Andrew Freeman is the interim city manager in Amarillo, Texas, a city I know pretty well, having lived there for 23 years before moving with my wife to the Metroplex to be closer to our granddaughter.

I have been stewing about this story for a little bit and I am trying to wrap my arms around the notion of an interim head of a municipal staff enacting the huge managerial changes he sought for the city.

The City Council drummed Jared Miller out of the manager’s job a few months ago, apparently dissatisfied with the leadership he was providing. They elevated Freeman to the interim post, pending the council’s decision on who to hire for the permanent job.

I guess Freeman just couldn’t wait to get the nod, so he acted on his own. He shifted a number of folks around in senior management posts — apparently without checking first with the council members for whom he works.

What might be the fallout from this decision. The council met the other day in executive session to discuss the interim guy’s job performance. Then the city issued a statement rescinding all the appointments that Freeman made. The council said the interim manager violated city policy that is spelled out in the charter; it says the manager cannot do anything of that sort without consulting with the council.

It would be one thing, I suppose, for a city manager who’s been appointed to the job on a full-time — or permanent –basis to get ahead of himself. Andrew Freeman is on the job technically on a temporary basis. For an interim manager to be so bold strikes me as a bit of a brassy move.

It makes me wonder how the council is going to look on that when they get around to deciding whom to select as the next permanent — and I use the term guardedly — chief municipal administrator.

Stay tuned … eh?