For a city manager candidate who said he fell in love with Wichita, Robert Layton sure seems to be having trouble deciding whether he wants to move here – which isn’t a good sign. The Wichita City Council voted last week to offer Layton the city manager job. But Layton, city manager at Urbandale, Iowa, is unsure now whether he wants it. On Friday he said he would have an answer first thing Monday morning. Then today he said he needed until after Thanksgiving to decide. Why the indecision?
For Layton, one understandable concern was that only four of seven City Council members voted for him. But as Mayor Carl Brewer and others have explained, the split vote reflected the quality of the three finalists for the job, not a lack of confidence in Layton.
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13 Comments
Cold feet?
Maybe he has to talk to his family first.
With a vote of four to three in favor of hiring Robert Layton … would it be smart for Layton to give up a sure thing job in an Iowa suburb … for a tenuous at best job in Kansas fraught with a spagetti ball of virtually unsolvable problems?
With several city managers already passed through Wichita, why should Layton think he might stop that flow?
Shown a half built unwanted, unneeded downtown arena which cost 1/2 billion dollars and no more money available for adding parking lots … would Layton or any other sane person want to get involved in that fiasco?
With a city and county now losing population of people and businesses at a fantastic clip … is this the future for a rising relatively young city manager?
Think about it.
The dude’s no dummy.
He’s already got half the Council against him.
One election and he’s out on the street with a tin-cup facing “the marketplace discipline” of eight years of RepubliCON gutting the economy and selling it off.
Better to stay where he is.
Now is the time for all of us to bang on our city council members (mine is too much of coward to speak to me, though) and tell them if Layton says no, let’s get the city manager the REAL people of Wichita want… Scott Moore, the one we have right now.
If not, they’re the ones who’ll be looking for new employment… starting next year.
Mr. C: I agree. If Robert Layton says No … then do the right thing. Try to retain Scott Moore at least until after the April city elections to see how the City Council after the election want to proceed.
Of course, if Mr. Layton does accept the offer, I presume he will receive a generous termination payment so perhaps he is factoring that in.
Yes for Scott Moore.
I know exactly what Layton is thinking. He’s thinking.
“Hey, if I can get a City Manager Job in a City as big as Wichita, I should be able to get a job in a more desirable locale than Wichita.”
It’s O.K. Layton, don’t think we can blame you for that. Just tell them to throw in an extra $20,000 in on your salary, and we’ll pick up the tab.
Let’s face it, would you like to come to work knowing that one of your supporters, Sharon Feary, will be gone next spring and that the very vindictive Sue Schlapp is out to get you? I can’t blame the guy…Schlapp would find an excuse to fire him minutes after Sharon’s term is up.
The guy is probably too smart for the ego driven mess we have here. that is a shame, too…I watched the interviews on Channel 7, and Layton impressed me..he could be just what this City needs, instead of more of the same. But…just watch, Sue Schlapp will get her way and Buchanan will move across the street long enough to retire.
Maybe it is Schlapp who needs to be retired.
Unfortunately, Schlapp won re-election in 2007. We’re stuck with her for a while.
Speaking of Family Schalpp political ambitions, Sedgwick County is RFP’ing for a new lobbyist. Andy Schlapp had that job for the past couple of years – I wonder where he’s moving on to? Perhaps part of Tiahrt’s Senate campaign?
Tiahrt’s Senate Campaign . . . now there’s a job with NO FUTURE if I ever heard one . . .
Capn,
That makes it the PERFECT career move.
:)