Filling the city manager job

Glenn Morrison is the obvious choice for Killeen City Manager.  As former Mayor Hancock pointed out, he has been doing the job (without the pay) since a year ago February.  And he says he is willing to serve. But there are important reasons why the city council should not rush to do the obvious.

One important question is how the contract will be written.  City Managers usually negotiate a contract with the city corporate entity (represented by the city council) that specifies the term, conditions, pay and benefits associated with the position.  Killeen did a bad job writing the last contract; creating a better one while being fair to Morrison will take time and lawyers.  Rushing that process will be unwise on both sides.

But much more important (this will sound funny coming from an engineer) is the effect on how the council views itself.  This council has no personality, yet; it's too young to have one.  They are developing an attitude that there are no dumb questions and that good things seem to happen when they ask questions; but there is not yet any sense that individually or in groups they are going to put their own stamp on deliberations.  Tonight the mayor tried to push through an agenda he is strongly attached to. There was some resistance, but the major picked his battle well:  no one can plausibly oppose the decision to give Morrison the job.  But the council, I am sure, knows very well that they have almost no first-hand knowledge of Morrison.  Officially, most have known him for 10 days.  For them to make such an important decision based on ten days' experience has to be uncomfortable.

And that's why the council should not vote next Tuesday, or even June 19, to hire Glenn Morrison as City Manager.  In the absence of a compelling reason to act with undue haste, they shouldn't. If they do anyway, they are defining themselves as a group that is easily led.  In six weeks the council will have had a chance to test the mettle of Glenn Morrison both publicly and privately.  I have no doubt they will find him such a good fit for the City Manager job that they will have no reason to do anything but offer him the job.  But for them to act without making that test will mark them as being much like the councils we've had in the recent past.