Today's News-Gazette:
The leading candidate to become the city's next administrative officer has taken another job.
Mayor Laurel Prussing said Wednesday the city will reopen the search and use a search firm this time around – meaning it's likely to be months before the position is filled.
Mark Brinson of Elkhart, Ind., underwent interviews in Urbana on May 28 and 29 and was identified as the leading candidate by Prussing. But Brinson told Prussing on Tuesday that he recently accepted a job as community development director in Goshen, Ind., a city of nearly 30,000 that is in the same county as Elkhart. He starts there next Tuesday, according to the mayor's office in Goshen.
Discuss.
Ooops.
Maybe someone called Mr. Brinson and filled him in on what it *really* would be like to be a part of Urbana government....
Months to fill the position? Urbana seems to be doing fine without it... as "fine" as Urbana gets, that is.
Maybe someone called Mr. Brinson and filled him in on what it *really* would be like to be a part of Urbana government....
Had he stayed with his current job in Elkhart, you might have some credibility to your theory. It sounds more like he had a couple of options, one that involved moving away from friends and family to a new state and one that invovled moving across the county. Seems like a rather simple reason, and can't fault him for it.
Or maybe he heard about the fine quality of citizens in the area such as yourself, and decided he'd rather stay in the armpit that is Indiana. Just a thought.
"Or maybe he heard about the fine quality of citizens in the area such as yourself, and decided he'd rather stay in the armpit that is Indiana."
Armpit. Heh.
Or, he already had given notice at his job in Elkhart, and someone filled him in on how dysfunctional Urbana is. He then took the job in Goshen, stays put where he is now, and goes on with his life. Sorry, I don't live in Urbana. That's the last place I'd ever live.
With the idiots that we have in Springfield right now, starting with our crooked governor ... I'd hesitate to refer to Indiana as an armpit. At least they have license plates that say in large letters, IN GOD WE TRUST.
Ooops. Gotta hide that clinging of mine to guns and religion....
You'd think none of you all had ever heard of the very common practice of lining up a bunch of offers and then picking the sweetest deal. Very often some of the offers are really only arranged to show your true target that you have negotiating power.
Point being, it's nothing unique to a city administrator, nor to Urbana. The U encounters similar stories on a daily basis. Narrow down the search to one guy, you go to make the call and wow, turns out he's taking a job in California, or better yet, keeping his current job with a certain well known insurance firm but with a sizeable raise.
akibare: AnF wouldn't know anything like that, he's too busy being bitter, clinging to his guns and religion to see how the real world works. This does in fact happen all the time, in fact, I've done it myself once before. And they say us liberals don't know how the free market works :-)
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At some point we have to trust the government. - redstatewannabe on 2008-06-12 at 1:14pm
Who would really want to work that closely to Laurel Prussing anyway?
Mr. Brinson is one lucky man, to be able to stay in that armpit called Indiana...
In God I trust.....
Bash Urbana, but all the City of Champaign does is recycle former employees, theirs and others.
I doubt the job in Goshen paid more than the one in Urbana.
The most likely reason is that Goshen and Elkhart are 11 miles from each other.
I wonder if Michael Fuerst contacted the candidate.
Recycling former employees could also be called hiring from within. I wonder if Libby Tyler is qualified for the job. Looking at her credentials and hearing about her reputation, you'd think she'd be a quality choice vs. hiring someone from outside, giving them time to get aquainted with the community, and having them accept an offer to relocate in 3-5 years as it happens with school district folks.
I would think that a city manager job in a big ten town would be somewhat prestigious and not quite so challenging to recruit for.
Champaign has done very well by hiring from within