The proposal on the part of one of our candidates for UCO president for him to (a) find a "town manager" suitable to run Century Village with its very unusual structure, (b) do so within a hundred days, and (c) then himself QUIT seems to me something straight out of Alice in Wonderland.
First of all, for a normal town to find a town manager can
be a long, tedious job, and the results are often unsatisfactory. Just ask my
granddaughter, now a new selectman of a suburb of Boston. They just had to fire
their town manager for incompetence, and because of a suit brought against the
town by this fellow claiming "contract rights," the town limps along
paying an attorney to defend them and paying for a temporary replacement.
Then for this proposed town manager to fit into the Century
Village structure by simply making "a
(single?) bylaw change," seems ludicrous in the extreme. And whose bylaws—only those governing UCO?
With UCO alone, it would seem to me a huge task to so change its rules and
regulations to fit in a "town manager." What happens with Cenvil Rec
(WPRF), the "other half" of the Village operation? Will they have any
say in the matter? I'm guessing they would. It is taking months for the
Advisory Committee to provide only suggestions
for updating the UCO bylaws—and renewing the Millennium Agreement (between UCO
and WPRF)? That's an upcoming task we shudder at because of its complexity.
And then, even should the miracle be accomplished, how on
earth is this guy (or woman) going to match what Dave Israel, the current UCO
president does, putting in the hours he does and with the expertise he has
gained over the past eight years? Will this town manager even fit in? And how
much more paid help will he very soon be clamoring for?
To me, this is a prescription for disaster, and I can see
well enough why the candidate proposing this would PLAN on quitting after 100
days! I would, too. It would be time to "get out of Dodge"!
I'm sure this candidate means well. He has put serious time
into our Village committees and on the Executive Board, but this proposal is
too much.
Towns all around us are firing their managers, they are not minimally competent and some are dishonest. We have Dave Israel who has superb experience, technical brilliance and business knowledge. Dave also has integrity, honesty, devotion to the village, fundamental decency, care for elderly, 15 yrs experience of our demographic, he gives all his work for free, the ultimate volunteer, overtime all the time.
ReplyDeleteYOU CANNOT HIRE ANY OF THAT.
I know I am very lucky to have experienced CV with the very best of leadership, thank you Dave.
Agreed. I have sat in several UCO meetings (Operations Committee; Broadband Committee; kaffeeklatsch discussions): Mr. Israel's knowledge of state and federal law regarding condominiums, ADA regulations, financing, and his rapport with WPRF supervisor Eva Rachesky is impressive.
ReplyDeleteAnd the $$ involved?? The average salary for a Town Manager is $79,258 per year in the United States. (Salary estimates are based on 416 salaries submitted anonymously to Indeed by Town Manager employees, users, and collected from past and present job advertisements on Indeed in the past 24 months.) The typical tenure for a Town Manager is 1-3 years. (https://www.indeed.com/salaries/Town-Manager-Salaries)
And that $80k doesn't include the time and money spent in searching for a town manager every 1 - 3 years.