Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Competition should find next manager

The Dunedin City Commission is scheduled to begin discussing tonight how to replace City Manager John Lawrence, who is leaving the city Jan. 17 to move to Georgia. For the first time in 21 years, the position of city manager will be open. This is a crucial juncture for the city and an important test for the five city commissioners.

Lawrence has made no secret of his preference to succeed him: He believes the job should go to Assistant City Manager Maureen Freaney.

"She is very focused, has a good background and is very energetic, very people-oriented," he said. "I've encouraged and allowed her to participate in all aspects of the city so she would be very well-prepared to lead."

That has always been Lawrence's way. He said he believed in hiring good people, then stepping back and letting them do the job. He didn't believe in constantly looking over their shoulders. The result was that Lawrence established a reputation as a laissez-faire manager who relied on his staff to provide details and answer questions from the public and commissioners. Lawrence called it "giving the staff a chance to shine," but through the years he was sometimes accused of being too hands-off or not stepping up to lead when leadership was needed at City Hall.

Nevertheless, Dunedin prospered while he was city manager, developing a downtown that is the envy of other towns and keeping a handle on growth in the remainder of the city. Lawrence learned to operate the city on a shoestring budget, outlasted previous mayors and commissioners who didn't like him, and weathered perhaps Dunedin's biggest controversy when the commission decided to disband the police department.

Dunedin is quiet most of the time, and its residents may believe that the city will never change. However, change is on the way throughout Pinellas County, and the future promises to be more difficult than anything Dunedin has seen in the last 20 years.

Pinellas County is built out. Enormous pressure is building to redevelop existing properties as people from other parts of the country continue to flock to Florida looking for jobs and housing. The price of homes is skyrocketing, wages are flat, affordable housing is getting hard to find, builders are looking for higher densities and government incentives, and local governments are struggling to provide services in the face of rising costs.

A creative, experienced manager with strong leadership skills will be needed in Dunedin in the years ahead. Some Dunedin residents are urging city commissioners to skip a search for a city manager and appoint Freaney immediately. They believe Freaney is the right person to keep the city moving in a positive direction no matter what storms lie ahead.

Perhaps she is, but she should have to prove it when put up against the best management talent Dunedin can attract following at least a statewide search. Freaney is bright, articulate and approachable, but it is appropriate for commissioners to wonder if a staffer brought up in Lawrence's system of management-by-handoff will be a strong enough leader to shepherd Dunedin through a difficult future. Freaney should be given the chance to answer that question and demonstrate her talents in competition against other candidates for city manager.

[Last modified November 10, 2005, 01:21:17]