Letters to the Editors

Crystal River residents try to work with City Council

© St. Petersburg Times,
published August 1, 2001

Editor: The residents of Crystal River and the City Council must work together for the good of our city. We have tried to open the doors of dialogue only to have our words twisted, misquoted and completely misrepresented. Thus, the door slammed shut and mistrust takes its place.

I allude to council member Joseph Chrietzberg's grandstanding, soap-box speech at a recent council meeting. He stated that members of Crystal River Citizens for Reform said they would support only David Sallee as city manager. Now, we know that's a falsehood, don't we Mr. Chrietzberg? Our exact quote was "We will support any qualified candidate to the hilt." That's all we've asked for -- quality, not desperate contracts. You also assailed Mr. Sallee's record in Cape Coral, leaving us to wonder: "Why?" If it was in explanation to his contract non-renewal, why did you wait all these months to respond to the people. Now, it's a non-factor.

It also was stated that you felt you were zeroed in on for attack from the CRCR. I can say with certainty that CRCR only targeted ineptness, deceptive favoritism and lack of good judgment. You seem to feel that you fit into those categories. So be it.

Also, at a recent council meeting, council member Mike Gudis stated emphatically that just because he voted for something, it didn't mean that's what he wanted or what he felt was best. Then, why vote for it? Please spare us the explanation of wanting a unanimous vote. That's so "old hat." Then you ask us to support your decisions. What decisions?

We want to support our council. But when you distort the truth, vote against what you know is best for the city, disregard the majority and continue with biased favoritism, how can we?

The micro-management being foisted upon our finance director by certain council members is deplorable. Please let her do the job she is very qualified for, or it'll be no wonder if she's the next to resign.

If our council members would take the time to listen -- really listen -- to the public, you would be pleasantly surprised. We want to work together; we only ask you to give us something with which we can work.
-- Gail Jannarone, Crystal River

Council creates more problems than it solves

Editor: Re: Opposition group is key barrier to finding a good city manager, July 26 guest column by Kyle "Joe" Chrietzberg:

It is extremely disappointing that Mr. Chrietzberg used his guest column to try to justify his past actions, rather than to offer constructive future solutions. As ever, he steadfastly refuses to provide any explanation for his destructive motion to terminate David Sallee's contract.

Like many politicians, he is "cherry picking" a very selective version of recent history. Crystal River would not be facing its present problems if Mr. Chrietzberg and his three council colleagues had responded to public opinion, which was obvious several months ago. He ignored a 659-signature petition to retain Sallee and he disregarded negative editorials from both local newspapers. It must be apparent that just about everybody, except our four council members, was in favor of retaining our previous city manager.

The recruitment process was a sham. Many city managers subscribe to a service that provides job seekers with a press clippings service. Any local activity in this direction had a minimal effect, but it did demonstrate to applicants that Crystal River residents are informed and involved. We are in competition with a number of other employers who are more honest in their disclosures. Bunnell is a current example and that town's job posting, on the same Web site as Crystal River's, includes the following text:

"Must have the ability to lead and be effective in a dynamic and active political environment with a well-educated, highly participative citizenry."

This sets a level of real expectation and ensures an appropriate response. Mr. Chrietzberg fails to recognize that the cat is out of the bag. Local political strife and manager turnover are known quantities. Applicants Mike Underwood and Charles Hammond tried to extort a king's ransom from Crystal River and council members responded by agreeing to demands that were nothing short of bizarre.

I would like to reply directly to Mr. Chrietzberg's claim that "It is my goal that this will be the last city manager search that will need to be conducted." This is totally unrealistic and it is a politician's speech of the worst type. If he was sincere in this endeavor, he would have set his sights on working with Sallee and proving that the city manager position is capable of being retained from one council to its successor.

It would have been a triumph for Crystal River if Mr. Chrietzberg's council had openly discussed its issues with David Sallee, renegotiated his contract on mutually acceptable terms and then sat down together to get on with the business of the city. There is still a narrow window of opportunity to see this achieved, but not with present thinking and hostile attitudes.

It should not be Mr. Chrietzberg's consistent strategy to use the press as an alternative to explaining his actions during council meetings. If he had issues with Crystal River Citizens for Reform (CRCR), he could have challenged me on July 23 when I presented a highly detailed, and infinitely more constructive, set of ideas than he proposed in his guest column.

Mr. Chrietzberg and his colleagues on the council have continually tried to sidestep or ignore the issues that have brought about the upheaval of public opinion against their original actions with the city manager. It was exacerbated by the inept selection process. Then it was compounded by their overly generous offers to the last applicants.

How can the concerned public have faith in a council that continually resorts to solutions that produce greater problems than they solve? Private business would not tolerate this type of performance. Why should we accept it from public officials?
-- John R. Kendall, vice chairman, Crystal River Citizens for Reform

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