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Search for new city manager needs objectivity, openness

A majority of the Dunedin City Commission voted last week to put the search for the next city manager in the hands of the city's human resources director, Nancy Duggan.

That's right. They put her in charge of searching for her own boss.

It was a bad decision that commissioners Dave Eggers and Bob Hackworth did their best to prevent. They wanted the city to use a professional search firm, and after hearing presentations from three potential firms at a recent commission meeting, they argued strongly for that option. However, they were outvoted by commissioners Deborah Kynes and Julie Scales and Mayor John Doglione, who preferred saving the money and keeping the process in-house.

The decision would be a bad one even if there were not an internal candidate for the job, Assistant City Manager Maureen Freaney. Freaney has made it clear she wants the job.

So, consider this: City commissioners voted to have the human resources director handle the search for her next boss, when one of the candidates is a popular administrator who outranks Duggan on the city organizational chart.

Commissioners have put Duggan in a bad spot, vulnerable to the appearance of lacking sufficient objectivity to conduct the search properly. But Doglione responded that he doesn't concern himself with the perceptions of others. He said he has the "utmost confidence" that the search will be "open and above board."

The problem is that outside candidates have no reason to share Doglione's confidence. To them, the decision to have Duggan manage the search will make it look like the internal candidate, Freaney, has an inside track. Some good potential candidates probably will not apply, and that will be a loss for the city.

Duggan gave commissioners a list of state and national publications and newspapers in which she plans to place advertisements for the post. Once the applications start coming in, she apparently plans to get some colleagues in human resources to help her review the applications and decide which ones to discard and which ones to pass along to city commissioners. That is at least an improvement over Duggan making those decisions alone.

Dunedin residents should be concerned about this process. The city manager is the city's chief executive, in charge of running the city 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The position is a more powerful one than mayor or city commissioner. The selection process is extremely important. It should invite the best and the brightest in the field of city management to apply for the job, and the candidates should be subjected to a rigorous interview process.

For 21 years, John Lawrence has been the guy in the city manager's chair. Every resident of Dunedin has a stake in the selection of his successor. Will the city continue on a positive track? Will the new manager offer solutions to some of the city's current problems? Will he or she have the experience, creativity and strength to manage Dunedin during what looks like trying times ahead?

If the city is not going to use an objective third party to manage the search, the least city commissioners should do is make the applications available for public perusal, arrive at a short list after open discussion of the candidates, and interview the final applicants in public, televised sessions.

[Last modified December 16, 2005, 00:54:19]