Modesto Bee Editorial Thursday, May. 12, 2011
It's easy to list reasons why a city could not get by with a part-time city manager or why two cities could not share a city manager. The job is too demanding. The top executive needs to be available full-time and then some. A city manager working for two elected boards would have divided loyalties. But these days, when money is tight and the public expects more efficiency from tax-supported entities, the idea of small cities using part-time or shared city managers deserves consideration. Oakdale proposes to try it out, by hiring a part-time interim city manager through 2011-12. A committee is considering candidates now. Money is a big factor in this experiment. Oakdale, which has already reduced police positions and is looking at more public safety cuts, might be able to get by paying an interim part-time city manager about $75,000, with no benefits. That's less than a third of the $232,000 in total compensation for Steve Hallam, the city manager that the council just let go. Who are the likely candidates for a part-time city CEO job? Recent retirees or people who are willing — or even eager — to wear two hats. Oakdale's acting city manager is the part-time fire chief, who is also a retiree. Ceres' interim city manager is Art de Werk, who continues as public safety director/police chief as well. Escalon has a part-time city manager and a part-time police chief. Riverbank is relying on a part-time city manager until the fate of longtime city manager Rich Holmer is resolved. Holmer was placed on paid leave at the end of March, with no public explanation of why. Another idea tossed out for consideration is whether the neighboring cities of Oakdale and Riverbank could share a city manager. They are already partners in animal services. Sharing a city manager could be much more difficult, because it would require two city councils to agree on the same personality and then to share that person's time equally. In either scenario, there's also a risk that without a full-time city manager, elected officials would start micromanaging their agencies, resulting in some of the problems we saw last year in Hughson. Nonetheless, these are unusual times demanding unusual approaches, and the private sector has many cases where CEOs oversee multiple entities. While we don't think organizations as large as the city of Modesto or Stanislaus County could function with a part-time CEO, we think it's reasonable for smaller governments to consider it.
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Oakdale Population in July 2009: 20,497.
Riverbank Population in July 2009: 20,684
Modesto Population in July 2009: 202,747
Ceres Population in July 2009: 42,667
It's easy to list reasons why a city could not get by with a part-time city manager or why two cities could not share a city manager. The job is too demanding. The top executive needs to be available full-time and then some. A city manager working for two elected boards would have divided loyalties. But these days, when money is tight and the public expects more efficiency from tax-supported entities, the idea of small cities using part-time or shared city managers deserves consideration. Oakdale proposes to try it out, by hiring a part-time interim city manager through 2011-12. A committee is considering candidates now. Money is a big factor in this experiment. Oakdale, which has already reduced police positions and is looking at more public safety cuts, might be able to get by paying an interim part-time city manager about $75,000, with no benefits. That's less than a third of the $232,000 in total compensation for Steve Hallam, the city manager that the council just let go. Who are the likely candidates for a part-time city CEO job? Recent retirees or people who are willing — or even eager — to wear two hats. Oakdale's acting city manager is the part-time fire chief, who is also a retiree. Ceres' interim city manager is Art de Werk, who continues as public safety director/police chief as well. Escalon has a part-time city manager and a part-time police chief. Riverbank is relying on a part-time city manager until the fate of longtime city manager Rich Holmer is resolved. Holmer was placed on paid leave at the end of March, with no public explanation of why. Another idea tossed out for consideration is whether the neighboring cities of Oakdale and Riverbank could share a city manager. They are already partners in animal services. Sharing a city manager could be much more difficult, because it would require two city councils to agree on the same personality and then to share that person's time equally. In either scenario, there's also a risk that without a full-time city manager, elected officials would start micromanaging their agencies, resulting in some of the problems we saw last year in Hughson. Nonetheless, these are unusual times demanding unusual approaches, and the private sector has many cases where CEOs oversee multiple entities. While we don't think organizations as large as the city of Modesto or Stanislaus County could function with a part-time CEO, we think it's reasonable for smaller governments to consider it.
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Oakdale Population in July 2009: 20,497.
Riverbank Population in July 2009: 20,684
Modesto Population in July 2009: 202,747
Ceres Population in July 2009: 42,667
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