East Ridge News Online

Your Local News Source

  • Home
  • News
  • Crime
    • Arrest Reports
    • Court Dockets & Dispositions
  • Opinions
    • Read Opinions
    • Submit An Opinion
  • Politics
  • Sports
  • More
    • Business
    • Community
    • Good Eats
  • Contact US
    • Contact Us
    • Submit A News Tip
    • Submit An Opinion
You are here: Home / Opinion / Stop The Meddling in CM’s Business

Stop The Meddling in CM’s Business

April 24, 2016 By Dick Cook 1 Comment

The way East Ridge sometimes works reminds me of a lyric in the Crosby Stills & Nash song Southern Cross.

“And we never failed to fail it was the easiest thing to do”

The words illustrate the way we’ve gone about trying to hire and keep a City Manager. 

When Andrew Hyatt decided to decamp for a job in Florida in July of last year our city fathers decided to do what they’ve done in the past … appoint an interim and leave a search for a permanent replacement on the back burner of things to do.

In August, Vice Mayor Marc Gravitt tried to convince his colleagues that the city needed to at least start the process of finding a permanent replacement. But, no, we didn’t need to get into a hurry. I remember Councilman Denny Manning saying something to the effect of leaving Interim City Manager Mike Williams in place for the foreseeable future because he was doing things that needed to be done in the city for a long time.

Eventually the city got around to advertising for the position and took resumes up through January 30. With resumes in City Hall, our elected officials let them age for a good while before finally allowing a third party from MTAS to rank the candidates. That document, like good wine, was aged for an appropriate amount of time before the Council decided it was time to pare that list down to a half dozen people they would interview. The interviews will be held on April 28 and 29.

Well, guess what? the top candidates are long gone. They’ve been hired by other cities because they’ve got something on the ball. The City of East Ridge will choose from a group of people who have been looking for a job for six months. Our choices very well could be the top of the bottom.

That’s frustrating enough. But you know what, it really doesn’t matter who the next City Manager is in East Ridge because they won’t be here long. Look no further than the tenure of City Managers since we hired our first “professional” CM, one William Whitson. Since 2009 we’ve burned through Whitson, Tim Gobble and Hyatt. 

In my opinion, the turnover in city managers isn’t so much a result of having inept or incompetent people at the head of our day-to-day operations, it’s the result of some of our councilmen meddling in the city manager’s affairs.

The job of the Council is to set policy. The job of the City Manager is to implement those policies.

It’s no secret that some councilmen are in the city manager’s office or blowing up his phone telling him what to do and how to do it. That’s no way to run a city.

In fact, our City Charter prohibits this kind of nonsense. Yet, believe me, it happens. The City Manager is caught between a rock and a very hard place. If he blows the whistle, the councilman will be after his head. If he keeps his mouth shut, he becomes frustrated, bitter, ineffective, thwarted. 

We need to at least give our next city manager, whoever that may be, a fighting chance. I’ve got a suggestion for moving forward and it could get unpleasant. 

In the future, if the mayor gets wind of an elected official interfering in the business of the city manager he needs to act. He and the City Attorney, acting in conjunction, needs to lay down the law in a City Council meeting. Call ’em out! Tell the offending elected official that this must stop. Is it not a violation of the councilman’s oath of office to uphold the City Charter by meddling in the city manager’s business? 

Nobody wants discord on the Council. I understand that. Yes, the mayor may be picking a fight with a colleague if he does this. But, folks, we’ve got to change this revolving door to the City Manager’s office. East Ridge has the potential for unprecedented economic development in the next few years. Having continuity in the City Manager’s office could go a long way in achieving economic prosperity and with helping move this city forward.

 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Opinion

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.


Search Our Site

Will you and your family patronize the new Whataburger coming to East Ridge?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...
  • Polls Archive

Our Sponsors:


Contact Us
Submit A Tip
Copyright Notice
Advertise
Terms of Service
Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 · News Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in