While Jim Dineen has done an admirable job of keeping the City of Dayton from embarrassing itself while suffering through a budget crunch – he didn’t do much to project a vision for the city.
One must wonder if Dineen’s motivation might possibly be that he wasn’t happy with the outcome of the Mayoral race. Valerie Lemmie made her ungraceful exit from Dayton after Rhine McLin defeated Mike Turner for the center seat, and maybe Dineen was hoping to work with Dave Bohardt for the next four years?
Dineen inherited a mess from the Turner/Lemmie days- where money was flowing freely, even though the projections must not have been rosy. The true mark of a leader in my book is having a well groomed and ready successor to take your place. When a General is killed in battle, a Colonel is ready to step up and lead- no national search required.
It will be interesting to see if there is someone waiting in the wings.
One person I hope is out of the running is Maureen Pero, former assistant city manager in Turner’s day. She has spent the last half dozen years running the “Downtown Dayton Partnership,” a microscopic operation compared to the City, while getting paid almost $50K more than Dineen.
Looking at our past, we haven’t done all that well except as a stepping stone when hiring from outside our community. The only success story I can point to is Dr. Percy Mack, superintendent of the Dayton Public Schools. The list of where are they now is too long to go into- but for starters: Bill Estabrook, Valerie Lemmie and Chief McManus.
What do you think?