Tag Archives: Amarillo City Council

local news, political news

Municipal incumbents need to defend themselves

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David Swinford used to feign anger at me whenever I wrote a column insisting that state legislators — no matter how effective they were — deserved to be challenged every election cycle.

The Dumas Republican, who served in the Texas Legislature for several terms, usually would skate through without much opposition — although he did get a stout primary challenge late in his legislative career from Anette Carlisle, who now serves on the Amarillo College Board of Regents.

My only suggestion then was that all incumbents need to defend their record and it was up to challengers to make them do so.

Here we are in Amarillo, getting ready for the filing dates for our City Council. That rumble you hear around the city might be the sound of challengers getting ready to run against this five-person governing body.

We’ve seen the names of a couple of mayoral hopefuls. One of them belongs to Elisha Demerson, who currently serves on the council. Another name is Ginger Nelson, an economic development expert. The current mayor? Officially, Paul Harpole is undecided about seeking another term. I’m beginning to think he’s going to call it a municipal public service career.

What about the rest of the council. You have Randy Burkett and Mark Nair, two of the three change agents who were elected in May 2015. Nair also apparently is trying to decide whether to run again. Burkett seems a lock for another run.

Those two fellows clearly will need to defend themselves against challengers. They have some explaining to do, as does Demerson — the third new guy.

They engineered the departure of a competent city manager, Jarrett Atkinson. Then they brought in an interim manager, Terry Childers, who turned out to be, um, less than stellar; Childers is gone. There has been backbiting and needless bickering, causing Childers to bemoan what he called a “dysfunctional” atmosphere at City Hall. Atkinson wasn’t the only senior city administrator to hit the road. City Attorney Marcus Norris resigned and Assistant City Manager Vicki Covey retired. All in all, City Hall’s level of expertise took a serious nosedive … rapidly!

Then came the departure of Melissa Dailey — apparently at Childers’ insistence — from her post as head of Downtown Amarillo Inc. I’m still puzzled over that move, given the demonstrable success that DAI had delivered in downtown’s ongoing revival.

The fifth council member, Lisa Blake, is new to her job. She was appointed by her colleagues to succeed Brian Eades, who quit the council when he moved out of state.

Does the council deserves a stout challenge? Do all five incumbents — whether they’re running for re-election or seeking another seat on the body, which Demerson might do — need to account for the actions they have taken during the past two years?

Absolutely! Without question!

Although I no longer am into predicting political outcomes, it does seem a pretty good bet — at least at this moment — that the City Council ballot is going to contain a healthy number of candidates. They will seek to persuade voters that they are the best fits for the job of governing a city in midst of profound change.

Voters deserve choices. I’m hoping we get them as the municipal election cycle comes to a full boil.

local news, political news

How about some more ‘change’ at Amarillo City Hall?

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Let’s talk among ourselves about the upcoming municipal election.

Amarillo went through a “change election” in 2015 when voters unseated two incumbents and installed a majority of new guys on the five-member City Council; the third new guy won a seat vacated by an incumbent who was just keeping the seat warm until the election.

In May 2017, voters will fill the five seats on the council.

I’m wondering if someone will run solely on the platform of serious change in the city’s voting plan. I’m wondering also about discussing publicly a reform that would involve electing four council members from single-member districts, two of them at-large along with the mayor, who of course also would run citywide.

I wrote in 2013 that I was rethinking my earlier opposition to changing the city’s current five-member at-large council voting plan.

https://highplainsblogger.com/2013/12/re-thinking-single-member-districts/

So I’ll ask the question here. Are we ready to have a serious, adult conversation about changing the City Council’s voting plan?

I’m no longer confident that the at-large system is serving an increasingly diverse city of 200,000 residents, with burgeoning ethnic and racial minorities. The city is growing and it’s becoming a different community than it was a decade ago; it’s a much different place than it was 20 or 30 years ago.

Would such a plan be approved if it were put to a vote? We’ll never know if we don’t try. The city charter would need a serious rewriting. Changing it requires a municipal election.

First, though, we need to have a discussion among those willing to serve on the City Council, to set governing policy.

The so-called “agents of change” who were elected in May 2015 ought to demonstrate a serious commitment to significant change in the city’s governing policy.

That change ought to include a reform of the City Council composition. A hybrid council — partly single-member, partly at-large — such as what I’ve suggested hardly is unique. Indeed, it preserves an at-large option for two council seats that is similar to what’s been enacted in cities of comparable size all across Texas.

The debate until now has been whether to create single-member wards, while keeping the mayor’s seat as the only at-large seat on the council. I think a hybrid solution is more feasible.

At the very least, it’s worth a serious community discussion.

