Shannon your position is unacceptable.
Good afternoon Shannon,
All organizations have a number 2 person in place to ensure a safe and smooth transition should something happen to the number 1.
If something happens to Obama tonight we get Biden. We don’t go to Biden and ask him if he wants to be POTUS.
If something happens to Green tonight we get Burnette. We don’t ask Burnette if he wants to be Mayor.
If a plane’s pilot or a ship’s captain are incapacitated the copilot or the first mate finishes the voyage. We don’t ask them if they are willing.
But in Port Orange, Council has proceeded as if running the City were optional, and asked if you want to step up to the plate and serve as the interim manager, OR baring that what you want. AND WHAT YOU WANT apparently is for Council to waste a $200,000 taxpayer dollars to interview, hire, train and then dismiss an interim manager in a 6 to 9 month period – half of which that new person will spend learning where the washrooms are.
If any of this inefficiency is acceptable to Council it certainly not acceptable to this taxpayer.
If YOU are unable or unwilling to assume the duties of interim manager when called upon, and until Council makes other arrangements then you should be regarded as unfit to be the Assistant Manager and you need to be replaced with a person ready to shoulder greater responsibility when required.
Last evening I encouraged you to accept the position of Interim Manager without reservation, because nothing less should be expected of the Assistant Manager, And because every person I have spoken with has every confidence in your ability to perform that function.
I hope you will reconsider the position you annunciated last evening before the City gets started on wasting that $ 200,000 And before dissatisfaction mounts with the irresponsibility of your reluctance in this instance.
.
The lady is definitely a good public information officer and is no dummy but she has been mostly utilized for window dressing. Who knows, maybe she is too nice. I think she has a hard time making a decision and does not know how to handle authority. The concern that many people have with her is that Allen Green will easily control and dominate her. When he lead her off during the council meeting to have a private conversation with her that was very telling. It would be better that she remain the interim until the council can legitimately harvest a permanent city manager. Bob Ford needs to make sure Allen Green doesn’t try to dominate her and run the day to day operations of the city from behind the scenes. I think that Bob Ford overly endorsed Shannon’s abilities and showed us he is truly disconnected from what constitutes the day to day operations of the city. If the council can keep Allen Green from dominating Shannon, and empower and encourage her to make some independent decisions and exercise her authority she may grow into the position and demonstrate that perhaps Bob Ford has seen some potential in her that others have yet to experience. I think the key for any city manager to be successful is to make sure that they do not become puppets of Allen Green. Allen Green is the cancer in the city that is the root cause of the current implosion.
I don’t blame her reluctance in light of all the turmoil. But yes, she should be made to be the interim until the position is filled.
I was rather shocked at the endorsement of former Fire Chief Pozzo for the position. Good guy yes, but he quit after a short term and is a Fire Chief not a City Manager candidate.
Folks, here is the truth. Seriously, let’s think about what occurred last night. Number 1: Ford overly endorsing Shannon and promising to play nice with her was quite telling. What he was saying is that yes indeed, I am part of the problem in Port Orange government that was accurately reported in the News-Journal. It squarely pointed the finger at Councilman Ford as the one doing the most meddling. Eddie Harris is correct with his above statement. Ford does not understand the city charter and consistently oversteps his authority, as he did when he was police chief. Number 2: it is quite obvious that no assistant director in any department in Port Orange wants to subject themselves to the constant ridicule being offered by some citizens. The stress and ridicule, and constant councilman meddling forced out Kisela, Pozzo, Saunders, and Yarborough. Assistant directors will only accept interim director positions for short periods of time until real interim directors are in place. Kisela and Pozzo could have done a good job if they were actually allowed to do their job. Number 3: The ringing endorsement for Chief Pozzo was both shocking and telling also. What Bastain and Ford were saying with their high praise was that they regalize that their meddling led to his resignation. They were trying to cover their tracts but they are the reason he left. The truth hurts sometimes folks but when you point at someone, three fingers point back at you.
For the record, fake ragnar we are not on the same page. I support Bob Ford and Drew Bastian, I simply think they sometimes miss the finer point of what is going on inside the organization and sometimes are not fully aware of the complete situation.
As far as your assessment of Kisela and his ejected FCCMA retread team, you really missed the mark. These were career interlopers and if you check out their pasts they are quite jaded, and perhaps fabricated. They have a history of this crap, and I am sure they will be back interloping somewhere else with the assistance of the FCCMA Range Rider. That is if the public employees associations, stakeholder employees, and citizen advocates of open governance are not able to prevent this.
