Has the City Manager Search Spoiled?
The process hasn't even started, and already trouble's on the horizon
By Wells Dunbar, 12:29PM, Wed. Jan. 2, 2008
At 1pm tomorrow, City Council starts examining the applicants vying to become Austin's next City Manager – a process some have said is overly short, secretive, and likely to give candidates already with the city an advantage. Already some troubling signs have emerged:
– Instead of council chambers, new City Manager to be announced at Wal-Mart headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas
– Press release announcing finalists to be written in Zapf Dingbats font
– Kirk Watson, Casey Dobson and Richard Suttle planning topless leap out of giant novelty cake
– Council's agreed-upon "external" candidates hail from Detroit, Baghdad, parking-lot of Chris' Liquor
– Search underwritten by Domino's Pizza; same thirty-minute agreement applies
– The Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again" named official theme song of the search
– We already miss Toby
Got something to say on the subject? Send a letter to the editor.
A note to readers: Bold and uncensored, The Austin Chronicle has been Austin’s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community’s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands.
Maggie Q. Thompson, June 13, 2022
Austin Sanders, Aug. 13, 2021
Lee Nichols, Jan. 2, 2008
City Council, Toby Futrell, City Manager Search, Wal-Mart, City Manager, replacement search, Laura Huffman, internal candidates, external candidates
