June 30, 2006

John Cox's Future

Lowell's city manager still has the entire month of July on the job, before he takes some time off to rest and relax and reflect on his future. John Cox told me earlier this week that he has some prospects, but nothing definite. He plans to play golf during the entire month of August. He figures if a few short putts start to drop, it'll be a good indication of what's to come. If they don't, well, "I've been there before and I'll just have to regroup," he said. Cox said he has considered reopening his law practice. Also, he's received calls from several lobbying firms in Boston that are interested in talking to him about several opportunities. With his many contacts at the Statehouse, Cox could be an asset in the right lobbying mix. He's done it before with success, although Cox said he is reluctant to plunge into it. "You can make a lot of money," he said, "but my daughter is going into high school and I'd like to be around my family rather than in Boston." As Cox explains it, being a successful lobbyist means longs days and late nights. It can wear on you after awhile, he said. For six years, Cox was the face behind Lowell's revitalization and growing reputation as a great place to live. He'll leave with nary a severance package, just his last paycheck and many fond memories of serving the City Council and the people of Lowell to the best of his ability. Sure, Cox made mistakes, but his successes far outweighed the miscues. His ability to get things done, even during the recession, will be hard to duplicate after his connections to the Legislature's political heavyweights are gone. Now here's a thought: Why wouldn't Chelmsford be interested in John Cox as its next town manager? Talk about a town that needs some connections. If I were a selectman looking for Bernie Lynch's successor, I'd at least have a cup of coffee with Cox before he hits the first tee at Vesper.

Posted by JimC at 3:55 PM | Comments (10)

It's Official: Council picks Bernie Lynch

It took less than 30 minutes this morning for the Lowell City Council to select Chelmsford Town Manager Bernie Lynch as the new city manager, succeeding John F. Cox. Lynch was a first ballot selection, picking up seven votes. Former Dukakis administration executive Frank Keefe picked up two votes. Lynch received support from Kevin Broderick, Eileen Donoghue, Rodney Elliott, Jim Milinazzo, George Ramirez, Edward "Bud" Caulfield, and Bill Martin. Keefe received votes from Rita Mercier rand Armand Mercier. According to sources, Lynch agreed to take the job at the highest salary offered by statute: $145,000. He now earns $138,000 in Chelmsford. Sources said Lynch is also seeking at least a two year contract, which would have to be approved by the council through an amendment to the current ordinance.

Posted by JimC at 10:33 AM | Comments (10)

June 29, 2006

News Bulletin: Council eyes Bernie Lynch

Fresh off his convincing interview Wednesday night, Chelmsford Town Manager Bernie Lynch appears to have won over a majority of councilors as the best candidate to succeed John F. Cox as Lowell city manager. Lynch's presentation overwhelmed councilors as earnest and highly professional. His 20 years' experience in Chelmsford, where he has lead contract reform in union employees' health insurance, produced effective budgets and built up stabilization funds for capital projects, also impressed councilors.
The Sun has learned from one councilor, who asked to remain anonymous until Friday morning's selection vote at City Hall, that Lynch has five solid votes with two other councilors leaning his way as of 6 p.m. Thursday. Lynch needs five of the nine votes to become city manager.
Evidently, Lynch picked up support from several councilors who initially favored Diana Prideaux-Brune, the UMAss Lowell facilities manager.. The support eroded, however, after Prideaux-Brune's somewhat disappointing interview Monday night, in which she told councilors she couldn't afford to live in Lowell. it was later reported on thesunblog that Prideaux-Brune had purchased a $544,000 home in Dracut, after selling her Lowell home at a $250,000 profit.
Clearly, though, Lynch proved top notch in his interview.
While anything can happen overnight, it appears that Lynch is in the driver's seat as far as a majority of the council is concerned.

