Letters to the Editor: Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results

Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results!

As a former City Councilor who chose not to seek reelection, I have purposely not made any comments regarding the current Council. That said, and having been involved in a City Manager search, I do not envy what this Council has to go through, however having listened to public comment last evening and the subsequent discussion about whether to reengage Mercer, I feel compelled to share some history with our Community (which I've previously shared with the Chairman).

When Jim Riviere chose to retire as City Manager, Council went through a process to choose a search firm and hired Colin Baenziger, who, at that time, was responsible for having placed some 70% of the City Managers in Florida. Mr. Baenziger, against his own normal procedures, was "pushed" (mostly by me) into providing a preliminary list of his top candidates prior to vetting them. The initial list was 20 or so candidates, one of whom was Roger Hernstadt. Before Mr. Baenziger ever had the chance to vet the candidates then-Councilor Honig immediately published a review based on Google (and unfounded rumors) about the Candidates. When Mr. Baenziger subsequently appeared before Council, Mr. Honig was so critical and rude to him that he stepped to the podium and (I paraphrase) said "I'll make it easy for you and resign from the search". Subsequently, we hired Slavin & Associates who had finished high in our assessment of search firms; after submitting a list of preliminary candidates and, as with Mr. Baenziger, was the subject of quite a bit of verbal abuse from Mr. Honig and he too resigned. However, before he resigned, while I was also disappointed in the candidates he brought forward but not as vocal in my criticism, without publicly noting that Mr. Hernstadt was not among his candidates, I asked Mr. Slaving if it would be appropriate to approach a prior candidate of Mr. Baenziger's who I felt was an outstanding candidate, adding that I was going to be on a boat trip where "Mr. X" (as we referred to him) was City Manager. Mr. Honig immediately indicated that since he knew where I was going to be indicated that he totally concurred. The main proviso regarding Mr. Hernstadt was that he was reluctant to be considered for fear of repercussions regarding his then-employment, and was willing to be considered if he would be assured he would be a finalist. Mr. Slavin reached out to Mr. Hernstadt who subsequently agreed to come in for an interview, along with one other candidate, while Mr. Slavin also resigned citing the actions of City Council. As we all know, Roger Hernstadt, after a deadlock in voting from Council, was offered the position when the other candidate withdrew and was hired.

I won't editorialize my opinion as to why Roger Hernstadt resigned; full disclosure, he became a good friend and, in my opinion, the best City Manager we've ever had. Further, contrary to statement by some current Councilors, his job performance was reviewed by Council, and in fact, on his 1st anniversary it was Mr. Honig who made a motion to increase his compensation.

So here we are again: a third search firm who has quit the City of Marco Island, most due to the behavior of City Council and especially, Chairman Honig. I intended to speak last evening, however Public Comment was closed and I was unable to wait until the end of the meeting to publicize a suggestion I had made to Council via email. Specifically, I had suggested that Council NOT re-hire Mercer or any other search firm for the simple reason that the City of Marco Island has now conducted 2 City Manager searches using 3 different search firms in just 3 years! I hate to say it, but as many have suggested, it seems as though qualified and quality existing Managers are leery of coming to Marco Island. I further suggested that one or more Councilors, excluding both Chair Honig and Vice Chair Grifoni, be tasked with reaching out to the last group of semi-finalists to ascertain their willingness to consider coming to Marco Island. As someone mentioned, spending $5,000 or so to bring in already vetted candidates would be much less expensive than another $15-25,000. It is also an acknowledgment of the fact that both our reputation as a place to work as City Manager is simply not very good, and further, that based on the last batch of candidates and the lack of support from a majority of Council makes me wonder how can Council repeat what they've done, that didn't work very well, and expect different results?

Respectfully,

Larry Sacher, former Marco City Councilor