First in a series
[img]843|left|Interim City Manager Lamont Ewell||no_popup[/img]Walking through the significantly vacated north wing of the third floor of City Hall this morning, it resembled the losing side’s territory after the war. One empty office after another, both sides of the aisle.
Some persons have changed locations. Others are gone. Downsizing is the buzz and the reality.
When Interim City Manager Lamont Ewell, an imaginative straight-arrow professional, stepped out of retirement and into a dazed City Hall one month ago, his opening charge was clear but daunting:
“Because of the chain of events with regard to (City Manager Mark Scott) having left, the feeling of the organization, my objective, was to come in as quickly as I could, to try and stabilize and give a sense of direction to the organization itself.”
To recapitulate what Mr. Ewell found:
After Mr. Scott shocked Culver City’s official family by resigning — first, softly, via email on the weekend of Feb. 5, then with a follow-up formal announcement at the City Council meeting, Monday, Feb. 8 — the rest of leadership was left reeling.
Quietly, though, and privately.
No one wanted to admit publicly he felt betrayed by Mr. Scott’s abrupt departure so soon after arriving for a human reason — Mr. Scott was such a congenial, authentic fellow. There would be no recriminations, at least officially, over the clumsiness that preceded and followed his open-ended resignation.
Even though Mr. Scott stayed for two more months, City Hall was a train veering down the tracks without anyone evident at the wheel. The city’s budget deficit was at $3 million, and Mr. Scott had been portrayed as the Answer Man. His half-here, half-elsewhere image throughout February and March nervously and directly followed his eye-catching January announcement that City Hall would be shrinking. Golden parachute retirements and/or layoffs would begin shortly.
Muir, Muir on the Wall
A further complication was that since the Chief Financial Officer Jeff Muir resigned last September, Mr. Scott had been holding that portfolio, too, thus creating two openings.
City Hall was in full flux when the strongly regarded Mr. Ewell walked through the door on April 1. On his third day, he brought back Mr. Muir from Inglewood, a deal that had been in the works for weeks, but was uncloseable before Mr. Ewell took control. Last Monday was Mr. Muir’s first day back.
Returning to Mr. Ewell’s mission, here is how he brought order out of a headless City Hall:
“I started by going out and talking to as many people as I could (within City Hall, or “the organization,” as he prefers). But more importantly, getting a sense of where people saw the organization, issues they were concerned about, how we would attack the budget.
“Most people realized, given this economy, that there would have to be significant changes.”
Then Mr. Ewell came to a critical personnel intersection that was caused either by Mr. Scott’s transitional situation or his style of governance.
“There wasn’t a discussion within the organization,” he said, “about how we were going to do that, what the targets would be — targets as in reduction in expenditures — and what the impacts would be.
“As I got a better feel for where the concerns were, I immediately put out a memo to the entire workforce. In it, I laid out where we were in the budget process, what the economy was doing, the impact it had on this community and what they could anticipate from me as a result of those impacts.”
Question: What was the thrust of your message?
“That I understood their concerns, and we were going to start mapping a strategy for how to address them. People responded well. I got calls from a number of employees saying they were grateful I was communicating, letting them know what to expect, what was going on, and the process that would be used.”
Obviously, a major change from the abbreviated Scott administration.
“The other thing I did,” Mr. Ewell said, “was to immediately contact labor union leaders to schedule meetings with them. I still am trying to wrap up the last few. I wanted to make sure they understood the approach we were taking.”
Are you talking about renegotiating union contracts?
“It’s too early to suggest that. Right now and next month, my strategy will be to present the proposed budget to City Council. My strategy is just to acknowledge we have to downsize the organization. I am trying to minimize the impacts that will have.
“I told everyone we are going to keep the hiring freeze in place, with the exception of critical positions, police, fire, those kinds.
“The reason is, when we get to the point of having to reduce the workforce, at least we can minimize the pact to warm bodies.”
(To be continued)