Posted by JimC at 6:18 PM

Big Papi and Bernie Lynch

Anyone who is a Red Sox fan - and even those who aren't - have to be impressed with David Ortiz's ability to slam home runs and deliver base hits in the clutch. Big Papi's record of knocking in key runs when the game is on the line reaches Ruthian proportions over the past two season. I like to listen to Red Sox games on the radio, because I so enjoy the voices and the imagination of picturing the game and its flow in my mind. OK, maybe I'm dating myself, but I was brought up on the soothing inflection of Curt Gowdy's voice when the Red Sox stunk. Now I can't get enough of Joe Trupiano and Joe Castiglione on the radio. However, Big Papi has changed how I listen to games. I actually look forward to watching him bat. When he comes to the plate, I now turn on the television and listen to the call of Big Papi's swings on radio. Try it. Nothing is more exciting than hearing Trupiano and Castiglione describe Big Papi's heroics.

In a similar vein, last night I watched Chelmsford Town Manager Bernie Lynch take his swings at questions from the City Council. It was Round Two of the interviews in the search for Lowell's new city manager. I must admit that Bernie Lynch smacked it out of the park.. This was Bill Mazeroski in the seventh game of the 1960 World Series and Carlton Fisk in the sixth game of the 1975 World Series.

Lynch didn't condescend or contradict. He came off as the professional town manager he is, with a lot of practical and progressive experience that could help Lowell on a host of issues. I firmly believe after watching all five candidates that Bernie Lynch is the best candidate for the job.

I don't envy the council in making their choice tomorrow morning. They'll likely be praised and criticized for whomever they select as John Cox's successor. It's only natural in the divided state of affairs Lowell now finds itself after a popular manager was shown the door. However, I truly believe Lynch, with his budgetary skills and leadership talent, could win over the critics over time and deflect the heat from councilors..

On an aside, I found Edward Kennedy to be a much better candidate than I was lead to believe. He obviously knows the city well and offered several good suggestions for its future. However, Kennedy has not had the managerial experience Lowell truly needs as this juncture.

Lastly, I 've heard from two councilors this morning who are considering breaking ranks from their initial choices and moving to Bernie Lynch's corner. Lynch came up with a spectacular performance in the clutch, just like Big Papi, and it's going to be hard to deny him the chance to lead Lowell's management team.

Posted by JimC at 11:29 AM | Comments (1)

June 28, 2006

Headed for Disaster?

After watching Tuesday night's City Council meeting, it became clearer than ever that the search for a new city manager is in the bag. The process to find a professional to lead Lowell "to the next level" has been anything but professional from the beginning. When Rodney Elliott's motion to expand the search to seven candidates was roundly dismissed by a 6-3 vote, I was convinced that the council had already made up its mind. The next city manager will definitely come from the planning and development ranks. That means either Diana Prideaux-Brune or Frank Keefe will get the job on Friday morning, when the council deliberates.
ON one hand, we've got a candidate who says she can't afford to live in the city, even though she bought a McMansion in Dracut. And on the other, we've got a former Dukakis clone who said in his interview he hasn't "learned anything new since leaving Lowell." And that was nearly 15 years ago.
Why the rush to pick John Cox's successor? One would think the council wanted to launch the city's new era in government with a July Fourth bang. I think the anti-Cox councilors just wants to get this thing behind them, believing the more space they put between Cox's departure and the next citywide election the more people will forget about this bamboozle of a process. Personally, I don't think they've got the right strategy. They had a chance to rehabilitate themselves and make the process a valid one. They didn't even come close. This could turn out to be a disaster. I think panic is setting in.
But I could be wrong. I've been wrong before. Maybe there is a real city manager in the mix. I will wait until the final interviews tonight and cast my own ballot tomorrow.
The more I think of it, however, Paul Cohen seems like the little manager that could. Someone said to me he's young, but so was the Red Sox whiz GM Theo Epstein, who led the Bostonians to the World Series title two years ago. Couldn't Cohen be our Theo?

