It looks like the Copperas Cove city council has some Copperas
Cove city manager finalists.
Finally. About 18 months after Andrea Gardner said “deuces,
Cove! I’m outta here!”
The city council has been nothing but crickets with this
search after kicking the can down the road repeatedly.
Does the public deserve an explanation? Yes.
The first time around, if you recall, dear readers, there
was a bit of a tussle and kerfuffle over the search firm they would use. This took up the greater
part of summer 2018.
At last, in the fall, an RFQ (request for qualifications)
was sent out for the position of Copperas Cove city manager, and the council received
a bunch of proposals back, with their favorite, SGR Strategic Government Resources
getting the okay in November.
SGR put together a 97-page document about their process for
finding the BEST.CITY. MANAGER. EVER. for Copperas Cove.
You can see it here: http://67.79.126.21:8085/docs/2018/CC/20181120_1357/8591_SGR%20Recruitment%20Proposal-Copperas%20Cove%2010-18.pdf
Don’t sweat. It’s just the whole document. But I want you to see
what I am talking about.
Curmudgeon tries not to sigh about people doubting my credibility.
Here’s some paperwork and documents in the link above to BACK UP WHAT I’M
TELLING YOU.
I’m not just blowin’ this out my rear end, y’all.
Anyway!!! SGR has apparently completed STEP 4 of this process. A process that has taken since November. Or, since New Year's at least.
One can only guess if the council was presented with semifinalists at all. Because, they didn't tell us ANYTHING. Not even a "we're working on it, voters!"
We now have finalists!!!!!!
You can see it on SGR's website here:
Then, scroll down to where you see Copperas Cove:
Yep. Finalists have been selected.
On Tuesday morning, the city council will meet again. In executive
session, as they are allowed to do by law.
Yet again, we HEAR NOTHING FROM THEM.
Not a peep. Not a sound.
Not even a “Okay, y’all, we appreciate your patience. We’ve received
some semifinalists from the search firm and are working to go through each of
their files to see who might be good for Cove.”
Nada.
It’s a matter of respect, y’all.
It shows a gross LACK OF RESPECT for the city council to not even keep
us the Copperas Cove voters and citizens apprised of the progress in the city manager search Or, lack thereof.
They could have said something at the end of ANY of the most
recent sessions to at least give us the courtesy of a statement, but nothing: April
16, May 7, May 21.
Let’s see if they do our community the courtesy of following
through with this in Step 5, as follows:
Stakeholder Engagement (if desired)
At the discretion of the Search Committee, we will work
closely with your organization to engage stakeholders in the recruitment
process. Our recommendation is that we design a specific stakeholder engagement
process after we learn more about the organization and the community. Different
approaches work best in different communities. Below is an array of options we
have used in the past, but we will collaborate with your organization to
determine which option, or combination of options, will be the most effective
for the unique needs of the organization.
• Interviewing community leaders at the outset of the
recruitment;
• Holding a public forum for citizen engagement at the
outset of the recruitment;
• Facilitating a Q&A series in the local newspaper
with finalist candidates. This would run a week or two prior to the interviews;
• Utilize a citizen committee to conduct the early stage
candidate screening and then turn over a semifinalist list to the City Council
(if applicable);
• Community leader reception;
• Meet and greet;
• Search Committee and key community leader dinner
meeting;
• “Round Robin” forum meetings with various community
groups during a multi-day interview process; and,
• Site visits by citizen committee members to the
finalist candidates’ communities to report back.
Dear readers, I believe after our city’s biscuits were burned so badly, to
use Sorry-Charlie Youngs’ terms, after the chamber was “cut off at the knees”
and the EDC was “destroyed” it would be an absolutely magnificent goodwill
gesture to welcome these finalists to our fair city so we can ALL get to see
them instead of sneaking in and out under cover of night. It’s not like finalists
for OTHER CITY MANAGER spots are kept under wraps. (Do a simple Google news
search for city manager finalists, dear reader, and you’ll see what I mean!)
Do the right thing, Copperas Cove council. If you’re truly
all about us “working together” and being a warm cozy circle of kumbaya, let
the rest of the city stakeholders in on this too!
If you don’t, this reinforces the notion that our council would
rather keep the rest of the community out of the loop! Stop hiding from us all.
People are still angry about FATHOM and other things in the city that were
carried out publicly, how the council did not use at lest individual voices - until months and months and months down the road - and right now you’re making a great show of hiding from
us publicly.
LET'S HAVE ALL THE FORMER EDC MEMBERS THAT ARE NOW ON THE COPPERAS COVE CITY COUNCIL REMEMBER WHO THE STAKEHOLDERS ARE!!
At least give us STAKEHOLDERS and VOTERS the courtesy of an update instead of us finding
out from the search firm’s website that – oh, by the way, there are finalists
for Copperas Cove city manager.
BE TRANSPARENT.
The screen shot image below is for you, dear readers.
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