LC City Manager Search: Tonight, The City Council May Decide How Much Its City Manager Is Worth?
Posted May 2, 2022 02:50 pm
Photo: StellrWeb via Unsplash| Columbia
County Observer graphic
LAKE CITY, FL –
At 6 pm this evening, the City Council will be
discussing its vacant city manager position
again. Flailing around like a fish out of water,
anything could happen: at the Mayor level, the
Councilman level, and from the public.
With the City Council now a state-wide spectacle for inept and incompetent governance, and folks from all spectrums predicting the worst and expecting it, the Council and its City Attorney (now thought in many circles to be a judge to be) will again be on exhibition this evening.
Lake City Salary increases over the past two
years. Will the City Council pay attention? Does
it know what employees earn?
|
(Columbia County Observer spreadsheet and
graphic)
After the fiasco at its last meeting, which had the city manager candidate standing by, a fact known to the Mayor, which he didn’t share, anything is possible.
The City's headhunter, Renee Narloch, was also standing by. So far, it is unknown how and if Ms. Narloch notified anyone she was available and standing by. The City Clerk did not know.
After the meeting, Councilman Jake Hill said, “We’re going to have to continue to search for a city manager… Ms. Narloch has delivered a candidate to us. It’s up to us to hire the city manager. She’s done her job. That’s my take on it… The only thing we’ve got now is to continue the search. Hopefully, we’ll get us a city manager.”
Post-meeting, community activist Sylvester Warren opined, "It's the Council's fault that we're in this predicament… They could have gave [sic] better guidelines to the headhunter. They didn’t do it. I think the current headhunter – Ms. Narloch – she’s expired… I think it’s time to terminate and find us a new headhunter.”
Whether or not the Mayor and Councilman Jefferson share Mr. Warren’s sentiments, which are the sentiments of many, including Councilman Sampson, may be revealed this evening.
Tonight, Mayor Witt may also explain why he never debunked the false chatter that candidate Adams would accept $150k as a permanent salary. That was never an option that Colonel Adams offered.
Today, Derik Snead emailed the Mayor and Council asking why the headhunter is not advertising the Lake City city manager position on its Linkedin page.
Before this article was posted, the City’s new HR Director had not posted the vacant city manager position on the City’s “Job Openings” page.
Epilogue
The Lake City saga continues.
