Tag Archives: City Manager Jarrett Atkinson

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Hey, new guys! Listen to the good doctor!

Brian Eades may be whistling in the dark with this request.

That doesn’t diminish its value.

Eades is the senior member of the Amarillo City Council and he’s urging his new colleagues on the council — Elisha Demerson, Randy Burkett and Mark Nair — to reconsider their effort to toss out the city’s top-level management.

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As he told NewsChannel 10, the effort to replace City Manager Jarrett Atkinson and the entire Amarillo Economic Development Corporation board is, at best, “premature.”

Do you think?

All of this has taken a stunning turn. Nair took his oath of office this past Tuesday — and later on that very same day he said Atkinson should resign. The voters elected to Place 4 to be an agent of change, he said, and by golly he intends to fulfill that mandate.

Same with Demerson and Burkett.

Eades, a physician who was elected to the council in 2007, said the call is at best premature.

I’ll go a step or three further. It’s reckless.

Eades told NewsChannel 10: “New individuals may want to understand how the city works before you launch into that. It took me almost two years on the council to figure out exactly all the details regarding city government and how it works.”

Yes, there have been stumbles along the way. I concede readily that the city has been embarrassed by some remarkably inept occurrences. The city erred in hiring a traffic engineer; its animal control operation came under intense fire; it stepped on every one of its toes over that ridiculous city logo fiasco. To be sure, the city manager — as the city’s chief executive officer — is responsible ultimately for everything that happens, good and bad.

But Eades issues another cautionary suggestion: “Certainly, ultimately he is responsible, but I think you have to hold middle managers and lower level managers responsible for what they do in the workplace everyday as well.”

Will the new guys heed the good doctor’s advice when the council meets next Tuesday?

Well, I’m not holding my breath for that to occur.

Some municipal government experience, though, does bring more than a hint of wisdom.

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City Hall ‘change’ beginning to take shape

nair

Mark Nair may becoming a sort of “swing vote” on the Amarillo City Council.

Just as Justice Anthony Kennedy helps determine which direction the Supreme Court tilts on key rulings, so might City Councilman-elect Nair be — in the words of a former president of the United States — a “decider.”

He’s one of three new guys to join the five-member council. He won a runoff election this past Saturday to win his spot on Place 4.

And he’s sounding like someone intent on changing the way business has been done at City Hall.

I remain a bit confused, though, regarding his intentions.

A lengthy newspaper interview published Monday noted a couple of things.

Nair said he doesn’t want to “undo” downtown redevelopments that already are under “contractual obligation.” He does, though, want to rethink the multipurpose event venue and plans to argue that it go before the voters for their approval.

Suppose, then, that voters say “no” to the MPEV. What happens next? Nair referenced the “catalyst projects” that already are under contract: the convention hotel and the parking garage. If the MPEV is torpedoed, does the hotel get built anyway? It’s always been my understanding that the hotel developer’s plans for the Embassy Suites complex is predicated on the MPEV and without the event venue, there’s no need for a parking garage.

It’s all tied together, correct?

Nair deserves congratulations for winning his initial elected office. He presents himself as a thoughtful young man. He said he wants to talk with City Manager Jarrett Atkinson — who he said he doesn’t know — about the problems that have beset the city. Things have to change, Nair said. The water bill SNAFU cannot go uncorrected, he said and he asserts that the manager, as the city’s CEO, is responsible for ensuring the place runs smoothly.

But the folks in charge of it all — the policy team — sit on the City Council. They have to operate as a team, along with the senior city administration. That was the mantra prior to the election.

We now shall see if the new guys can play well with each other — and those who do their bidding.

Mark Nair, the newest of the new fellows, vows to “work for the common good.”

Get busy, gentlemen.