Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy named Angel Jones as Eugene’s interim city manager on June 6, nearly a month and a half after former City Manager Dennis Taylor announced his resignation.
But the relationship between the city manager and the Eugene City Council can be a lot like a marriage, Councilor Chris Pryor said, full of squabbles and bickering over something as insignificant as putting a fork in the spoon drawer. Now city councilors are courting new suitors, one of which they hope to announce as the permanent city manager by next Valentine’s Day.
“This is one of the most important decisions we will make,” Councilor Mike Clark said. “We are going to finalize our list of candidates in December, then hold interviews in January, and eventually we will hire a new city manager in February of next year.”
The City of Eugene works on a council-manager system, where the policy and operational duties are divided.
“Policy is what are we going to do, and operation is how are we going to do it,” Councilor Chris Pryor said. City councilors are not expected to be experts in a certain field – their jobs are to make decisions, and that is why they are in charge of the policy, he said. The city manager, who works under the city council, then decides how to implement that policy, Pryor said.
But that still leaves Eugene’s city manager with considerable influence.
As the interim city manager Jones oversees Eugene’s $427 million budget and manages the city’s 1,547 employees. Jones served as assistant city manager before being named to the interim position, and will receive a yearly salary of $149,323 . She came to Eugene in July 1999 to serve as executive director of the city’s Library, Recreation and Cultural Services Department.
Jones’ appointment came during a transitional period for the city that included the rebuilding of downtown Eugene and the potential fuel tax increase, both of which will be on the special election Nov. 6 ballot. That may have prompted Mayor Piercy to promote Jones and maintain those projects.
“Angel has a great grasp of the many high-priority issues and projects underway and will be able to keep the organization on track to continue our progress over the next several months,” Mayor Piercy said in a statement this summer.
As for future plans, Jones said she is undecided on whether or not she wants to put her name into contention for the full-time position. She said her hesitation is due to “some of the social challenges, such as my being a minority African-American in a community where no one looks like me,” and the luke-warm reception she receives in the community.
“After eight years of living in Eugene, I still keep being told I’m a visitor here,” Jones said.
Jones said the next city manager needs to be flexible to succeed. Pryor added to that, saying, “flexible, yes, and also have a thick skin.”
When former City Manager Taylor sent his letter of resignation to Mayor Piercy on May 24, he cited a desire to “spend more time with friends and family” as the principal reason for his leaving. But he was only so flexible, and a rift grew between Taylor and the city council caused by a dispute over the city charter, he said.
“I was disappointed. The majority of the problem I had was that they interpreted the charter through a vote of the council, and not letting the people vote on changing the charter,” Taylor said.
In 2006, while Taylor was still Eugene’s city manager, he applied for a city manager position in Lawrence, Kan., and looked to head out of Eugene toward a new job in the Midwest. Another candidate was hired for the position, and six months later Taylor submitted his resignation after 4 1/2 years of work with the City of Eugene and 38 years of public service, most of which was spent in Montana.
Taylor said the daily grind of the job also contributed to his departure.
“Sometimes it’s 10, 12, or 15 hours a day and seven days a week you are working and on call. Your most important relationships are with the people you serve, the employees and the elected officials, and I wanted a new relationship with my friends and family” Taylor said. “You have the responsibility to be like an orchestra conductor leading these other very talented musicians and the goal is to create music that is uniquely Eugene.”
While Taylor did resign early, he advocated his affinity for Eugene and said he would tell the next city manager to “enjoy one of the greatest city manager jobs in the country. I have no doubt that my successor will be a strong city manager, and it’s a position people all over the country aspire to.”