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Dayton finally makes a smart move on City Manager

With the hiring of the “acting city manager” Rashad Young, The Dayton City Commission took a confident step in the right direction. Finally, an admission that we might not be as broken internally as we seem to play in the public eye.

Going outside for a top exec is an admission that your own people don’t have the skills- it also slows things down with a tough learning curve- since we Daytonian’s have an intricate system of back room powerbrokers that run a maze that’s almost impossible for a newby to navigate.

The Dayton Daily News says:

Among his first tasks will be reorganization of some city positions and filling key posts that are vacant, including his former assistant city manager job and that of economic development director.

He also plans to meet with city staff over the next 30 days to outline his priorities and expectations.

Although I am confident that Mr. Young can get the job done (even though he works for a City Commission that has a hard time defining a vision, or communicating well) I am going to make a few suggestions:

Best of luck, but make things happen. If you blow something, you can blame it on your youth. Get a few things right, and you will be a star. Just don’t use us as a stepping stone- instead, make this your Sistine Chapel. We’ve put our confidence in you. Now, in the immortal words of Nike: Just do it.

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John Ise

In addition, Mr. Young could look at the approach Youngstown has taken to population lost. Visit Governing Magazine’s take on “Smart Decline” (as opposed to Smart Growth).
http://www.governing.com/articles/11cities.htm

John Ise

Also, Mr. Young could look to Youngstown in how they’ve dealt with population loss via “Smart Decline”
http://www.governing.com/articles/11cities.htm

Greg Hunter

John,

Thanks for the reference and it was interesting to see “smart decline” put to the test. It seems to be a positive; however, I wonder if Dayton is down enough or smart enough to make the decision to pursue this type of approach?