So the city went ahead and hired Pat Salerno as city manager. His first day on the job is July 14. Seems like his hiring will be a plus for the business community. His track record on commercial and retail development is good, and he guided the construction of an arena in Sunrise, Fla., his previous gig.
Plus he’s not George Kolb. Many, many people in the business community felt Kolb was an obstacle to business growth and to development (one developer had an epic rant about Kolb and little trees a few years ago during an interview at The Eagle.) Kolb, of course, had the misfortune of following Chris Cherches, who had a legacy of getting projects done during his 18-year tenure. My guess is Salerno is built more in the Cherches mold, though I don’t think he will last 18 years.
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Wichita has had a city manager form of government of some kind since 1917. Apparently Wichita’s Rotary Club championed the city manager form of government in 1916. For many, many years, Wichita had a five member city commission plus the city manager. According to a list I have, the first three city managers were L.R. Ash, L.W. Clapp and R.C. Elliott.
In 1927, a local fellow, a Quaker, who had worked in Wichita’s city engineering department, Bert C. Wells, was appointed Wichita City Manager and continued on until WW II. (I’m not sure what year he left the job.) He was well liked and could do everything asked of him but one … it was said he couldn’t give a speech!
It was during Mayor Bob Knight’s reign that the five member city commission was changed to the present seven member city council.
Even so, Wichita has one of the most conservative, “strong” city manager plans in the nation. In Wichita, the mayor can’t even hire an assistant or secretary or purchase an office chair without the permission of the city manager.
If our City Council had any saavy, what should have happened before hiring a permanent city manager was to establish a blue ribbon citizens committee to consider revising Wichita’s city charter and manager plan to give more power to the Mayor so he could adequately represent the voters of Wichita. Now the Mayor more or less takes orders from the city manager.
But if the current seven member city council wants a city manager who will run everything so they don’t have to do any work to earn their $35,000 per year per council person … then they have got their man.
They should have kept Flentje in the position. A manager should MANAGE – not set direction. That should be the job of the mayor and council.
I give him until the second Tuesday in April, 2011.
I bet he wont last that long.
Wichita would have been lucky to keep Flentje. This guy? Not so much.
You are always correct, Mr. C about the GOBN.
Wichita has very little in common with Sunrise. Development in Sunrise was driven by EXTERNAL factors – the larger cities nearby. Wichita is a stand-alone city and must find developments that will likewise stand on their own. Salerno has not shown that he knows anything about that.
bth: Not too mention that Sunrise is located in a different state with different laws, politicians, contractors, engineers, architects, problems, culture, etc. I expect one of Mr. Salerno’s first questions will be: Where’s city hall? Where’s the restroom? Is that the Missouri River flowing through town?
That lack of knowledge should give the GOBN about a year to get their ducks in order or find new jobs.
“he guided the construction of an arena in Sunrise, Fla.”
I wonder how the population within the arena’s service area there compares to here. We have maybe a half-million people to draw from.
“He (Salerno, the new $250,000/year Wichita city manager, including salary, perks, termination guarantees and don’t forget, sumptious snacks) guided construction of an arena in Sunrise, Florida.”
My reply: So did some 50 to 100 white elephant arena cheerleaders here in Wichita … to “give the little people of Wichita an new recreational venue,” (while emptying those “little peoples” billfolds of half billion dollars in sales taxes behind their backs).
But now that the up front money has been spent on lavish parties, most of those fly-by-night arena cheerleaders have moved on to other “river cities,” to sell non-existent band uniforms … with the exception of the three holdover Sedgwick county commissioners, Tom Winters, Dave Unruh, Tim Norton.