By Dave Lieber
watchdog@star-telegram.com
Monday night at Watauga City Hall. Seventy residents watch as City Council decides whether to fire City Manager Scott Neils for poor communication skills. It's not that Neils, whom everyone calls Dr. Neils (he has a Ph.D. in international business administration from Nova Southeastern University) is a bad communicator. A rookie city manager, he hasn't learned how to appease contrarian members of his council.
The shelf life of a Texas city manager is usually five to seven years, but Neils is on the verge of getting tossed after only 18 months on the job. He sits on the end of the horseshoe-shaped dais. He says later that he thinks of a favorite quote, one falsely attributed to Ben Franklin on the Internet: Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.
It's apropos. On this night, Neils, a retired Army Reserve major, is the lamb. The two wolves, both former Marines, are a couple of council members gleefully circling their prey.
The first is Russell Clements, known for his Tea Party limited-government sympathies. He wants to stop police from writing tickets for speeding, driving through stop signs and illegal parking. Even better, he wants to outsource the whole department. As for the Fire Department, Clements wants to return to an all-volunteer brigade.
On his blog, Clements posted the petition to the White House asking that Texas secede from the nation. He blasts red-light cameras as government intrusion. He writes in detail why he wants to fire Neils, too.
The second is Mike Steele, a councilman for seven years who recently received results of his request for every e-mail Neils has written since he took the job. Steele also asked for every city-related e-mail from Neils' personal
mac.com e-mail account, too. In total, Steele received 8,000 pages of e-mails.
Clements' and Steele's gripes against Neils are not off the wall. They want to know full details on the city's trash contract. They want him to tell them when a congressman comes to town (Rep. Michael Burgess visited City Hall but council members weren't notified).
They want him to stop filtering information from department heads and tell them more about what's going on.Not outlandish, but this meeting often is. Usually, councils and school boards retreat behind closed doors to discuss a possible firing of a city manager or a school superintendent. But this meeting is a public show trial with the councilmen as judges. A drama usually played out in private takes main stage in the center of town.
"I wanted the public to see," Neils would explain.
Fifteen years ago, Watauga fired its city manager amid much shouting from the audience. One councilman grew so angry that he broke his hand when he slammed it on the desk. After the meeting, police escorted council members to their cars.
This time, the audience is whispery but mostly quiet. It's the wolves who are loud. The loudest decibel level comes when Clements shouts at Mayor Harry Jeffries: "CAN I FINISH SPEAKING, MR. MAYOR?"
As an example of his frustration with Neils, Clements says he learned that congressman Burgess visited City Hall when he read it on the city website. Clements relishes talking with Burgess about his Washington votes, the Tea Party councilman explains in his blog.
Clements turns to Neils on the horseshoe and says, "I'm just going to say there's a massive lack of communication. And wherever that blame ends up going, for the most part, I'm going to throw it on you because you're the guy I have control over. So Merry Christmas."
Steele, too, is blunt. In midsentence, he stops a denunciation of Neils and turns to the man beside him. "Mayor, I'm straining for your attention as you spin your pencil. You have written no notes on any of this whatsoever. Just spinning the pencil."
Steele denies he is having fun playing prosecutor. "This is not a place I want to be in a meeting like this, talking about a man's job. I don't take pleasure in it. Then he undermines Neils for something he found in Neils' personal e-mails.
"I do have the city manager's application for the town of Prosper right here in my hand," he says waving papers above his head. "Right here."
Councilman Gary Johnson is the swing vote. He announces that he doesn't like the way things are going. "We have to show just cause. If we don't, he gets his separation pay." Johnson reminds that in the rush to judgment, charges against Neils weren't filed the required 10 days before.
With Johnson tipping the scale, the council votes 4-3 to keep Neils. How to solve this?
Tips for City HallThe council should set goals for Neils and write a five-year plan for the city. Neils has no performance goals. A wrongful termination suit by a fired manager who can show job expectations were never properly outlined would cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The city manager should borrow a tactic from former Grapevine and Westlake City Manager Trent Petty. He sent out detailed weekly reports to his councils, citing nitty-gritty details of City Hall happenings from the previous week. An overload of information, for sure, but it usually kept the wolves and the lambs happy.
The Watchdog column appears Fridays and Sundays.Dave Lieber, 817-390-7043Twitter: @davelieber
Looking for comments?