Posted by JimC at 8:48 AM | Comments (2)

June 27, 2006

Round One: The bloom's off Prideaux-Brune

How can Diana Prideaux-Brune, who makes $141,000 as UMass Lowell's facilities manager, which is $16,000 more than the present city manager makes, say she can't afford to live in Lowell?
That was the most stunning statement issued by any of the the three candidates interviewed last night by councilors at City Hall.
For the record, Prideaux-Brune sold her home on Wentworth Avenue in Lowell last fall, a home she had purchased in 1998 fo $68,450. She sold it for $323,000. Then she turned around and bought a home in Dracut, for $544,900. According to records at the Registry of Deeds, Prideaux-Brune plunked down $100,000 for the new home.
It's hard to conceive that she wasn't living quite well at her Wentworth Ave. home. Also, there are plenty of homes in the Lowell market worth $500,000 that couldeasily fit her salary.
So what gives?
In watching Prideau-Brune's interview last night, it became apparent to me that she did not wish to seek this job on her own. Someone put her up to it, or at least reached out to her. She is very talented in what she does - planning projects - but she hardly has the qual. What predicated her departure? Surely, it's not a question of affordability. She made a tidy profit selling her Lowell home. She could easily have reinvested here. No, there was something else that drove that decision. For someone who speaks so astutely of the value of planning good neighborhoods, it's odd that she couldn't find one to live in.
What also struck me as overbearing were the many references she made to the public-private partnerships that have shaped Lowell's successes and the priority she places on education. Certainly, these are important, but they were forced references. One reference was enough, but Prideaux-Brune kept banging away. It appeared she had been coached by certain interests to mention these points as many times as possible during her hour-long interview. It was more style than substance, particulary her reply to Councilor Bud Caulfield's question on the proposed sitting for the new University Avenue Bridge. Prideaux-Brune gave the impression she needed more time and information in order to make an informed decision. That's when Caulfield pointed out that Prideaux-Brune attended most of the meetings and had never raised a doubt about the city's plan.
If anything, I thought she'd be a good candidate for assistant schools superintendent, after listening to her promote the value of education. She didn't mention the importance of public safety until a councilor asked her about it.
But Prideaux-Brune evidently has charmed at least one councilor on paper. Councilor George Ramirez was effusive in his praise for the "cover letter" she submitted with her resume. "I've never seen a better cover letter," chortled the councilor. The repartee was a bit rehearsed, as were most of the answers given by Prideaux-Brune. I can see why she is a front-runner: certain councilors have overlooked her lack of managerial experience and are focusing on her amiability and easy-to-please style. Is that what Lowell's $280 million business operation needs? I don't think so. The rough-and-tumble politics is a factor. The culture of Lowell was set a long time ago and, whether we like it or not, it's here to stay like DNA.
As for the other candidates, Harvard Town Administrator Paul Cohen and former Dukakis administration executive Frank Keefe, each had their quality moments. Cohen impressed with his professional attitude and small-town achievements. He

Posted by JimC at 10:10 AM | Comments (3)

June 26, 2006

The DaVinci Code and Oriana Fallaci

The rain kept me indoors most of the weekend, researching salaries of city administrators and School Department administrators in the 2007 budget. My findings? I'll write a column this week, but I can tell you the salaries aren't the issue; it's the size of the raises, on both sides of the municipal aisle, that raise eyebrows.

This is the point School Committee member Jackie Doherty was trying to make, although she threw a dart at the city side, without mentioning similar increases in the schools. I don't want to belabor the issue here. I'll take it up soon enough.

Back to the rain. My wonderful wife could only take so much of it - not of the water puring down from the heavens - but my researching salaries on her time. She ordered me to the movies, to watch The DaVinci Code. That was an experience. A packed theater with teen-agers playing cell-phone tag during the movie. It got so excruciating that I wished for the Lord to miraculously summon an army of angels to the second row, seats 4 through 12, where they could harness these irritating twits with hand and facial restraints. At least for two hours.

