From the Huntsville Item online.
LETTER: Council member Blake Irving
As your Ward 3 Council member, I would like to address the recent review of Huntsville’s City Manager, who by no means is perfect, and I wouldn’t not expect him to be. He is new to the position of city manager, and has a lot of growing and learning to do. I also believe that your staff is only as good as management will allow.
Part of my role as a council member is to be fair and equal to all charter members and hold them accountable, while being transparent with the citizens of Huntsville. I feel that we have let our city manager get away with actions that should have been reprimanded. The most serious incident was when the council was made aware that the city manager wrote up another charter member and placed the memorandum in their personnel file.
According to the city charter, all charter members answer to the city council, not just the mayor. The incident happened and no disciplinary actions took place afterwards. Charter members are not required to like each other, but to work together and serve the citizens of Huntsville.
When reviewing our former city secretary, the city manager had a say in her evaluation. Nowhere in the charter have I seen where this is allowed.
The city manager’s issues were brought forth from a previous evaluation of the city secretary, but there was no proof this time that any of these things were still happening and had already been addressed by the previous council when her contract was renewed. The excuse I was given by the city manager was “because the council took no action last time, staff did not document anything”.
Reportedly, it is the custom of city council not to have formal evaluation notes during a charter members evaluation. This would have shown a pattern of behavior and allowed this council or any future council to take appropriate actions. Consequently this does not create transparency in the public eye.
The question still remains of why was the issue not brought to council as a whole? Why does the city manager get away with actions like this with no consequences? I feel as though the mayor voices his support for the city manager constantly, but never acknowledges his fault.
I’m sure if we asked all employees honestly what they thought of him, it would not be a unanimous “great job”. We need leaders who are going to stand up and call out anyone who does wrong and hold them accountable, and be straight-forward and clear with staff, not just pick and choose who we want the rules to apply to. Maybe because the city manager is a man, this could be a reason why there is so much support.
I have witnessed the discrimination and chauvinistic behavior, for instance at the last council meeting. Councilwoman Beebe was cut off and talked over because of her opposing opinion on a matter by the Mayor. This has happened several times to several council members, formerly and currently serving our citizens. We all have opinions and should have the right to express that opinion whether anyone agrees with it or not, per the city’s rules of procedures.
Carmen Irving, the President of the Roxie Douglas Foundation, wanted to acquire a small piece of city property to facilitate parking and a building for the tutoring program, but communication was handled poorly by the city manager.
The council had instructed him at an earlier meeting to work out an appropriate sale agreement for land for this purpose. As more details came in it was discovered we could not sell the property due to infrastructure within the property. An encroachment agreement would have been needed to allow Mrs. Irving to continue her plans. However, the city manager placed the matter back on the agenda and presented incorrect information to the council. We then voted the matter down.
It was during this discussion that Carmen Irving wanted to speak and was denied by the mayor.
Additionally, the treatment of Mrs. Irving was questionable and shady when she asked to speak on the matter before the vote was taken and denied. This action was not due process for the council or Mrs. Irving. My understanding of the reason was because she did not fill out a comment card. However, the agenda item was about her non-profit organization and its request. I have seen the Mayor call on representatives of larger developments from the audience that I am sure did not have an agenda item comment card on file.
Should the council put themselves on a performance improvement plan? We make that commitment when we are sworn into office. We should start treating everyone fairly.
The Roxie Douglas agenda item was just another way leadership failed to communicate properly, and shows how some people are treated differently. Mrs. Irving stated that her discussions with the city manager were about an encroachment. However, when it was presented to council, a proposed lease agreement was outlined.
We want to support our city manager so badly that we failed to negotiate his severance package. If the city manager is terminated, he will receive nine months severance pay. I and a few council members felt that was excessive considering the limited time the city manager had been in that position, and we wanted to reduce it to four months, but the city manager did not agree to that, and the Mayor acquiesced. So what do we do as a council? We left it at nine months. That is not how a negotiation works and is not fiscally responsible, due to his lack of experience in this position.
My hope for our city manager is that he will be able to show improvement, show how he can take criticism and learn from it and do better. I hope our mayor will learn to be fair to everyone and respect people who don’t agree with him. I also hope the mayor gives 100% support to all charter members. The city manager is now on his third city secretary during his tenure, which echoes the overwhelming support given to him versus other Charter members. Support requires more than just showing up at award ceremonies. Be honest with all charter members — city manager, city secretary, city attorney and city judge — and hold them accountable for the good and bad.