First, though, candidates ought to step up and initiate it.

local news

City needs to rid itself of ‘dysfunctional’ perception

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It’s been said that perception often becomes reality.

That’s occasionally a harsh truth no matter how unrealistic the perception might be in the minds of many.

Amarillo’s former interim city manager, Terry Childers, went out with a bang. No, make it a boom! He muttered a seriously profane epithet in mid-November at a constituent into a hot mic and then quit the next day. He cleared out his office and drove back to Oklahoma City.

But he had scolded the City Council about what he called the “dysfunction” within City Hall’s government apparatus and he laid the blame for that perception at the council’s feet.

Was he wrong? Was he way off the mark? Was the interim manager looking for scapegoats?

Who knows? Who should care? The perception is likely out there in the community that comprises career government administrators.

It’s a perception that the City Council must address directly, head on and candidly as it continues its search for a permanent city manager.

Whether it’s true or it’s all a figment of the former interim city manager’s mind doesn’t matter. Some potential administrative candidate might look at what Childers said and determine, “You know, I don’t want any part of that.” How many other top-drawer administrators might draw that conclusion based on the perception that’s been tossed out there by the guy who left City Hall in a huff?

Indeed, the council might want to examine precisely why the interim manager couldn’t restrain himself that fateful day when he said what he did to one of his bosses, a constituent whose property taxes helps foot the Amarillo government bill.

Therein might lie the perception that the council needs to cleanse from its public image.

local news

City manager search might get really complicated

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Amarillo needs a city manager more than its governing council might realize.

Then again, perhaps the five individuals on the City Council do realize it. Still, the search for a permanent chief municipal executive might get complicated in a major hurry.

Given that I don’t get out as much these days as I did when I was working full time for a living, I am not privy to all the chatter and clatter that rattles around the city. But I did hear a thing or two today that makes me think about the upcoming city manager search and the issues that might complicate it.

The City Council makeup might be changing. The buzz I heard is that Mayor Paul Harpole won’t seek re-election. He’s had enough. He’s done. It’ll be back to selling cars full time for His Honor. Councilman Mark Nair might be on the fence about running for re-election next May. I have heard that Councilman Elisha Demerson wants to be mayor. Councilman Randy Burkett, I’m told, is a cinch to seek re-election. No word on the newest council member, Lisa Blake, and her plans to seek election to the seat to which she was appointed.

The council has this reputation for dysfunction. The former interim city manager, Terry Childers, laid it on the line a few months back. He scolded the council for contributing to the “caustic” atmosphere at City Hall. He blamed council members for the “dysfunction” that infects local government. Does the headhunter the city hired to recruit a qualified pool of candidate expect to deliver a top-quality corps of candidates given what’s been transpiring at City Hall?

The city election looms large. Childers was supposed to stay on until after the May municipal election. Then he popped off at a constituent and quit. He cleared out his desk and returned to Oklahoma City, from where he came a year ago. If the council undergoes another wholesale change in its makeup in 2017 similar to what it got in 2015, that in itself might be enough to dissuade qualified manager candidates from seeking the job.

Why is finding a manager so critical? Well, the city is in the midst of a wholesale change downtown. I drove along Buchanan Street this afternoon en route to an appointment on the other side of town and I was struck once again by the incredible change in the appearance of the street.

From 10th Avenue north to Third Avenue, you see all that major construction: the Excel Building, the multi-story parking garage, the Embassy Suites convention hotel. Then you see the demolition of the Coca-Cola site still ongoing just south of City Hall to make room for the multipurpose event venue/ballpark.

The city is negotiating with a minor-league baseball franchise to relocate in Amarillo.

Amarillo needs a firm hand on the till to guide all this to a successful conclusion.

Dysfunction. Uncertainty. Continued change. It’s all there to make municipal government an even more complicated and challenging endeavor than it already is.

My optimism that the city can navigate through this mess keeps ebbing and flowing. At this moment, I’m feeling the ebb — but I am hoping for the flow.

local news, political news

Is it time to look ahead to city election? Sure, let’s do it!

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The presidential election has been decided … to the satisfaction of a minority of Americans who voted for the winner.

I won’t get into the ongoing discussion about the Electoral College.

Instead, let’s take a brief look at our own next election cycle, right here in Amarillo.

We’re going to elect our City Council next May. Our city charter puts all five seats up for election at the same time. We get to keep ’em all, toss ’em all out or decide on some variation in between.

The May 2015 election produced a pretty radical shakeup on the council. Voters elected three new guys: Randy Burkett, Mark Nair and Elisha Demerson. Voters re-elected two others, Mayor Paul Harpole and Brian Eades; then Eades quit and moved to Colorado and he’s been succeeded by Lisa Blake, who emerged as the frontrunner after a highly public interview process with four other finalists selected by the council.

