Deerfield’s City Manager Should be Given Another Chance
Most people we’ve talked to can’t imagine a worse time for the City of Deerfield Beach, or any city, to “fire” its City Manager. Happening right in the middle of three union negotiations with city employees, it would appear that the rug has been pulled out from under the city manager(s), who were in the midst of negotiating with city labor unions. The appearance is that union employees — representing fewer than 1 percent of our population who actually live in our City — have greater sway with some of our politicians than do the 99 percent of us who actually live here and pay the taxes. What is wrong with that picture?
City Manager Mike Mahaney came here knowing that due to the most recent change in our city charter, he could be fired at any time by a vote of just 3 of the 5 city commissioners voting to do so. That is a pretty tough job environment to walk into. However, Mike is a man of great spiritual faith, with an unusually well-qualified background and education to do the job. For instance, Mike not only has a bachelor’s degree, and a master’s degree in Business Administration from the much-respected Virginia Tech University, he has taken and passed all the tests and is a Licensed Professional (Consulting) Engineer in several states.
Has he ruffled some feathers? I’m sure he has or he wouldn’t be doing his job. Can he overcome some of the management “quirks,” which we all have, and which have put him into this current situation? I bet he could if given a chance.
After all, it’s going to cost the City, i.e. us taxpayers, several hundred thousand dollars to pay his severance pay and then recruit another manager. That is a poor use of our dwindling city financial assets. Therefore, hopefully, the city commission will reconsider and give Mike another chance. Otherwise, it appears that the City is controlled by its labor unions. This could result in the lowering of our city credit rating by Moody’s, and result in all of us paying even higher taxes.