You sound like one of the nut hugging scabs that thrive like a pilot fish on these interlopers. Sorry, your daddys left the house and now we will all see if you understand what comes with the name of Ragnar. That would mean you are a Viking warrior that places the honor to do battle above winning or losing. That means you are willing to go down on your shield. And that means you will indomitably resurrect and relish doing battle to celebrate the experience of courage and valor.
Only then can you refer to yourself as Ragnar. So please shed that moniker because you are not one of those brave that will enter the “Halls Of Valhalla”.
You Vikings were a bunch of sissies. My ancestors were Scottish have you ever seen the movie Bravefart? Now those guys were bad asses and they wore plaid skirts with no underwear… commando style. Pretty soon we’ll have Martians and Klingons posting blogs about Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock. Lets have some real meaningful dialog, maybe about climate change or little green men crawling into the lab tech’s computer. Beam me up Scotty! I can no stand the strain any longer! YUK… YUK All we want is competent, honest, open, transparent, accountable government. These are our rights. Of the people, for the people, by the people… We are the people! Most people go through life wearing their rose colored glasses blissfully ignorant about their government and what is being done with their hard earned tax dollars. They need to wake up and get involved or they will go through life as a bunch of ignorant chumps.
I wish I knew about the circumstances alleged which because of Drew and Bob Ford did to Chief Pozzo.
I would certainly think for what Shannon is paid it should be in her job description to fill in for the absence of the City Manager. No different than an Assistant Police or Fire Chief. There should be a second in charge ready to step in for all of our managers. It only makes good sense. We should hire a new Manager and let’s try this again. There is no need to waste money advertising an interim. Shannon seems fully capable and appears to be supported by Coucil. Spend our tax dollars and your energy on a permanent City Manager. Don’t prolong or confuse the process. With Shannon’s years in service I would bet that she could do a better job than our past managers performance.
I agree that she should step up as the interim city manager. If she does not step up as the interim city manager then maybe they need to be looking for an interim city manager and an interim assistant city manager. Maybe they should make her a P.I.O. or an administrative assistant.
With the amount of tenure she has as an assistant city manager she should step up as the interim city manager and that will give council time to make a methodical selection for a permanent city manager. This will be a good experience for Shannon and will give her experience making important decisions and handling authority properly. I only think that the rest of council needs to make sure that Allen Green does not try to control and dominate her in order to do an end run around the rest of the city council and open and transparent governance.
Please accept my humble apology. I almost forgot the commemorative eulogy for the recently resigned comptroller Stella Gurnee. Here is Snowball performing the victory dance.
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Youtube+Another+One+Bites+The+Dust&qpvt=Youtube+Another+One+Bites+The+Dust&FORM=VDRE#view=detail&mid=453CDED6C234DC533DB6453CDED6C234DC533DB6
Speaking of Allen Green….what was that all about at the meeting??? He taking Shannon in the back to speak to her for a few minutes out of the public eye. Utterly SHOCKING.
Shannon, please, please tell us what Mayor Green said to you behind closed doors at a public meeting??? We are dying with curiousity.
I also found that somewhat interesting and it really didn’t look good considering the current condition. That should be public information. It is clear, though, that Shannon wants nothing to do with leading this city. I can understand her reluctance to face a constant barrage of criticism but that comes with the position, even as an assistant city manager. When you work in the public realm everyone and anyone can take pop shots at you at anytime. If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.
Mr woodman, i am glad to hear you have so much knowledge about the city, i am.sad to hear that you were constantly told by your your upper management that if you were to be honest you would be.fired. you do relize.you have rights and could never be fired for telling the truth. I am so sorry the city that gave you a retirement package is being so horrible to you. How can we fix this for future employees??
It’s debatable how much knowledge I have. Some would say I know nothing. I wasn’t constantly being told that being honest would get me fired. I was threatened several times for asking about things that people didn’t want to talk about for whatever reason, for speaking my mind and for various other reasons. I had the right to keep my mouth shut and keep my job or leave. Look what happened to our purchasing manager when he told the truth. The city is not being horrible to me in particular but in general they haven’t served the citizens of Port Orange very well in some areas over the past few years. I think we all know the debacle list. It’s not just about fixing things for employees It’s also about fixing things for our tax paying citizens. We need open, honest, transparent and competent politicians and management.
Assistant City Manager, Interim City Manager, Interim Interim City Manager, PIO, or Window Dressing, “WE SHALL SEE”.