Manager hire will be telling

By Todd Dorman

A day after guiding Cedar Rapids' first city manager out the door with 165 grand, Mayor Ron Corbett says he's actually trying to save the council-manager form of government.

Come again?

I thought we had just witnessed the coronation of King Ron I, wielder of the big gavel, champion of the flooded and buyer of all things local. His critics insist that he's trying to bring back the old days, when powerful full-time commissioners strode the earth and commanded pricey helicopters.

But Corbett insists he wants just the opposite.

“I hope in some way I can save the city manager form of government,” Corbett said Wednesday.

Do you expect anybody to believe that? “Sure.”

Corbett says there are many folks out there with “buyer's remorse” on the change of government from the old-school commission to the council-manager. They believe the commissioners got stuff done, unlike the part-time council.

So Corbett says he's trying to show that things can get done under this form of government. That's one reason why he and his four council allies, what I call the Ron Squad, are shaking things up and moving more aggressively than the previous council.

If you don't believe him, Corbett says, just watch next year when he appoints a charter commission to review how this form of government is working out. He promises not to pack it with his backers.

Swell, but the real proof of Corbett's council-manager affection will be in who is hired to be city manager No. 2.

Corbett will play the lead in this drama. The council personnel committee guiding the search is now made up entirely of the Ron Squad. Gone is Corbett critic in chief, council member Tom Podzimek. “It seems like he's more interested in throwing grenades,” Corbett said. The mayor is not interested in hiring a search consultant.

Corbett says he has some people in mind, Iowans mostly, but didn't name names. He wants candidates who are city managers, but says private-sector types will get a look. He'd like to see a new manager hired by July, when the pushing and shoving begins over the Corps of Engineers' flood protection plan.

If Corbett hires a strong manager, who shares his philosophy but also has enough cachet to project independent authority, it's a clear sign the mayor wants this form to survive.

If he brings in a weak figurehead to simply do his bidding, forget it.

“There's a difference between power and leadership,” Corbett says, insisting he's displaying the latter. But will he give back some of the power he now has? That's the $165,000 question.

n Comments: (319) 398-8452; todd.dorman@gazcomm.com