Mitchell Johnson’s firing petty and shortsighted
Shame on the five City Council members who voted to fire City Manager Mitchell Johnson. He is an honorable, capable public servant doing a good job under stressful circumstances. As one council member who voted against him stated, the council is dysfunctional. How true. How else can you explain dismissing an experienced city manager during a devastating recession, when the city’s revenues are falling, and when, among other challenges, Greensboro police officers are courageously doing battle with violent criminals?
Recently, some council members seriously proposed having the Greensboro police chief report directly to them, rather than the manager. What folly. This petty scenario recalls the Emperor Nero fiddling while Rome burned.
To see where this new council majority is headed, look no further than the Guilford County Board of Commissioners, where another vocal minority fired a competent county manager, triggered an exodus of experienced staff, and has surely traumatized those left behind.
The citizens of Greensboro and Guilford County need to wake up and protest before it is too late. Our local governments, once a source of pride, are being hijacked by a few shortsighted individuals for whom power, control and vendetta seem to be the only motivators.
John Alexander
Summerfield
Comments (3)
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John Alexander said "Greensboro police officers are courageously doing battle with violent criminals"
This is true and no one is taking this away from them, they are to be praised for this and more . . . but . . . and it's an ugly butt . . . when the baddies you're fighting are some of your own . . . well . . . it don't look good. There is nothing wrong with over seeing the overseer . . . with tax paying dollars.
Posted on March 5, 2009 9:21 AM
Thank-you, Jason Alexander of Summerfield for your opinion. We citizens of Greensboro will take care of the city messes. You need not worry over our affairs.
Posted on March 5, 2009 10:00 AM
Another letter complaining, but offering no solutions. This LTE digs at representative democracy itself.
The only way we're going to affect change is to look at the causes of our problems.
We are the Chicken Little Generation.
We are a paranoid bunch. When someone says something is wrong, from WMD to the Duke Lacrosse allegations to the Little Black Book to the stock market dropping, we all instantly jump on the band wagon. "See! See!" we proudly exclaim, "We were right!", when, in fact, we were dead wrong. And, worse, the 'solutions' we put in place to deal with our misperceptions are the very problems we end up having to deal with in the long run.
It's our "solutions"- locking out the police chief, pursuing indictments against innocents, invading foreign nations, removing regulations from our markets- that screw everything up.
Mitchell Johnson went into his job with our collective mindset. And he's not an exception. To appeal to the masses, most politicians or managers do the same thing. 'I will fix the problems!". And we eat it up. Fueled by a insinuative media, we are kept on the oily edge of paranoia.
We need to take a step back and exfoliate our suspicions.
Posted on March 5, 2009 11:20 AM