Dec

10

Funkhouser sacking Cauthen

December 10, 2007 |

The Star and Business Journal both report that Mayor Mark Funkhouser has announced that he will not introduce an ordinance necessary to renew the contract of City Manager Wayne Cauthen. According to the City Charter only the mayor can do this, so it means that Cauthen’s time is up in April, if not before.

This news only confirms suspicions that Funkhouser has been determined to get rid of Cauthen all along, and that he was only going through the motions of trying to work with him. It should now be just a matter of time before Mayoral Chief of Staff Ed Wolf is named interim City Manager and probably the eventual permanent replacement.


Comments

4 Comments so far

  1. Joe Valentine on December 10, 2007 3:06 pm

    He’s not appointing Ed Wolf, he’s gonna pick Gloria.

  2. Johannsen on December 10, 2007 3:48 pm

    What a conniving little jerk. Cauthen is the best city manager we’ve had in 30-plus years and Funk pulls this? Alvin Brooks wouldn’t have been a groundbreaking mayor, but at least he would have maintained the status quo. Now Funk is taking all the progress we’ve made over the last few years and throwing it down the toilet. It’s time to recall this guy. Punk the Funk!

  3. brent on December 10, 2007 4:01 pm

    Very disappointing. Cauthen may not have shared the exact same vision as Funk, but he certainly did an outstanding job based on the previous administation’s goals. I’d have had more respect for Funk if he’d just sacked him instead faking it.

  4. Craig on December 10, 2007 5:06 pm

    When I attended the Avila University Town Hall meeting the day before Halloween, there was a common theme underlying many of the things people had to say to the Mayor: the bureaucracy is holding us back on many fronts. Wayne Cauthen is the bureaucrat in Chief, and a holdover from the corporate-welfare culture that the previous Mayor and City Council established.

    Two weeks ago, one of my Red Bridge friends met with the Mayor to explain how the C.M. had subverted the will of the Council on a study of Red Bridge Road. I think Mayor Funkhouser got the message.

    Getting a new City Manager is absolutely needed for moving this city forward on many issues including livability, sustainability, race relations, fiscal responsibility, and openness, transparency, and responsiveness in government.

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