Here is how you can judge the degree of seriousness with which the suddenly aroused City Council is pursuing an interim successor to City Manager Mark Scott:
In the most intriguing stipulation reached during their Monday night closed-door brainstorming session, Councilmen agreed on a practically unheard-of 72-hour termination notice for the departing chief.
Although Mr. Scott offered to remain through the full budget process — end of June — while doubling up on his new job in Fresno, 200 miles distant — the Council wagged a finger Monday night and said, “No, thank you.”
They voted on “April 14 or earlier.”
Indeed, since they are training their cannons on in-house personnel, the switch could be made weeks earlier — anytime between this week and, say, March 15.
How long does it take to settle on a hometowner whose desk is walking distance?
Uncompromising urgency is the new mood around City Hall. Passivity, the normal environment, has been junked until the City Manager searches — the temp and the permanent selections — are decoded and unscrambled.
Council members are accustomed to putting over sensitive subjects until next month or next season.
This is different.
Massively motivated, they want to move in a flash once they identify their temp choice.
As you read these words, members are scouring the three floors of corridors in City Hall for department heads who have the administrative/fiscal skills to step into the CEO’s chair for 90 days or longer.
Even granting that the Council is operating in an emergency situation — after the blue-ribbon, presumably long-term, City Manager jolts his bosses by declaring at the outset of the budget season he wants to leave as soon as possible because he has another job — the just-minted three-day notice is extraordinary.
Although no Council member — except Mehaul O’Leary — has publicly revealed his jilted feelings toward Mr. Scott, the 72-hour notice can serve as a mirror of what each is truly thinking.
For a contrast, consider this:
A key clause in the contract of Mr. Scott’s predecessor, Jerry Fulwood, who served six years, obligated him to give six months’ notice if he intended to leave before the agreement expired.
The Council cinched the leash a little tighter with Mr. Scott last year. They offered him the richest contract in city history with a clause calling for him to give 30 days’ notice.
