Dear City Councilors Matheny and Anderson-Groat:
I know that the decision you made to remove the city manager from his position must not have been an easy one. For what it is worth, I think you made the right decision.
In considering who to hire for the position now, I have two suggestions:
1. Put qualifications above all else. Experience, education and skill set should exceed familiarity with Greensboro, connections or other considerations.
2. Subservient to #1, but important, find a candidate who believes, preferably through demonstrable actions, in open government. The culture of secrecy under the former manager was bad for Greensboro. The City Attorney's latest excuse (according to Yes! Weekly) for not releasing secret tape recordings, even to one of the people recorded -- that they are personnel records because they were produced as "a part of the employee's duties" -- is shocking. Can you imagine if the public were denied access to anything produced as "part of an employee's duties?" Everything would be off limits. This propensity towards secrecy needs to be reversed. Hire a city manager who recognizes this as a problem and is willing to change it.
Yours,
Roch Smith, Jr
Well said Roch. And a pat on the back to you sir.
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