“...if I could do this all over again, I would have first had the council and community define what they mean by ‘economic development.’ It’s such a broad term…so what are we talking about?”
“...and he credited Sellers with being part of the overall effort to improve business in Carmel.” And “There have been a lot of good things, and Greg was a good part of that.”
(City Administrator Rich Guillen, On Economic Development Coordinator Greg Sellers nearly 10 month tenure and termination on 29 November 2006, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COORDINATOR CANNED, Mary Brownfield, The Carmel Pine Cone, December 8, 2006.)
After authorizing the contract between the City and Greg Sellers, the city’s Economic Development Coordinator, on 9 February 2006, and expending $37,912.59, City Administrator Rich Guillen terminated Sellers contract on 29 November 2006. In terminating Sellers’ contract, City Administrator Guillen cited the city’s desire to “grow revenues in a new direction” and a draft report which “just rehashed things we already know.”
COMMENTS:
On the one hand, City Administrator Rich Guillen credits Greg Sellers “with being part of the overall effort to improve business in Carmel.” On the other hand, he was terminated prior to the presentation of his report to the public at a city council meeting.
On the one hand, Greg Sellers was charged with completing a “strategic plan” for economic growth within six months and apparently failed to complete a plan. On the other hand, Sellers submitted a completed draft report to City Administrator Rich Guillen.
One the one hand, Greg Sellers generated some new ideas on economic growth, such as wine tasting, loosening of strict rules for signs and parking congestion remedies. One the other hand, City Administrator Guillen stated that his ideas were not new, just a rehash of things the city already knows.
On the one hand, Greg Sellers was hired as Economic Development Coordinator to work with members of the Carmel Chamber of Commerce’s economic development committee, business owners, et cetera to development plans to boost economic activity in the city. On the other hand, City Administrator stated that maybe the problem was his not “giving him exact direction...We identified we want something, but we haven’t identified what we want, and that’s a difficult position to put anybody in.”
FINAL COMMENTS:
City Administrator Rich Guillen’s on the one hand, on the other hand incoherent and contradictory statements illuminate city management incompetence. Furthermore, his statements show a pattern of conduct aptly described by an astute Carmel-by-the-Sea observer.
“On those occasions when he (City Administrator Rich Guillen) can be pressured to respond, he usually does so in vague enough terms that he fails to respond with useful information or, even worse, responds with information that completely fails to address the question or request. Whether this is because he is too ill informed to really respond and doesn't want to ask staff for fear of seeming ignorant or he is too overwhelmed by his job to keep track of his responsibilities or he has just been ordered by Mayor McCloud not to release information, no matter how routine, without her permission or a combination of all three is unclear.”
(See BLOG Post Saturday, December 2, 2006, COMMENTS, below “Holiday Tree” photo)
Other Illuminating Comments:
“I was surprised they wanted to get rid of him before he even presented his plan.”
“We have Erik Bethel suddenly quitting, and the next thing we knew, Greg Sellers is gone, and they had been working very well together, too. It’s disappointing to me, because I felt in the last two years, the chamber had developed a good relationship with the city.”
(Michael Adamson, Member of the Carmel Chamber of Commerce’s Economic Development Committee, On the City’s termination of Economic Development Coordinator Greg Sellers, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COORDINATOR CANNED, Mary Brownfield, The Carmel Pine Cone, December 8, 2006.)
2 comments:
Sue picked Rich. Right? So where did the federal government stash that incompetent clown for 30 odd years? Makes me shudder to think of it. Then, there, here, now.
The Greg Sellers situation appears to be another in a series events in which the City Council has spent money foolishly to hire consultants and contractors to do various jobs or conduct studies. Studies that were pointless, were ignored or replicated similar studies that had only recently completed. Jobs that were poorly done and could quite possibly have been done better and for less in - house. Money that could have been better spent in useful ways to benefit Carmel.
The first such instances occured shortly after Sue McCloud was elected as Mayor for the first time. When her City Council took office, Carmel had a substantial annual surplus. That surplus was quickly frittered away to consultants and outside contractors, whose work largely wasn't useful, was duplicative or was ignored. The city government was soon outspending its income. To balance the budget senior staff was fired and services were drastically reduced.
Was Sellars report to the City Council a realistic one that Mayor McCloud didn't want made public because it doesn't reflect her philosophy and agenda or was it so bad that release of Sellars' report would have made it clear that Sellars should never have been hired in the first place? We may never know as secretively as the Mayor insists on running Carmel's affairs and as confused as the City Administrator's comments lead one to believe he is. Whatever the truth, it looks as if Sellars, firing is another attempt to sweep city business under the rug.
A final question. If, as according to Guillen, more satisfactory economic answers can now be developed by city staff and local business people within two months, why did the city waste $38,000 and ten months by hiring Sellars?
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