To say we’ve had a rough time of it at City Hall since the May 2015 election would be the height (or depth) of understatement.

City Manager Jarrett Atkinson quit, along with a number of other senior city administrators.  Then the council hired Terry Childers as the interim city manager. That didn’t turn out too well, as Childers this past week quit his job one year to the day after being named the interim manager.

Childers messed up one time too many.

Now the council has to get busy and find someone who wants to take hold of the city’s administrative reins. This is the only hire the council makes directly. It whiffed with Childers. Are these folks capable of filling this critical job? We shall see.

The council has gotten involved in some disputes among its members. The mayor has been at odds openly with the three new fellows, and they have been with him. All this has occurred as the city has embarked on a major makeover of its downtown district. Holy cow, dudes!

So, the question of the moment is this: Will the three new council members face a serious challenge from someone — or from an organized group of residents — if and/or when they seek re-election?

They all promised “change” when they were elected to the council. They certainly have delivered on their promise. Collegiality has given way to chaos. Decorum has been replaced by dysfunction.

The issue that awaits voters, though, is whether the change has been worth the tumult that has boiled over at City Hall.

We’ll find out in due time.

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Amarillo needs City Hall boss to shepherd its future

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I don’t think I’m alone in believing this, but Amarillo has reached a critical juncture in its development without a full-time, permanent city manager on hand to guide the city’s journey into the future.

The interim city manager, Terry Childers, quit his job this past week after muttering a profane epithet at a constituent. He cleared out his desk, his office and then he hit the road. The city has elevated assistant manager Bob Cowell into the interim post.

Now the city has to restart its search for a permanent manager.

Time seems to be a critical matter.

Demolition crews are knocking down a vacant building to make room for the planned construction of a downtown ballpark and event venue. Construction crews are working nearby to finish work on a convention hotel and a parking garage. It’s all good stuff and it speaks to the city’s desire to achieve a bright future.

The $45 million ballpark is the lynchpin, of course. The city is in the midst of negotiating with a San Antonio minor-league baseball team that reportedly wants to bring that team to Amarillo.

Given the city’s governing charter, the city manager is invested with a tremendous amount of authority and power. This individual makes all the major hires: police chief, fire chief, assistant city manager. The manager also should be involved in determining who fills other key positions.

Taxpayers fork over a good deal of money to pay the city manager and the individual earns every nickel of the six-figure salary if he or she does a good job.

The city has gone more than a year without a permanent manager. It started a search, then stopped searching. Childers was going to stay on until the May 2017 elections concluded. Then it all went to hell with that expletive muttered into a hot microphone.

All this has occurred against a backdrop of serious change afoot in the city. Amarillo is seeking to remake its downtown district. It involves some public funds as well as substantial private investment. The public part of it requires the city have a strong hand at the City Hall helm.

There needs to be some stability returned to City Hall.

My hope now is for the City Council to expedite its search for a permanent city manager. Time is critical, lady and gentlemen of the council. A lot of things are happening all at once and the city’s administrative staff needs a firm hand.

Let’s get busy.

local news, Uncategorized

Childers needed to go; here’s why

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If I had been given the opportunity to write an editorial explaining why Amarillo’s former interim city manager needed a boot in the backside, I might have written something like this:

Terry Childers overstayed his welcome in Amarillo and it was time for him to hit the road.

It wasn’t that he was doing a bad job administratively. By many lights, he had infused City Hall with a renewed can-do attitude and had made some key decisions involving key personnel. He hired a police chief, Ed Drain, who has committed his department to community policing. Good call … and Childers deserves credit for recognizing that initiative in the new police chief.

But, oh man, the city manager revealed a mouth that he at times couldn’t control.

His resignation this week came after only the latest example of Childers engaging his pie hole without thinking first. He muttered “stupid son of a b****” into an open mic in the direction of a constituent. That was the last straw.

He had earlier scolded the City Council — the very people who hired him — for creating a “dysfunctional” atmosphere at City Hall. And before that — not long after he got hired — Childers berated an emergency services dispatcher after he misplaced his briefcase at a local hotel and all but called out the National Guard to find it.

The city manager is something of an ambassador for the city he serves, for the people to whom he answers. Whether it’s the elected body that hired him or taxpayers who foot the bill with their own money, the city manager is a hired hand. He works for us, not the other way around.

In that regard, the interim manager fell short of the mark.

***

I didn’t get to write that editorial, quite obviously. So I have decided to state my piece here.