Finally, an usher showed up, after the crowd began yelling at the kids, who continued tto shout back. Unbelievable! Worse, the kids refused to leave the theater when instructed to do so. Instead, they called their parents on their cell phones. Eventually, they got up and left, to applause movie-watchers. Anyway, The Code was a decent flick, although I couldn't help but wonder if a similar movie on the Islam faith could ever be shown without generating an uproar and protests. Let's face it: Catholicism takes it on the chin in Dan Brown's book and Ron Howard's movie. Catholics, however, aren't calling for a jihad against actors and actresses who appeared in the movie. Neither is Brown living in seclusion, forced to do so by extremist Catholics seeking his head on a platter.

While the Church has expressed displeasure with Brown's fictional theories of a union between Jesus and Mary Magdelene, it hasn't issued an order for suicide bombings or excommunication. Which brings me to Oriana Fallaci. The Italian journalist, one of the best international reporters of her time, went on trial last Monday iin Italy, for writing and vocally expressing her opinion about the Islamic faith.

She basically says Islam treats women like subhumans and is a violent, if not backward religion. A local imam outside of Florence took issue with Fallaci's comments and urged the Italian state to arrest her for "treason" against religion. He based his claim on an archaic Italian law that prohibits people to defame or demean religion. A judge agreed and filed charges against Fallaci. Fallaci, who didn'tshow up in court last week, is suffering from cancer and lives in both New York City and a villa outside of Tuscany.

She rarely announces her visits to Italy, sensing that she'd be arrested and imprisoned for saying what she feels is the truth. "If I were a Christian symbol in their country, I'd be either stoned to death or beheaded," says Fallaci, "but they can come to my country and build a mosque where they can plot to overtake the world." Fallaci's outspokenness was prompted by 9/11. Since the U.S. terror attacks, she has written two books condemning Europe's response - or lack thereof - to the spread of Islamic fundamentalism. I've read both: "The Pride and the Rage" and her latest, "The Force of Reason."

While the books have sold more than 3 million copies worldwide, you'd be hardpressed to find them on display shelves of any local book stores. Seems like Fallaci's harsh words might offend someone. In fact, several stores in the San Francisco area have refused to carry the books, which refer to Europe as "Eurabia". Fallaci's core belief is that Islam's goal is to spread throughout the world and to eliminate religious tolerance and democracy. It's hard to fathom that anyone expressing their thoughts on religion in this country - no matter how harsh those opinions - could ever wind up in jail. At the same time, I doubt a politically correct Hollywood would ever do a movie depicting the brutality of some followers of Islam, as well as Islam's inequality toward women and other minorities.

A movie would enlighten people too much to a culture that is stuck in time and unwilling to move into the modern era. Hollywood would get more grief than ticket sales. Of course, not all Muslims see things so narrowly. They are the moderates, and they are too few in number to make a difference right now unless they get security to express their opinions. I urge all Muslims to go watch the Da Vinci Code. If Catholics can tolerate the attacks on their faith, why can't Muslims tolerate Fallaci's?

Posted by JimC at 10:54 AM | Comments (3)

June 22, 2006

Doherty's Delegation Debacle

No doubt Jackie Doherty has a lot of passion for the Lowell public school system, but that passion has to be tempered with reasonable assessments of what transpires on Beacon Hill and City Hall. The easiest thing in the world is to fire salvos at the Legislature from 30 miles away, without understanding a government process that is so overwhelmed with political and economic tradeoffs it would bend even the straightest backboned politician over time. Doherty's strafing of Lowell's Statehouse delegation over the inadequate return on Chapter 70 monies for public schools just isn't true. Over the past two decades, hundreds of millions of dollars have poured into Lowell to build new schools. And nearly a billion dollars has poured in for local aid since the enactment of the 1992 Education Reform Act. The reps - Dave Nangle, Tom Golden, Kevin Murphy - along with Sen. Steven Panagiotakos always have their ears to the ground when there is a penny available to be steered Lowell's way. But they also face mounting pressures from their colleagues in other districts to share in the wealth, so to speak. Doherty is not doing herself or her school supporters any favors by attacking the very funding sources we need to rely on to bring home the bacon. It makes good copy in newspapers and sound bites on radio, but it doesn't do any justice to the problem at hand: the schools need more money through a better state funding mechanism. Let's face it, all local school districts from Billerica to Dracut to Tyngsboro need more funding. The problem rests with how to infuse cash equitably into both urban and suburban school districts without creating funding flaws. The Legislature, if anything, should be chastized for not coming up with a solution to a system that rewards Westford $5 million more than Chelmsford, even though both communities stack up as near equals in most school demographics.
Maybe Doherty is thinking about running for higher office in the future, like a state rep's seat, and feels this is her way to sound the alarm. If so, her shot across the bow may turn into cannon fodder when the reps' return fire. A well-versed politician would have taken the diplomatic approach, urging the Legislature to refine its local aid process while offering suggestions. Doherty's smart enough to do that and it's a mystery as to why she chose to blast away indiscriminately.

