Last Week: Should Powder Springs hire a search firm to find a top administrator?
The Powder Springs City Council voted 3-2 in September to look for a search firm for $28,500 to help the city find another city manager - the fourth in 10 years. We asked if the city should take this route or promote from within - perhaps the new Interim City Manager Pam Conner, a city staff member for 17 years who most recently has served as the director of the city’s Community Development Department.
Readers commented online, via email and Facebook:
Hey Powder Springs,
Spending any amount of money to pay someone else to find you a city manager, fire chief, police chief, sanitation manager, librarian, etc. simply says to the world, “We don’t have enough collective intelligence, vision, and dedication to find a good fit for the job we need to have done.” Trust me, when you do one of those “national searches,” you generally end up with a gypsy type who has some qualifications and is really strong on self importance and arrogance, but lacks character and integrity and has therefore been dismissed from similar positions in multiple communities over the years. Pull up your boot straps and get to work finding someone who can buy in to the vision the citizens of Powder Springs have for the future of their community and leave the “search firm” alone. Atlanta and DeKalb County give them plenty of business anyway.
- Retired Paramedic
I think we need a new mayor!
- Renae Baynes Still
Agree, Renee.
- Cynthia Roark Partain
Get rid of the city manager and get a mayor.
— John Zachem
Although Powder Springs is a small town, it’s part of one of the largest metro areas in the country. To find the best people for the job, sometimes you have to look beyond your back yard. What’s wrong with spending a little money to hire a firm that knows how to do that? As long as that company has a good track record, why not get some diversity.
— SMH
Carolyn Cunningham for the AJC
Atlanta’s controversial public art ordinance has been the center of a debate between city council and the arts community for a few years. No resolution has been found.
Earlier this year, council member Joyce Sheperd proposed an ordinance that would tighten regulations on public murals on private property. It would require private property owners to seek approval from several city departments and notify surrounding communities before painting murals on their property.
Atlanta’s art community and neighborhood residents opposed the measure. Sheperd made changes, and presented an updated measure in October. The new measure proposed applicants go through the city’s Office of Cultural Affairs.
In a statement, Living Walls, the nonprofit group that has produced more than a hundred murals across Atlanta since 2009, stated their concern.
“We believe this legislation violates freedom of expression for property owners and artists alike and places an undue burden on those wishing to create art in our public spaces,” said Jasmine Amussen, communications director for Living Walls.
The city’s Community Development and Human Resources committee unanimously approved the new measure on Oct. 28 and it was sent to the full city council for vote Nov. 3.
Council members voted against passing the measure. Instead, the council sent the law back to committee and introduced two separate proposals to set up a study group of experts to examine mural permitting across the country and establish a new Arts and Culture Advisory Council for the city.
Should the regulations on murals painted on public or private property be tightened? We want your opinion. Post comments here or send email to communitynews@ajc.com .
