elrichboy over at El Chuqueno recently posted Now we know who drives the truck.
He wrote:
The City Manager publicly stated recently that the underlying philosophy that guides him (and his style of City management) can be summed up as “first we win, then we listen.
I hope that elrichboy got it wrong.
Wrongheaded
What have we come to when our public servants think that they have the right to first get what they want to happen and then listen to the public?
That approach may make sense sometimes in a military environment when dealing with an enemy, but not with the public that they are supposed to serve.
Adversaries
The city manager is supposed to implement the policies handed down to him by city council. Policy making is above his pay grade.
Winning against the citizens and then eventually listening to them is just wrong.
This is not leadership.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
Above his pay grade? Isn’t the City Manager the highest paid position? Besides, what is someone supposed to do if the people he is supposed to follow are poor leaders?
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I have no problem with your use of the phrase, “above his pay grade,” since it pretty well sums up the problem here. It is not the City Manager’s job to propose things, but to see to it that those things proposed by citizens and/or council get done. If the people who are supposed to be giving him his orders are poor leaders, that’s on us, because we elected that bunch of grade school playground ninnies.
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Well, Council has a habit of taking credit when things go well and passing the buck when things blow up in their face, as the arena decision did. No one prevented Tolbert or any other Council member from doing their homework. All it took was a shout-out to the historic community to confirm what was “told them.” Tolbert doesn’t like the City Manager anyway and these baby antics are his pathetic attempt to kill two birds with one stone — cover his own #*# (word is synonym for Tolbert) and snipe at the CM.
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In the interest of accuracy, that phrase “first we win, then we listen” was lifted from the Paso del Sur Facebook page.
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