Suggestions for City Manager Search
Now that the City has a new Finance Director, they can concentrate on finding a new City Manager.
Please read my articles "Why delay in City Manager Search" and "City Manager Search Should be more Transparent".
Those articles point out a program that I suggested to the Mayor and Council before I left and then wrote of. Basically, I suggested that the City have a selection committee composed of City Managers from other Cities to look through applications for the job.
They would then pass three names on to the Mayor and Council. A similar plan was proposed by Mayor Vaughn and the Council approved when they selected a Police chief. I have several further suggestions to the plan:
1) The selection committee should not meet in City Hall.
2) No elected officials should attend the meetings. The Human Resource Director can attend to help coordinate certain information.
Why those two addendum? There should be no possibilities of involvement by anyone from City Hall in their selection process. I think that this is a clean effective process that will assist the Mayor and Council in selecting the right person. I hope that they get on this right away.
Good News: The Governor signed the bill passed overwhelmingly by the Legislature that will increase fines for elected officials who violate the Open Meetings law. It also clarifies some matters and also addresses the Open Records law making it cheaper (10 cents per copy) to obtain records. I also wrote about this previously and you can access that column.
Elsewhere, I hope that you are following articles on Patch and the MDJ about the proposed increase in sales taxes for transportation. I appeared at a meeting last week where five proponents spoke in favor of the tax and complicated plan.
I will present their views later on and continue to bird dog this issue. By the way, the proponents spoke for 45 minutes, me for 6 where I tried to present the other side. I suggested to the Mayor that Powder Springs hold a debate on this issue where both sides can have equal time. If this happens please attend.
WATER MEETING
On May 8, 7pm, Ford Center, the City will host a meeting on the new water rates. They will explain why rates were increased. You can speak up then or forever hold your peace.
Thanks for reading,
Tom Bevirt
In This Blog Post
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Powder Springs City Hall
4484 Marietta St, Powder Springs, GA -
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Coach George E. Ford Cultural Arts and Community Center of Powder Springs
4181 Atlanta St, Powder Springs, GA -
Chase
9:41 am on Monday, April 30, 2012
I would have preferred that city officials held a public forum prior to the passing of the water rate increase. They did so during the Stormwater issue. From an article published in The Patch on Jan. 13, 2012, http://westcobb.patch.com/articles/powder-springs-considering-restructuring-water-sewer-fees , City Clerk Dawn Davis was quoted as saying that “If they decide to consider this proposal further, there will be public hearings scheduled so that citizens will have time to give their opinion.”
With the addition of the stormwater tax of $36/year and the addition of fixed water and sewer fees of approximately $86/yr, homeowners are now paying $122 molre per year in city services. The Storm water fee will most likely increase by $12/year over the next 2-3 years.
Combine the increase in water/sewer/stormwater fee's with the recent increase of $20/mo from GA Power for the construction of a new nuclear power plant in Burke, GA, power and water/sewer/stormwater, P.S. citizens are now paying $362 extra per year for these services.
Oldtimer
9:51 am on Monday, April 30, 2012
I think Cobb raised rates for cities.....
Chase
11:02 am on Monday, April 30, 2012
You are correct, Oldtimer. Cobb did raise their rates and Powder Springs raised their rates based on usage accordingly. I don't have problem with that. The point I was making was the addition of the Base charge, Debt service and Admin charge that was added to each bill. I don't believe these fee's were there before the increase. Why were they added?
Chris Wizner
9:43 am on Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Chase, Thank you for your comments. The charges you mentioned were in the old formulation, but just hidden in an administration/base charge and a mandatory charge of 2000 gallons of water and sewer a month whether you used it or not. We felt this new system was fairer as it does not include a set water minimum charge, but you only pay for the water you use. This primarily benefits the elderly or single occupied homes that use less water. It also allows us to be more transparent with the actual charges, which everyone is asking for, rather than hiding them in a generic base rate.
Also to Mr. Bevirt’s comment- The Council is starting the search a new City Manager. The job will be advertised soon and six weeks will be allotted to receive applications and start interviews. Our expected hiring date is July 1st, if a qualified candidate can be found by that time. We plan to hopefully use the resources of our surrounding cities, HR Directors, Managers and Mayors to assist in the initial selection process. The use of private citizen’s in the initial selection process is probably not possible due to confidentially HR issues during the selection and interview process.
Tea Man
6:40 pm on Thursday, May 3, 2012
It's good to see that Tom Bevirt is earning his City retirement pay! Keep it up Tom!
Melinda Paris
8:11 am on Tuesday, May 8, 2012
If the raise has already been passed, why would anyone want to come NOW and talk about it?? It's done, its over...that's a waste of time for any citizen to come hear now, wasn't there talks before the raise went into effect? if so, why talk some more? I'm just curious as to why would people show up now to talk about their new higher water bill?