The Place Where Ludington Talks

Next Man Up

The dust has settled, the torches extinguished, and the pitch forks are back in the shed. Now, the COS is back to square one. Scottville’s latest manager has resigned his position. That makes the second who has made their way out the door. For Jimmy Newkirk, he was the lucky one. Resigning before the lynch mob made their way to city hall (Senior Center) and exacted their pound of flesh. Courtney Magaluk was not so lucky. She had to suffer the indignity of “the pile on”. I do not like the “pile on”, never have and never will.

It would be easy to point the finger at one person(s) that caused this recent calamity. Easy and very foolish. Is it a personnel problem? I’m not so sure. I think it’s a management problem. When you see a sports team with constant issues with discipline on a off the field. Or, players making poor decisions, critics will say that “your either coaching it, or allowing it to happen”. That is where I think the issue lies.

Going forward a set of clear and definitive job responsibilities need to be laid out for all city employees. All need to know if they are not meeting the responsibilities they too can be unceremoniously shown the door. The city commission needs to put these to paper and be able to show a new/potential manager that every employee knows what they are individually responsible for each day. This way should an issue arise, it is performance based and not personal. Commissioner’s will or could have a better path for resolution.

There are always going to be commissioners for and against issues before them. That is the nature of politics. I sincerely hope they see the need to have this “ship in order” before they go looking for a new captain. The lack of professionalism brought up by resident Jenna Morrill, commissioners, your either coaching it or allowing it to happen. BR

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Permalink Reply by XLFD on April 28, 2024 at 12:28pm

Very succinct and astute article, Barney, and you even worked in a sports reference as a major theme and then closed with it (and another one in the title). The city will have a few months of interim, an industrious commissioner could Jones some other city's job responsibilities template along with a code of conduct policy and adapt them to Scottville and their employees.

It would be like a goodwill gesture to future candidates for the city manager position at Mason County's crossroad town.