Column for Sept. 25, 2008

So Selma finally has a new Town Manager. Richard Douglas does seem to have an impressive résumé. Along with that résumé, however, expect impressive results.

The Town Manager serves at the whim of the Town Council. This means two things. First, he/she can be hired and fired at the Council's bidding. Next, it means that the employee is subservient to the Council and should take direction on administration while at the same time providing expertise to the Council for their authoritative decision taking.

Looking back, I see that we have had several town managers with diverse personalities and methods. Bruce Radford, now in Apex, was a bit more flamboyant and outgoing. Jeff White was much more reserved, and despite the heavy criticism he received, still served at the direction of the town council and mayor. Stan Farmer and I got along well and I thought he carried out his financial mission well, but I found him a bit obsequious, often afraid to offer a strong opinion. My interactions with interim Manager, C.L. Gobble have shown him to be articulate and knowledgeable, yet bold enough to offer insight and be contrarian if necessary.

I remember when the town laid off the entire Planning Department a few years ago. In talking to Mr. Gobble at the last Planning Board meeting, I learned that there were a lot of planning items left lacking with Stan Farmer's departure. Whether that was because of the lack of a planning department, the lack of planning expertise, or because of Mr. Farmer's general work load, I do not know for sure. What I do know is that Selma is only 3.5 square miles in territory and can not be so swamped with planning issues as to backlog the town's progress. After all, we do have plenty of Planning Board meetings get canceled because of a lack of agenda.

I recently got notice that the Planning Board would not be meeting this month until the new Town Manager and Planning Director are in place. I wonder, however, if these two positions need to remain and the same. If our interim Town Manager can push through the new Walgreen's project with it never coming to the Planning Board for a formal vote or review (not that the Planning Board has any authority whatsoever other than to recommend action to the Council either in the affirmative or negative), then I wonder about needing a separate employee to do so.

Jeff White was paid in the low 70,000 dollar range, if memory serves correctly. Stan Farmer was paid in the sixties to start. We just hired a new manager for $90,000 per year, and Mr. Douglas has a Master's Degree in planning as well as a good amount of experience in that field, from what I read in this very newspaper. If we are going to hire someone for that much money more than we were previously offering, and we are now in a time of an economic slow down, then I believe that we, as tax payers should expect more for our dollars, which are harder to come by. This is especially true when we have been hit with nearly a dime's increase per $100 valuation in property tax with another property valuation coming around the corner.

I have seen towns with a lot more square miles and close to 100,000 population paying not much more than what we in little old Selma will be paying for our new manager. Don't get me wrong, I do not begrudge any man getting as much salary as he can negotiate. This is absolutely nothing personal with Richard Douglas, since I do not know him and probably have never met him before. It is, however, an issue of public trust. My mortgage escrow rate just went up because of a higher tax rate (again), I see areas of neglect in town (as I have previously addressed in this very column), and yet I see that we are going to pay well over a third more in salary to our next Town Manager than we did our last one. For that, I expect more effort and customer service. We, the citizens, are the customers.

One request that I would have for Mr. Douglas as he starts his new job is not to allow the political bullying that we have seen in this town for the past three years push him too far. I would hope that he would not let strong personalities railroad him into taking wrong decisions or going contrary to what he knows to be the proper course of action according to Selma's best interest. I would hope that he would show the same degree of boldness shown by Mr. Gobble and speak on behalf of the taxpayers, the future of the town, and not be obsequious.