manager: PATTON
Collaborate this, Bulldog commentator Mike Patton says:
Collaborate this!
Mike Patton is the former communications director for Mayor Larry O’Brien and the president of the Ottawa West-Nepean PC Association.
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Ottawa is failing its residents in so many ways and has been doing so for many years, as far back as the beginning of Jim Watson’s reign of errors. What would benefit the city is to hire a private consulting company to look at the various issues and determine the cause of all the problems, eg. how was the city manager chosen, and start to address them one by one. Unfortunately I don’t think we can count on the people currently leading the charge at city hall to admit there are any problems.
Why would anyone at 110 Laurier even consider firing the City Manager? She’s just the leader of the “ strive to be average club” at city hall.
Before you go yakking about “firing the city manager” I’d suggest you have a tight look at the C.M.’s job description and what Mayor / Council expectations are for that role / person. As a former City Manager, I’d say there is EVERY possibility she is meeting or exceeding those requirements.We may be unhappy with – just about everything – at City Hall. But you should not dump on the people who are doing the best that they can with the job they were hired to do.
If I may, David, that approach assumes that the job that the City Manager is doing is the job that needs to be done. Has her job description been made public along with any other marching orders she may have received regarding Council’s expectations of her?
If she’s being asked the wrong questions, it would be unsurprising to get the wrong answers from her. I don’t know if it is but, included in the job description and any other instructions she’s received, she should have a requirement to ensure that the City is being managed responsibly and that its finances are being appropriately spent and monitored.
We know that there are many failing systems at the City such as the LRT. What is she doing to get them back on track? Her job is to manage the City and, if the City is running amok, she is the place where the buck stops.