Posted by JimC at 8:16 AM | Comments (5)

June 21, 2006

A Vote for Reconsideration?

A move is underfoot by several City Councilors to expand the number of candidates who will be interviewed for the city manager's job. The council originally had intended to interview five finalists, but it has come under fire from the public and media for excluding several qualified professionals who applied for the job. It appears that as many as seven individuals could now get called in. Councilors Edward "Bud" Caulfield and Rita Mercier are pushing for Thaddeus Jankowski, Worcester's No. 2 municipal adminstrator, for an interview. Monica Lamboy, from Washington, D.C., may also get an opportunity to convey her abilities to the council.
As it stands now, interviews will begin Monday, June 26, at City Hall, at 5 p.m. Franke Keefe, Diane Prideaux-Brune and Paul Cohen will each get an hour to state their abilities and take questions from the counil. On Thursday, Ed Kennedy and Bernie Lynch go before the board.
A series of columns, written by yours truly, a Sun editorial and angry calls from the public have prompted councilors to reconsider this so-called "professional" nationwide search that yielded five candidates with connections to Lowell.. I don't know about you, but the perception on the street is that this search is a bag job for the anti-Cox councilors. I don't necessarily agree. However, they certainly haven't done themslevies justice so far with this uninspiring search process. This isn't to say that any one of the five finalists already selected might not turn out to be a solid city manager. However, based on the qualifications the council set forth in advertisements for the job, they are not the bet qualified in the group. I think the council is taking a step in the right direction by expanding the process.. I still believe they can turn this process around and build confidence in what they are trying to do for the best interests of Lowell.
Elsewhere, School Superintendent Karla Brooks Baehr dropped by recently to discuss budget issues. It was a good conversation. I've criticized Baehr in the past over her failure to deal with high teacher absenteeism rates and other union issues. However, I believe she is committed to making the school system the best it can be, given the resources out there. During a light moment, I asked her if she still enjoyed her job in Lowell and she didn't hesitate a reply. "I love it here and I'm not going anywhere. There are many things I want to accomplish for the city and its students, and I won't leave until they are done," said Baehr, who is completing her sixth year on the job. Baehr admitted that several top level education officials had asked her to consider applying for the vacant Boston superintendent's job, where she could have nearly doubled her $130,000 salary. She respectfully declined the pitch to stay in Lowell. Give her credit for sticking it out.
Hey, what's going on at Beacon Hill? The Democrat-controlled Legislature is going on a feeding frenzy, spending millions of dollars on pork projects while school districts throughout the Commonwealth are crying for more money. Overrides are getting shot down, teachers are losing jobs, students are being forced to pay outrageous fees to play sports, and the Legislature still has reached a compromised on a new school spending formula or aid package. They've been able to sock away $3.2 billion in the reserve fund - the same reserve fund that was depleted during the recession - but done little to fill depleted municipal coffers. Now I am not a big fan of school spending, however, over the past few years school systems have been forced to make their fair share of cuts. I would have to believe that most districts aren't hiding any substantial amount of money from the public. The Legislature's decision to take care of their own first, before giving a fair shake to the state's NO. 1 priority - its public schools - is disheartening. We need education stimulus along with economic stimulus. They go hand in hand. Companies won't come here if we don't have the educated work force to fill the jobs they are seeking. I just don't understand how our elected officials think Massachusetts is going to get ahead if they don't make the courageous choices that are necessary. Their decisions are inspired by incumbency retention rather than sound judgment.
So what do you think?

