This blog normally does not address rumors, it tries to stay factual.
This is a rumor
I heard last week that the choice of the new city manager may be inevitable. Our current mayor is friendly with a former mayor, the one who lost to the guitar player that just left office.
Could it be that the this former mayor will be the new city manager?
We could do worse
Brutus
elpasospeak 
Ah, yes. Of course. Let’s be sure to keep it in the family. That way we can make sure that the same group of people continues to run things. Is this the same former mayor that led the charge to create the city manager position, which resulted in the hiring of Joyce Wilson? We know how that turned out. I’m sure the elite progressive click would be thrilled to see one of their own installed as city manager.
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El Paso has had problems with the City-Manger form of government because the former city council failed to lead the CM. Instead, the CM lead them. I’ve never heard Joe Wardy called an elite progressive. He’s a successful businessman who made it on his own. I don’t know if he would even be interested in the job but it’s an interesting thought.
who made it on his own.
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Please, if we’re talking Wardy, then I certainly hope that the case of VNA will be seriously considered. Under Wardy’s “leadership,” VNA has decided to close down after nealy 50 years as an El Paso community health agency serving the gamut of needs of elderly, disabled, and others enabling them to stay in their homes rather than being institutionalized. The closure means the loss/relocation of something like 800 employees, not to mention, the scrambing and heartache of the clients as they’ve lost and had to replace trusted caretakers. Yes, there were economic factors that had an impact, but I believe Wardy took the easy way out and could’ve done much more to restructure and save this organization that was a godsend to so many. If I were Wardy, I would certainly leave this one off my resume! Before this, he left Ready One in the hands of the highest paid non-profit managers in El Paso while paying submininum to minumum wages to their employees, the majority of whom are people with disabilities. Capitalist-extraordinaire, this guy!
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EP Inc reported that VNA is closing because of “a $700,000 cut in Medicaid payments coupled with an expensive employee-insurance mandate under Obamacare.” VNA is only one a many in-home providers who are finding it impossible to make ends meet for the same reasons. Restructuring VNA would not have made a difference.
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Yes, that is the easy pat answer, which I have repeated in various posts when word first came out about the closing, but I am not convinced for several reasons. One reason is that Wardy also mentioned the stiff competition from smaller companies which are now picking up the clients and employees. Wardy could have found ways to compete having a lion’s share of the market. There are other reasons, but the bottom line is that Wardy has fed from the trough of plenty for years going from one queen bee position to another and hasn’t exactly shown much interest in providing for the worker bees. Is he that hard up for another colony to “lead?”
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Wardy wasn’t CEO that long. I heard they were having financial issues for years. So Wardy being CEO for less than 2 years doesn’t guarantee that he alone can solve financial issues and get the government to back off its decision to cut Medicare funding by $500 billion. As a member of a non-profit board which is what VNA is – its always dicey whether you live or die year to year as an organization. Want to blame someone – blame the board.
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So do we want another local contender with or without business experience? Or maybe do a nation wide search ….regardless; this position is most needed and important to have some consistency in our local form of self-government. It should not be political position but professional. Then again could just be a rumor 🙂
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I have no issue whatsoever with a local person with business experience being hired. I do, however, have a problem if one person is being pre-ordained without fair and reasonable consideration of other candidates, both local and from outside of El Paso.
As best I recall, Joe Wardy supported Leeser’s candidacy, so Leeser should make certain that the city manager selection process is handled in a way that does not create a perception that his possible support of Wardy or any other candidate is patronage.
I say this as a person who voted for Leeser.
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News Flash: El Paso City Council hires search firm for new city manager….The El Paso City Council today hired a national search firm to find candidates to replace outgoing City Manager Joyce Wilson. In a 7 to 1 vote, the council hired Affion Public LLC to conduct the national search.
…………………end of rumor
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End of rumors? Don’t count on it. It depends on whether the search is being run as a legitimate search process or a charade to make it appear that a search process was conducted prior to gifting it to one particular person. Take ReadyOne, which recently named a local personal injury attorney who had “never run a factory or been a CEO” to be its new CEO. They claim to have run a six-month search process, but decided to hire am ambulance-chasing lawyer, who was a member of their board. That sounds like the ReadyOne board was more concerned about keeping it in the family than finding the most qualified person.
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Ready One’s search charade exposed! Bravo FedUp!
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In 2004 a national search firm was hired to find El Paso’s first city manager. All of council and a large group of citizens were on the selection committee. Something like 200 people applied including lots of locals – retired executives,etc. The process was fine. The fear is that only the mayor and council will make the decision this time. They should have reps from the community, neighborhood associations and people like that.
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Okay…end of this rumor regarding Joe Wardy…there will always be more rumors.
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maybe we should hire ex albuquerque mayor “jim baca” since he negotiated a much better stadium deal for albuquerque citizen taxpayers than our overpaid, harvard grad, city manager was able to get for us.
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Rather than head down the city manager road on autopilot, can’t we as a community and Council take a step back and ask ourselves, “Is this the only alternative?” Do we really want to find ourselves in this position again with citizens distrusting their government’s smallest decisions, peppering the city with TORA requests, many of them petty and adolescent (Max’s and Martin’s and DK’s)? This is the current city managers real legacy, IMHO.
Can we build some firewalls to prevent it from happening again?
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There are very prestigious corporate managers,CEO publications that announce openings. Then the prospects send their resumes and become available for interviews.
So why are we paying 250,000 dollars to a firm to find candidates for the position?
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