First of two parts
Dozens of denizens of City Hall were excited to meet the third new City Manager of the year yesterday morning, but the person in the spotlight, measured, disciplined John Nachbar, did not seem inclined to join the frenzy.
First face-to-face impression is that he is Mr. Anti-Tension, the dependably calming voice on a sinking craft, a mountain of moderation.
Tall and slender with a decidedly retreating brown hairline, he will remind some of Gary Mandell, producer of the weekly Summer Music Festival in the Courtyard of City Hall.
Mr. Nachbar was a little late getting to a mid-afternoon appointment because a get-acquainted session with City Councilman Scott Malsin spilled into 90 minutes.
At 54 years old, the Kansas City area native and longtime resident brought with him the historic qualities for which Middle Westerners are known — solidity, unruffledness and a steadfast personality that clicks in at 3 in the morning as reliably as 3 in the afternoon.
He laughs easily and glides gently.
More importantly than those qualities, unerringly, he looks a visitor in the eye and doesn’t shift his gaze.
He was attired the way you would expect of a small town City Manager, new or old, not up or down, but directly in the bullseye middle. His immediate predecessors, Mr. Ewell and Mr. Scott, could have stepped from the pages of GQ.
Mr. Nachbar strikes more as the Boys’ Life sort — coatless, blue shirt, red-tinted necktie, standard not stand out.
He bit an hour out of the morning in Human Resources, on the ground floor, completing paperwork.
In a world heavily peopled by extremists, a moderate man may as well wear a neon neckbrace.
“I don’t know if I learned it,” he said. “It’s my personality, kind of my native functioning.”
Mentally, Mr. Nachbar paused and stroked his chin.
“Maybe I have honed it in this profession. You know, when you are a City Manager and you’re dealing in a political environment, it is to your benefit to have a poker face. It came naturally and easily for me.”
Mr. Nachbar, a huge golf fan, witnessed the British Open in Scotland last month for the first time, along with his wife Patti — who makes history by becoming the first City Manager spouse to actually live here with her husband since the last century.
(To be continued)
