There’s unease in the easy-going city of Savannah. The city’s search for a new city manager — made necessary after Arlington hired away now-former county manager Michael Brown — is not going as hoped.
After a ten-month nationwide search, candidates for the job include the current interim city manager and three former or soon-to-be former city managers who all left amid allegations of improper conduct
“I don’t believe this search was conducted in the best, most transparent way,” Savannah Alderman Tony Thomas told TV station WSAV.
By contrast, it took a seven-month, $30,000 nationwide search for Arlington hire Brown, who was essentially fired four and a half months after he took office. Immediately after Brown was given the boot, former interim county manager Barbara Donnellan took over as the permanent county manager. Donnellan has remained an uncontroversial hire ever since.
If there’s now any objectively positive thought to take away from the whole lamentable Brown affair, it seems to be… at least we’re not Savannah.