Hire Brown as city administrator

It has long puzzled me why we have to look far and wide for a city administrator when we?ve got some good candidates right here in McMinnville. No, I don?t have a problem with opening it up for anyone who wants to apply, seeing you get a well-rounded application base. However, I do have a problem when we almost immediately exclude qualified local people who have been faithful to McMinnville for many years, proving their worth, and instead look to refugees from other jobs and retirees who want to settle down in a small town and earn a fat paycheck.

Let?s see, our last administrator, Herb Llewellyn, who we brought in from Lake Ozarks, Missouri after an exhaustive worldwide search for the perfect fit, went over like a lead zeppelin here, pretty well angering and alienating every employee in the city of McMinnville before getting the boot himself. The ?it?s my way or the highway? is a tough bite to swallow when you have some guy coming in here from Walla Walla, Washington, who knows nothing about McMinnville. Learning how things work here will take an out-of-towner, and you Yankee imports know this well, years and years. By the time an out-of-towner adapts, he?s probably going to amass enough enemies that his days here are numbered.

And, another thing which always puzzles me is why these people with outstanding credentials want to come here. Now, I?m not downing our town. This is my hometown and I?ve chosen to stay here, but I?m always suspicious of someone who comes from a higher paying job to here, almost like they?re on the run. And then there are those who have been administrator in tiny towns who want to make their r?sum? by stepping up to a moderate-sized town such as ours. I don?t care to be a highlight on a r?sum?.

So, what do we do? Well, first off, I?m against electing a full-time mayor because there?s an outstanding possibility we, as the McMinnville/Warren County electorate so often do, would elect an idiot and then we?ve got a monkey running the place. That?s no offense to Mayor Royce Davenport who is an intelligent man, but also a man who already has a full-time job and would likely not be able to seek such an office where the mayor is also city administrator.

So, here?s a stunner. I?m going to suggest who should be hired, someone who applied but was summarily turned down. I think your best candidate is none other than Parks and Recreation director Carlene Brown. This woman has served two decades as head of the department and just look how parks and recreation has flourished.

She has shown she knows how to operate effectively within a budget and even think outside the box when it comes to getting things done. If all city areas were run as effectively as the Civic Center and Parks and Recreation we?d be in outstanding shape. Yes, she is known as a micro-manager who tries to be involved in all facets of the operation. But then isn?t that what McMinnville wants, someone who will care about the details?

Folks, we have the perfect candidate right under our noses. This isn?t someone who will blow in for a short interview from across the country just to later turn down our generous offer. This is a person who has worked for the city for two decades. I say give her a chance. If she doesn?t work out, we?ve always got a person who can go back and run Parks and Recreation instead of costing us $23,000 in consulting fees to get rid of.

Duane Sherrill is a reporter for the Standard. He can be reached at 473-2191 or by -mail at [email protected].