Management by committee goes nowhere

By Kevin Cooper (Contact) | The Natchez Democrat

Published Sunday, November 29, 2009

A few years ago, a young reporter turned in his two-weeks’ notice. He was heading for greener pastures out of the newspaper business.

Upon his departure, he set up sort an impromptu exit interview. In it, he said the problem with the newspaper was the management. Not anyone in particular, but rather all of the newspaper’s management and managements in general.

His opinion was that our staff was too small to have any sort of management structure. We should just make decisions, he said, based on what the group collectively thought was best.

We thanked him for his early-20s wisdom and wished him good luck in the future.

To anyone who has ever managed a business or led a team, this young man’s notion probably seems silly, a little naïve and a bit laughable.

Making decisions with “group think” might seem wise on paper, but in practice, it’s hardly an efficient way to operate.

The young man’s wisdom came to mind last week after reading about the City of Natchez’s latest rift between a few members of the board of aldermen and Mayor Jake Middleton.

The subject of the day was the confusing and convoluted budget reductions made a few months back.

In a series of somewhat baffling decisions, the city essentially cleaned house at the planning office and restructured public works’ leadership, ousting public works director Eric Williams and his second in command.

Then, soon after, the city hired a public works supervisor, a position technically not a department head, instead answering to the assistant city engineer.

It would seem that the new guy, Robbie Dollar, and his new bosses at the city engineer’s office are doing a much better job than the previous administration did.

Public works’ activity seems higher than it has been in years. Trees have been trimmed along Canal Street and at Memorial Park, both long overdue, and storm damage cleared from the edge of Duncan Park.

At Tuesday’s Board of Aldermen meeting, however, Middleton was grilled by two aldermen on his decision to hire the public works supervisor.

Two issues seem to be at the heart of the questions: Was the hire properly advertised and how was the position’s salary set?

Reading between those questions, however, these two aldermen want a hand in the hiring process.

Whether or not the proper hiring procedures were used in the hiring is a good question.

But rather than challenging the hire specifically, aldermen should be asking if the city’s hiring policy was followed. If such a policy doesn’t exist, that’s the board’s fault, since they’re responsible for policy and procedure matters.

Ultimately though, the mayor, and his team, should be able to hire and fire as they see fit.

The board of aldermen’s role is to legislate (set policy and procedure) and appropriate money.

Beyond that, the board’s role in the day-to-day management of the city should be minimal.

The alderman created the budget, and it should be up to the mayor and department heads to spend it.

Unfortunately, some aldermen — like some young reporters — feel they should be involved in every decision at every level.

While nice in theory, it’s impractical and continuing to head in that direction will grind the city to a halt as management by committee takes over, more than it has already.

Kevin Cooper is publisher of The Natchez Democrat. He can be reached at 601-445-3539 or kevin.cooper@natchezdemocrat.com.