Posted by JimC at 11:25 AM | Comments (1)

June 16, 2006

Council Picks Were Predictable

Is anyone really surprised that the City Council's nationwide search for city manager candidates extended as far south as to Boston and as far west as to Harvard — the town that is?
Forget the global position satellite. This hunt needed only a searchlight.
The selections were fairly predictable too. Five applicants who had a connection to the Mill City, whether through birth, a job, or college degree, became a finalist.
Here they are:

1. Chelmsford Town Manager Bernie Lynch, who owns a political science degree from UMass Lowell;
2. Frank Keefe of Boston, a developer and president of the Keefe Company who served briefly as a consultant on the Tsongas Arena project after holding several cabinet posts in the Dukakis administration;
3. Diane Prideaux-Brune of Dracut, who is vice chancellor of facilities at UMass Lowell and formerly served as Lowell's chief planner (19994-96);
4. Paul Cohen, who grew up in the Highlands and has served as the Town of Harvard's town administrator since 2001.
5. Edward Kennedy of Lowell, who is a former city councilor and county commissioner and presently owns Madison Copp Appraisals in Lowell.

In my view, the council shortchanged itself and the citizens of Lowell by limiting the search for John Cox's successor to one cut and five candidate finalists. There are at least four also-rans who deserved an interview, based on their qualifications and government experience. But councilors, for some reason, are desperately in a hurry to push this thing through to a conclusion.
It's telling that only one woman is a finalist — Diane Prideaux-Brune — when there was a better, more qualified candidate in the resume pile — Monica Lamboy of Washington, D.C.
Of the five councilors who disclosed their picks to the public — Bud Caulfield, Armand Mercier, Kevin Broderick, Rodney Elliott, Jim Milanazzo — not one had Lamboy on their list.
So who is she?
Since 2004, she's been the chief operating officer of the Washington, D.C., Department of Health, which has a $280 million annual budget and 1,300 employs. As director, Lamboy is responsible for all purchasing, labor negotiations and policies her department. Previously, she was chief planner of Oakland, Calif., and was eventually promoted to chief administrative officer of community and economicy development. She also served as assistant to the city manager in Oakland. Lamboy holds a master's degree in city and regional planning from the University of California at Berkely and a BSE in civil engineering with certificate in architecture from Princeton University. She also held government leadership posts in Concord, Calif., and Mt. Olive, N.J.
When matched with all other finalists, Lamboy sticks out with Lynch, and possibly Cohen, as having the necessary leadership skills and government experience to work professionally as a city manager.
While Keefe deserves an interview, and makes my own list of potential finalists, he seems overly qualified for the job. Here's a guy who has been brushing shoulders with economic titans the past decade while putting together multi-million dollar development deals in Boston. Why does he want back in in government, at a measly $125,000 a year no less? Is Lowell his way of getting a state pension boost? Hmmm.
As for Ed Kennedy and Diane Prideaux-Brune, they can be happy they've got "sponsors" in this race because they don't stack up against Monica Lamboy on paper. And that's it's too bad. Because this was supposed to be a nationwide search, in which all candidates would be considered equal. Fat chance.
The City Council has made it clear: Lowell is a destination city for some more than others — and that includes city manager candidates.

Jim Campanini' makes his finalist selections:

1. Monica Lamboy: There is no equal among the other candidates based on her resume.

2. Ronald Massey, assistant city manager, Corpus Christi, Texas: He has diverse experience and the range of his municipal disciplines is extensive.

3. Bernard Lynch: His 20-year experience in Chelmsford and knowledge of Lowell is his outstanding strength.

4. Thaddeus Jankowski : He is the Assistant City Manager in Worcester, a city that has always had a city manager form of government and is appreciated by knowledgeable people as being well run.

5. Paul Edward Cohen: He is educationally and intellectually qualified with 16 years experience in municipal government, mostly in smaller towns.

