Ralph Giglio hiring

Ralph Giglio was a nice, personable guy back in high school. He was very quick, kinda like a scatback, on the football field, and had some success, but was really too small to move up to the next level. It would be interesting to hear from somebody who has kept up with him over the years, maybe seen him at some of the Reunions, or at the Festival, and get their opinion. I wonder how much of what he learned 25 years ago, he remembers. I dont want to hang the guy before he has a chance to show what he can do, but being the City Managers choice places him in a difficult position from the start, as Gym has had several other bouts of poor judgement in the past ie contractors and costs for the CC addition, the bathrooms contractor, the "forgotten" bathroom hookups, the costs for the bathrooms elevations, paying Santana's electric bills, the ongoing pool snafu, etc. He brought on Ron Gorland who was supposed to keep an eye on our bonds, but fell asleep at the switch and cost us 75k when our bonds went South. He DID bring on Mike Aldredge and Sandy Pell to run the golf course, and they seem to be doing a good job. We are still hopeful they will one day break even. Its too early to decide on the Finance guy yet. The Chief Baan was a good choice, and the grant lady has done some good things. So the City Manager has a spotty record, at best, of personnel and performance decisions up to this point.

The City Manager SOLD the Council on this new guy for the Rec dept, saying this guy may not know much, but he DOES have several friends to ask when our problems arent easily resolved, and THEY might know! This guy is a salesman and its obvious he has sold the City Manager. The guy had ten years Rec experience and a Rec degree 25 years ago. He has sold rec equipment as his private business for the past 20 years or so. Gym has vouched for him and says if he doesnt work out, Gym will let him go. The salary is 89k plus benefits, 100k in total. There was NOTHING said about this guy having ANY experience managing people, organizing programs and events, budgeting, or coordinating recreation construction projects with the needs of the residents- all skills THIS guy will need. I hope Gym is right about this guy, but if he isnt, shouldnt we just fire Gym too? Or just chalk it up to ANOTHER example of poor judgement on his part? The good news is that this time we may actually get a construction contract that has protections for the City built into it, like deadlines and penalties for not meeting those deadlines! Hooray for us! We are apparently hiring real attorneys for this project, at considerable expense, but at least they will be accountable for this contract. Also good news, Sosa donated another 1.5 million to the City - however that money was immediately allocated to build a couple more bathrooms on the Circle. After considerable debate, one million was designated for both bathrooms and the other 500k was held in reserve, just in case electrical, water, and sewer hookups became necessary.

idiocy redux

We are in a global economic crisis where people are being laid off by the thousands, leading to unemployment figures at several year highs; governments are taking stakes in large banks to prevent them from going under- and the City decides to take on ANOTHER $100,000 in payroll costs? for a guy with No real recreation experience? That would be stupendously stupid, wouldnt it? The City has already taken on another 2.5 million in debt for a new gym, is facing an ADA lawsuit that could potentially cost us MILLIONS, tax revenues are dropping like a rock as proprty values sink- and MS decides to ADD $100,000 to our payroll!!! Everybody else is laying off people and tightening their belts and budgets except US! How can that be? Do we have some magic pixie dust that we will sprinkle over the City and make our financial woes disappear? This is idiocy, of course, and the responsibilty lies with the City Manager, Council, and Mayor who allow this to happen. Remember in April, if they havent bankrupted us by then.