Yarde urges creation of chief operating officer

Reporter Jackie Majerus wrote this story:
Mum City native Craig Yarde urged city councilors Tuesday to follow the lead of the Charter Revision Committee and create a city manager type position.
Bristol should have a chief operating officer, Yarde said, to ease the burden on the mayor and to make City Hall a more effective and efficient operation.
"It seems like there's already a vote cast against the city manager," said Yarde. "Everyone seems to be so deadlocked against it. I don't know why they're so threatened."
There aren't enough hours in the day for the mayor to handle all the minor issues that crop up during the day and do a good job of managing all the department heads, according to Yarde.
A chief operating officer, said Yarde, would "give the mayor more of an opportunity to be a visionary and get out of the weeds."
A professionally trained manager who knows the law is a "great resource," said Yarde, who will be worth more than the $130,000 salary he or she will earn.
In hiring a top-notch manager, said Yarde, the city will be "paid back in spades."
If the city followed Yarde's recommendation, the new manager would be making a larger salary than the mayor, but Yarde said that is okay;
"I think the mayor should be making what he is," said Yarde. "The city manager should make more."
Yarde addressed city councilors on Tuesday, when they accepted but did not yet act on the Charter Revision Commission's recommendations.
"I'm trying to raise awareness of the value of a COO," said Yarde.
He said there's so little oversight that the department heads end up doing as they see fit. Without regular evaluations, Yarde said, people don't know whether they're doing a good job or not and if not, what they need to do to make necessary changes.
"That isn't managing people, said Yarde. "They're like the Wild, Wild West out there."
Yarde said the city's mayors are not to fault for the situation.
"It's a fault of the city charter," said Yarde, because one person can't do everything.
People are a company's – or a city's – greatest asset, Yarde said, and they deserve to be treated with respect and decency.
If someone isn't doing a good job, said Yarde, the city would have a hard time getting rid of them because no one is keeping track of problems.
Yarde said the city's relationship with its economic development director, Jonathan Rosenthal, is "a perfect example" of how things can go awry.
When Mayor Art Ward's predecessor, Bill Stortz, was mayor, he refused to reappoint Rosenthal or fire him. The tension between Stortz and Rosenthal caused a problem in economic development, and Rosenthal lived in limbo for Stortz' entire term.
A good manager should be evaluating employees, Yarde said, but also motivating them and thanking them.
Rosenthal did a great job of working with his former company, Yarde Metals, as it grew in Bristol. He said Rosenthal tried hard to keep the company in town when it expanded, and said a lot of people in town – including some city officials – don't seem to know his loyalty to his hometown or how long he waited and worked to stay here before moving to Southington.
"Maybe they don't know the whole story," said Yarde, who has since sold the business but still lives in town.

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Copyright 2008. All rights reserved.
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