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Middletown New City Manager Search

Printed From: MiddletownUSA.com
Category: Middletown City Government
Forum Name: City Manager
Forum Description: Discuss the city manager administration including all city departments.
URL: http://www.middletownusa.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=6986
Printed Date: Nov 03 2025 at 7:25pm


Topic: Middletown New City Manager Search
Posted By: VietVet
Subject: Middletown New City Manager Search
Date Posted: Apr 25 2020 at 5:20pm
Journal has been reporting the on-going search for a city manager. The search is down to four after a sizable number had submitted resumes. Quick eliminations so far from the original number. Wonder what the criteria was to eliminate most entries so quickly. I can see it now. 1st question was "Will you support our downtown area and make it your number one priority?" If they hesitated only for a second, they were gone.

My hope is that council and the people in charge of this search will take their time and select a decent candidate. We see, after the fact, that in so many cases, they selected a poor candidate who harmed the city more so than helped it during their tenure. Judy Gilleland comes to mind here. She really damaged this city and now has moved on to Germantown. Wonder if they are happy with her. From a school superintendent standpoint, Elizabeth Lolli is remembered, unfavorable, for her time in the Middletown schools and in Monroe, the negativity she caused before moving to the Dayton city schools. Both Gilleland and Lolli certainly were two examples of poor choices.

Council needs to visit the potential city manager's communities and get input from the people in the candidate's community about the quality, performance and any problems they caused before actually hiring them for Middletown. Send a group of people to the city where the potential city manager is from and ask the people what kind of job they did for them. I wouldn't ask the leaders of the city because they will only give positive responses and is a waste of time because they never will identify weaknesses or problems they caused. If they don't ask the questions before hiring time, the city may end up with another Gilleland or Lolli fiasco. We have enough problems running the city correctly that we don't need an immediate problem with the new hire city manager out of the gate. And, if the only criteria is that the new hire will support the dam downtown area, we the people are doomed once again as to receiving a decent city manager. We don't need/want a downtown lapdog who ignores the entire city and only does the bidding of the downtown influences.

There needs to be a list of city manager and superintendents for public viewing, who are frequent job changers and input needs to be provided concerning their performances. Some of these people seem to rotate districts and towns quite often. These positions are public servants who are funded by taxpayers and the public should be allowed to scrutinize their performance background along with school districts and cities so that they may see what they are considering in hiring. They should be rated as to performance on this site as well and any discipline or job failures should be reported IMO. There should be no secrecy in the public job domain unlike the private sector that is not funded by taxpayers. Don't like it? Move to a private sector job. JMO

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I'm so proud of my hometown and what it has become. Recall 'em all. Let's start over.


Replies:
Posted By: spiderjohn
Date Posted: Apr 26 2020 at 3:22pm
City Manager here is pretty much cosmetic, and has been so for a long while imo. Execute the back room consensus and stay as quiet as possible. The same "deciders" will pick the next one also with a downtown assist, of course. Last man(person) out is the fall guy(person) for pretty much everything. Do their bidding(dirty work) and don't irritate the power(Doug A).

Judy G is a quality person and my neighbor in two states. Husband and she are now quiet community assets. Glad that they are here. Had a chance to work with Ms.Lolli on a school committee. Enjoyed it, and came away with a very positive impression. Tough job winning the poker game when you are dealt the hands that you get around here...

Anyone remember Sara Mills from her time with the city years ago? She left a while back to lead the local pilgrimage to the Kettering area. I think that she was in our Law Dept. Seemed like a competent and quality person. The other "finalists" all from a distance.

Whomever, Vet..... 
don't foresee much change coming anyway---never read any quotes from our new Mayor--off limits to the Journal News?

Posted By: spiderjohn
Date Posted: Apr 27 2020 at 10:03pm
Then again—a new face and a new start
We could use a good spark throughout the town
Timing couldn’t be better or most appropriate
New mayor new city manager new economic development new police chief
New era
Vet should be on board!
Bring it on!

Posted By: VietVet
Date Posted: Apr 29 2020 at 2:16pm
But the new power entity in town is the downtown business community. It is rather apparent to me they are calling the shots now for the whole dam city. The Journal acts as their propaganda mouthpiece. The new city manager, be it local or from out of state, will soon get with the downtown business agenda program and learn to refrain from making waves and going against the grain of city politics or suffer the same fate as Adkins. Nice little crooked network we have in town tying council, the downtown business alliance and the "people of influence" including the MMF, all charting the course toward town mediocrity and stagnation. All in their places with sunshiny faces. None have any vision outside the borders of this city as to growth. They don't have a clue what is going on outside of Middletown and probably don't care to know. They have taken many trips to cities with progressive growth agendas but have implemented nothing from those trips. They have learned nothing and it ended up being a waste of time boondoggle. If it were not true, we would have seen some eye opening progress.

Don't think they have told the new city mayor to just sit back and enjoy the ride do you? I see a repeat of the Josh Laubach/Mulligan/council majority as they "coached and counseled" the wayward member on how it is going to be and not even think of going rogue with some "out of bounds" statements to the public. Mulligan and Scott-Jones were there to monitor Laubach's town meetings for a time. I remember seeing them at Wildwood CC years ago to offer "assistance"(aka, scolded him for his responses). Yeah, right.   Wouldn't surprise me if they told the mayor the same thing in a backroom meeting at some point in time. It is pathetic a city official can't express their opinions in an open forum in public view without sanctions from fellow office holders. That has been a problem in this city for decades IMO.

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I'm so proud of my hometown and what it has become. Recall 'em all. Let's start over.

Posted By: spiderjohn
Date Posted: Apr 29 2020 at 8:28pm
Mr.Laubach operates the brewery downtown. We should support him whenever he re-opens. He gave it a shot in his younger years, and now is a businessman and solid family man. Maybe he should give it another round on Council?
I imagine that he would have enough support to get elected again. I would probably support him.....

Posted By: VietVet
Date Posted: Apr 30 2020 at 4:43pm
Yes, I liked Josh and supported him then with my vote. Would do it again if he were to decide to run. After all these years, we could have used a whole council of "Josh's" and their more honest attitudes. Too bad we were (are) stuck with the same old cookie cutter people the MMF sponsored to deliver their agenda and overwhelm any candidate resistance with their large voting block. The city may have been better off today if the MMF, their plan for the city and the Mulligan puppets delivering that message were never around. In a way, it was a conflict of interest to have a listed MMF board member, (Mulligan), on council voting for the MMF plan in the 12 years he was a council member and the mayor. He should have abstained each time IMO. Just glad he's gone, albeit, perhaps, temporarily. Wouldn't surprise me to see his face pop up at a later date. He thrives on the ego trip scene and has been gone from the public eye for much too long I would imagine.

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I'm so proud of my hometown and what it has become. Recall 'em all. Let's start over.


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