Good thing the skin that encases John Nachbar’s middle-aged body is almost impenetrable.
Equally fortunate for the city manager is the vanilla mild manner that has helped him establish a long and successful life in municipal government.
Those assets served him, protected Mr. Nachbar, at Monday evening’s City Council meeting when candid arrows were aimed at him from the dais.
At issue: Whether supervisorial authority, hiring and firing power, over Police Chief Scott Bixby and Fire Chief David White, should be transferred from the City Council to the city manager, the policy followed by most city manager-led city halls?
With Councilperson Meghan Sahli-Wells fronting the charge employing filmy language, she did not exactly say Mr. Nachbar could not be trusted. Nor could she say firmly that he could be trusted. Her opposition nestled in a netherland between trust and an unabashed lack of trust.
How did these rarely voiced implications affect the city manager?
He had gone into the meeting suspecting that, on the eve of his fifth Culver City anniversary, the two most visible departments at City Hall finally would come under his authority.
What was going through Mr. Nachbar’s no doubt speeded-up mind as implications of questionable trust rolled from Ms. Sahli-Wells’s chair on the dais down to Mr. Nachbar’s clearly marked seat.
Aw, shucks, effectively was the Midwesterner’s answer. The doubts expressed on Monday were carryover of historic attitudes in certain parts of the community.
“Well, I don’t take any of it personal,” the city manager said.
“Here is the way I look at it,” said the congenial executive. “For decades, this community had a form of government (led by a chief administrative officer) that did not include a city manager. Moving to the city manager form was a change to begin with.
“I think there was a reluctance to have the police chief and fire chief report to the city manager.”
(To be continued)
