This story will need some fleshing out, but I cannot help but offer a quick-hit comment.
Amarillo interim City Manager Terry Childers has submitted his resignation. It appears he got angry with a resident and called him an SOB duringĀ a City Council meeting on Tuesday.
Mayor Paul Harpole asked Childers for his resignation and Childers delivered it today. The city is going to appoint Assistant City Manager Bob Cowell to the interim post.
This is big news for an important reason. The city needs a permanent city manager. City Hall has been the picture of dysfunction since the May 2015 election of three new council members. Former City Manager Jarrett Atkinson quit –and now is about to be hired as the city manager in Lubbock; good for him! The council was looking actively for a new manager, then suspended its search; then it renewed it only recently.
The issue facing the City Council now is simple: How does it present a city government that is functional, efficient and cohesive to the next band of city manager candidates willing to assume the awesome job of running a city of 200,000 residents — and more than its share of soreheads?
Let’s all stay tuned. This might get real good.