Friday, June 13, 2008
Editorial: A question of management
Roanoke City Council, not its staff, should initiate major management decisions.
From the RoundTable blog
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The Roanoke Civic Center needs a new manager. City staff thought -- after a nationwide search, 30-plus applicants and three or four interviews of the top candidates -- they had found the one. He was so good, apparently, that another suitor wanted him as well, and the Star City lost out.
This caused staff last week to go with Plan B: Seek proposals for an outside management company that specializes in these kind of venues, and see if hiring a firm instead of a person would better serve the city.
It's a good plan. Except for one huge thing: City council wasn't involved to determine whether it wants to make such a major shift. Council will be required to decide only after staff reviews the proposals and selects the best one.
City council needs to be more than a rubber stamp on a decision of this magnitude that represents a dramatic change in management. The civic center is city-owned and operated and is staffed by city employees. Last year, Roanoke decided to contract concessions to an outside firm. That, reportedly, has worked out well with few complaints and with all city employees getting hired by the vendor.
A large management company with a deep résumé of booking and managing civic centers might bring to Roanoke an economy of scale and a more interesting lineup of acts that increases ticket sales. It could perform better than the city would ever be capable of doing on its own.
Or it could entail Roanoke paying more than the $500,000 to $1 million it already does to subsidize the center.
Deciding which way to go will require careful analysis that should be discussed long before a final firm's name is placed before council. Because this involves an expenditure of funds larger than the administration can make without council approval, the idea should have been presented when first formulated.
Council, as it should, cedes authority for hiring of key positions to a competent city administration. Micromanaging day-to-day affairs should be avoided. If all that were taking place was filling a key position, council wouldn't need to be involved.
But there is a line where a personnel decision becomes policy setting. Spinning off a city function to an outside vendor is a decision that should come from council. That is if council, and not staff, is leading Roanoke.