The Amarillo Globe-News didn’t say it, either. Instead of offering a high-minded editorial that took Childers to the woodshed and delivered a whuppin’ he deserved, the newspaper cleared out the Opinion page and blasted a sophomoric “Goodbye Terry” farewell message that accomplished nothing except perhaps make Childers a sympathetic character in an ongoing feud in which has been engaged with the publisher of the newspaper, Lester Simpson.

Maybe the G-N will get around — eventually — to offering some words of wisdom about what we have all just witnessed.

Childers was right about a few things during his time in Amarillo. One of them related to the “caustic” political atmosphere at City Hall, which Councilman Elisha Demerson suggested might be at the heart of the “stupid SOB” comment the other evening. The environment frustrated Childers, according to Demerson, who suggested that the manager was venting.

The events of the past few days — with all the characters involved in this soap opera — have made the city’s task of finding  a new permanent city manager even more difficult.

Amarillo is undergoing some pretty radical changes at this very moment, starting with the effort to reshape, revive and remake its downtown district. The city needs a strong, steady hand to guide the municipal ship. It also needs a City Council that acts as a team, rather than a collection of individuals each with his own agenda.

I am going to say a prayer or two that the city will find that individual — whether he or she lives elsewhere or perhaps already is on board within the current administrative staff.

I believe most of us who have been watching City Hall over the years would agree on at least one critical point: The city has a serious mess on its hands.

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Karma reveals changing municipal fortunes

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You’ve no doubt heard the saying: Karma’s a bitch.

As such, it works in the strangest ways one can imagine. Consider the fortunes of two leading West Texas municipal government operations.

Amarillo is now looking once again for a city manager to replace the interim manager the City Council appointed to navigate the city through some rough water. Interim manager Terry Childers is out after he muttered a profane epithet into an open mic at a constituent. Childers resigned his temporary job and is slated to depart no later than Dec. 16.

City Hall is roiling yet again in controversy at the highest levels of its municipal administration. Sheesh. It’s the gift that keeps on giving.

B’bye, Mr. Manager.

Meanwhile, down the road about 120 miles in Lubbock, the man Childers succeeded as city manager, Jarret Atkinson, reportedly is about to be named that city’s new city manager. The announcement is likely to be made public on Thursday.

Atkinson was drummed out of office in Amarillo because — it has been reported — he couldn’t work with the new majority elected in May 2015.

Atkinson has become a superior water development expert, and he brought his valuable expertise to bear during his years as Amarillo city manager. Now he gets to deploy his vast knowledge of water management and development in Lubbock.

The former Amarillo city manager has done well for himself and Lubbock has likely done well for itself if it selects Atkinson as its next chief administrator.

Amarillo’s municipal future? It has been thrown into doubt once again. Karma does have this way of biting back … hard!

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‘Caustic’ City Hall environment just got more caustic

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Amarillo’s interim city manager once scolded the City Council for creating a “caustic” political environment.

Interesting, yes? Why, of course it is. Because today, the manager in question — Terry Childers — resigned his post after calling a city resident a “stupid son of a b****” during a council meeting.

You want a caustic environment? There it is.

What happens now? The city is going to resume its search for a permanent city manager. It is going to launch an effort to find the best and the brightest city administrators it can find to operate City Hall’s machinery.

The question that continues to nag at me goes something like this: How does the city attract the best candidates possible when it operates in a dysfunctional environment?

Indeed, who wants to plunge into this setting, seeking to steady a ship that is heading on a bold, new course?

Childers has about 30 days to vacate the office. He need not take that long to hit the road and drift back into whatever life he had before he came on board a year ago to repair what supposedly was wrong with City Hall’s machinery.

His tenure hit some potholes early. He misplaced a briefcase at an Amarillo hotel and called the emergency dispatch center to report a “theft.” It turned into a top-shelf cluster hump.

Then came his stern lecture in September about the dysfunctional nature of municipal government, in which he blamed the council for creating a less-than-healthy atmosphere at City Hall.

This week was the last straw as he muttered an epithet into a “hot mic” about a critic of city policy.

Welcome to the hot seat, Assistant City Manager Bob Cowell, who will be asked to step into the interim post.

City Hall is making many of us around Amarillo a bit crazy. The City Council acts like it intends to set aside the city’s intramural squabbles and move forward as one in the effort to revamp and revitalize the downtown district. Then the city’s top administrator utters a profane insult at a constituent — one of the city “bosses” — and it falls apart … yet again.

Meanwhile …

The most recent permanent Amarillo city manager, Jarrett Atkinson, is set to take a similar post down the highway a bit, in Lubbock.

Atkinson quit his Amarillo city manager’s job because of an inability to work with the newly elected council majority. He has just stuck his landing in Lubbock.

Good for him.

What lies ahead for the city he leaves behind … well, it remains anyone’s guess.

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Calling all city manager applicants: Step right up

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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 during 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.