By Jeff Weinstein
Athens City Manager Philip Rodriguez is about to undergo a routine evaluation. The evaluation is scheduled to be conducted behind closed doors during an executive session of the Athens City Council 4 p.m. Tuesday, March 8.
My hope is that instead of evaluating Mr. Rodriguez on whether he has kissed the right tooshies in this town, that he is evaluated fairly on job performance. Has he ruffled a few establishment feathers – and he gets a “Heck yes!” and a big slap on the back from me for that. He refuses to cower down and allow the cronyism that has been going on in this and other small towns throughout Texas forever.
My hope is that his evaluation is based upon:
- Individual Characteristics – diligent, self-starter, exercises good judgment, good attitude.
- Professional Skills and Status – demonstrates a capacity for creativity, knowledge of local government management, sets a professional example.
- Relations with Elected Members of Governing Body – responds well to requests, advice and constructive criticism.
- Policy Execution – supports the actions of the governing body and offers workable solutions.
- Reporting – takes the time to provide information, reporting is accurate and responds in a timely manner.
- Citizen Relations – responsive to citizen requests, nonpartisan, meets with and listens to members of the community.
- Staffing – recruits good talent, stays informed and promotes training and development of all employees.
- Supervision – encourages department heads to make decisions, instills confidence, encourages teamwork.
- Fiscal Management – prepares a balanced budget, best use of available funds, appropriately monitors fiscal activities.
- Community – avoids unnecessary controversy, shares responsibility for addressing difficult issues, cooperates with other governmental agencies.
In my opinion, we are lucky to have someone of Philip’s abilities as our City Manager. I hope he is here for as long as he chooses to be here.
Take care,
Jeff
Recheck #6 & #8. He ignored the water problems the city allowed to happen to us.
Actually, the water problems have been around for several years but Mr. Rodriguez is only in his first year. The community just didn’t know about the water problems until the current administration made them public and in the past year the City has taken steps to redo all the water tanks, correct the water pressure problems on the northwest side, and repair the leak at the north wastewater plant.
No our water problem has nothing to do with water tanks. It has everything to do with the city allowing someone to redirect runoff onto our property and erode our property and cause trees to fall on our land. The city also dug a ditch directing water toward us.