Welcome, Manager Stancil

Ruby and my friends at Orangepolitics:

Finally! I am free to post on my favorite blog. Here are some random thoughts from one who admires this forum and the special place known as Chapel Hill.

1. The Chapel Hill Town Council is characterized by passionate people who, in my humble opinion, have the best interests of the community in mind. It was honor to meet and to share thoughts and ideas with them. There are some true visionaries on the Council and the community is fortunate to have them. While they are not perfect, this body of elected officials is as about as good as it gets.

2. The Chapel Hill "community activists" contribute tremendously to current thought and decision making. The people of orangepolitics are making a difference and I admire all of you for caring about your community with such passion and distinction. Keep it up - the community needs you. Criticize when necessary - but never forget to complement when earned.

3. Local government is changing rapidly. Over the next 10 years, service delivery will be more customized and rely less on town departments and more on problem solving capabilities wherever it can be found. As such, be prepared for the decision making process to often be confusing and disjointed. But, the system is only as strong as the people who characterize it and in this regard Chapel Hill is just fine.

The title of your discussion "Welcome, Manager Stancil" is an excellent one. Roger will be an absolutely first-rate town manager and I believe that you will find him to have an open mind and a sincere willingness to work with those are interested in positive change for Chapel Hill. By "welcoming" him you are already off on the right note as I have always found that a positive attitude is always the most important change agent of all. Let Roger know that you expect a great deal from him and that he can expect a great deal from you!

Best of luck to all and much continued success to you and to Orangepoltics.com. I have been honored and blessed to have spent time in Chapel Hill.

In great appreciation of Chapel Hill and of OP!,

Yours truly, Sean Stegall

The reason things in Chapel Hill take so long is because the deliberative process is so spread out. Advisory boards meet once a month at best, agendas are crowded. A major development project will appear before the council 3 or 4 times plus a public hearing at most, so a major development will get a maximum of four hours of "official" deliberation by the council (often less). It's just spread out over a year or two.
All but one member of the council spent 41 hours last week interviewing and debating the merits of the council candidates last week. This after the search committee spent at least twice that much time designing the process and selecting the finalists. So the reality is that we have spent more time selecting a manager than we've spent doing any thing else since I've been on the council. We just did it in a shorter time span than people are used to. In addition to council attention Tim Dempsey and Anita Badrock worked tirelessly to bring this search to completion. They were instrumental in making this search successful. They more than earned their fee.
The council thought it was important that we complete the hiring of a new manager prior to the summer break. We worked extremely hard to get it done. We hired an excellent manager and I am very excited about the opportunities that lay before us.
The organizational development proposal that we have chosen to pursue is pretty common in the private sector and I believe that it will be quite beneficial as the first new town manager in 16 years comes on board.
Wow, Ruby "Council hegemony" what are you talking about? The majority of the people on the council are people who you've supported (and have supported you) now we are guilty of being dominating? Laurin was the lone vote against three items tonight and she didn't come close to offering a cogent reason. Rebel without a .....

I voted against the 50K because I didn't feel comfortable spending that amount of money on something that I wasn't sure what it was for. I asked the mayor "what is organizational development." He didn't know. Also, I didn't know how long this would last (would Tim spend months, a year?)...and that question wasn't answered by anyone. My vote was not because I don't support the new town mananger, I most wholeheartedly do. I am not going to vote to spend 50K for something I don't understand. That's it. So there's my "cause", if I needed to have one.

Laurin--good for you! Standing up to the 'tyranny of the majority' and voting your conscience is much more difficult than following along with the pack. It's also much more admirable IMHO.

Terri

Sean, I second Ruby's praise of you. Chapel Hill indeed could
not lose by choosing any of the final three candidates.
Thank you for applying and subjecting yourself to the process.
Good luck being a new dad.

Your references from Elgin to Orange Politics remind me of a story.
A few years ago, several municipal officers visited Chapel
Hill, and I had the opportunity to have dinner with the
city manager of Davis, Calif. We both laughed when he
raconted that when the Davis City Council could not figure
out what to do on an issue, someone would always ask
"What would they do in Chapel Hill?".

I also want to welcome Roger Stancil. And, it may well be a good thing that there will be organizational development help for the transition - clearly these folks have impressed the council with their previous work. But, I appreciate Laurin and Ruby tagging the cost. The Town's Human Services funding recommendations have come out, and I feel compelled to note that the $50,000 for these transition consultants is more than the annual funding the Town gives to El Centro Latino, YMCA, Rape Crisis Center, IFC, Dispute Settlement Center, and the Family Violence Prevention Center combined. As is appropriate, there is intense scrutiny of human services funding, and there should be for other proposed expenditures as well. (In the interest of disclosure, I am an employee of the Dispute Settlement Center.) Frances Henderson

Frances,
Good point, I seem to remember Theresa Champion mentioning drug deals in Northside and Lloyd St., and I wonder what $50,000 would do to increase police presence there?

Just a note of clarification, I am not a part of the organizational development proposal. I'm a recruiter, not an OD person, (though maybe slightly OCD!) and the negotiation and acceptance of the offer to Mr. Stancil ends my work with the Town of Chapel Hill.

Wikipedia has a good "plain language" explanation of what Organization Development is and what a good OD person can contribute to an organization.

That said, I think Tim is a strong OD person and well qualified to continue this work---remember he has already done a fair amount of work with an initial assessment----if the Town Council decides they want to proceed.

I would also like to throw my hat in the ring with Roger Stancil.

As an eight year employee with the City of Durham, and an MPA student at NC State I was tempted to apply for the job; but I was too lilly-livered to face the gauntlet of OP scrutiny!

John Allore