6. Thomas Moses: He has extensive municipal experience, with his strongest professional asset being the five years he served as Assistant Finance Director in the City of Cambridge.

7. Frank Keefe: He has extensive private and governmental experience and would be an exceptional candidate to head up the Department of Planning and Development, but city manager might be a stretch..

8. David Owen of Bedford: He has 26 years of municipal administration as either town manager or executive secretary and is well educated.

What are your thoughts?

Posted by JimC at 8:37 PM | Comments (1)

June 15, 2006

Lowell's express search

So this is the thorough nationwide search the citizens of Lowell were promised in the hunt for a new “professional� city manager. If so, it’s the express version.
Tomorrow each councilor will submit five names to City Clerk Richard Johnson. He’ll tally the names over the weekend. The five applicants listed most often among the original 35 (now 34 since one person has dropped out) will become the finalists to succeed City Manager John F. Cox.
By Tuesday, Lowellians will know who is on “The A-List� and who isn’t.
Each councilor now has three days to scrutinize all the resumes, at home or in the SAC Club, before making out a ballot of five confidential selections.
Five? Why not seven?
That’s a basic question, just like this one: What happens if there is a tie among applicants? Who breaks it? And how?
Councilors didn’t ask or answer any of these questions Tuesday night. Maybe they already know there isn’t going to be a tie.
This express process is far from what was originally talked about when Cox handed in his resignation April 24.
Back then, everyone was going to have a say, just like six years ago when Cox was selected from among 55 applicants.
Now, each councilor is going to base his or her selections from what’s written on a piece of paper. There will be no haggling or discussion of qualifications.
By any stretch of the imagination, this is not a unified, professional effort that builds confidence in government.
Imagine, not a single telephone call of research will be made in advance to learn anything about anyone who has submitted a resume. I guess blind trust and gut instincts are all a councilor needs to decide who can or who can’t manage a $282 million municipal enterprise and its 4,000 employees.
Would Donald Trump pick a CEO this way?
Would even the much-maligned Lowell School Committee select a new superintendent this way?
The answer is double no.
Trump would launch a competitive star search and spare no amount of money to find the best talent. OK, picking a city manager shouldn’t be Hollywood, but at least it should be hard work.
Most school boards across the state know how to conduct themselves. When a vacancy occurs, they hire a certified consultant provided by the Massachusetts Association of School Committees to guide them through the search process. Interviews with applicants of interest are arranged. It could be three, five or 10. Also, before selecting a new superintendent, board members visit the applicants’ school districts to question peers and colleagues.
Most school boards adhere to a strategic process.
The City Council, on the other hand, is winging it. It comes down to a glance at a mound of overwritten resumes, a test of fuzzy math and then, bingo, here’s the final five.
Granted, a majority of these resumes could be used for therapy by doctors who run the sleep disorder center at Saints Memorial Medical Center. I know because I devoted an entire five-hour night fighting off a semi-conscious state to read every line of every resume.
However, hidden in the morass of black-and-white pages are some gems of candidates’ achievements. Like the former U.S. Navy officer who turned around a bankrupt city of 80,000 while renegotiating every union contract and the woman who runs a $278 million health department for a large eastern city. Will they make the council’s cut?
The public should be made aware of the candidates who end up floating to the surface as well as those who end up as flotsam. For that reason,The Sun is publishing all the candidates’ on its Web site at lowellsun.com.
Some councilors have protested vehemently about this intrusion into their alleged nationwide search. Why? I can only speculate.
But one thing is clear. The anti-Cox council isn’t using as much energy to find a successor as it did to show Cox the door. Since Cox tendered his resignation April 24, the council has met just once in subcommittee to discuss parameters for its manager search. No official guidelines, outside of putting advertisements in several publications, were established until Tuesday night. That’s when councilors approved the “Express Five� process and interview dates, without discussing a single qualification they were seeking in a new manager.
Is this a professional search or a predetermined one?
What do you think?

Posted by JimC at 10:10 AM | Comments (2)