Opinion: O’Rourke’s performance worthy of an F
To the community,
In his essay “The Prevention of Literature” (1964), George Orwell wrote that “freedom of the press, if it means anything at all, means the freedom to criticize and oppose.”
Thus, it is time to assess South Lake Tahoe city manager’s performance. He has been on the job for nearly a year and a half. I believe over all he has earned a grade of C minus because of the following: When the city was terminating employees wholesale, he advocated giving the school district $250,000 to form what he called a partnership. Fortunately, he was brought to his senses, and the gift was not given. However, the item raises the question, what is the actual financial condition of the city?
Bill Crawford
Another situation, one that is presently in a mess, is the contract outsourcing the management of the ice rink. The contract as signed without the parties knowing the IRS rules for such a deal. So now the contract is in limbo, and will remain so until the tax issue is settled. A question, what will it cost the city to correct the situation?
Most recently, the city brought SnowGlobe to town, and again important details about SnowGlobe’s operation, time limits, etc., were neglected. And whether the city manager likes it or not, it’s trite to say, but true, the buck stops with the city manager who is responsible for city operations.
Albert Camus said, “Style is the man.” The city manager’s style is huggermugger. On important city business he has been sloppy, muddled and confused about city management. Under the conditions he has created, city management is disorderly. In the process of writing all of the above, I have changed my mind about the grade of C minus. I now change it to an F, failure.
Bill Crawford, South Lake Tahoe
This has become so tiresome. Go away Bill. Don’t go away mad but just go away.
I agree with the above comment. If you don’t like the city manager so much than look in the mirror, you were on the council when he was hired.
Please stop complaining for the sake of getting your name in the paper and start coming up with some positive ideas to move forward with. This town needs everybody’s help
There are certainly some reasonable, balanced critiques one could give.
Unfortunately, the screech of your axe grinding drowns any of them out.
Tiresome is right.
O’Rourke came to this City a year and a half ago and in that period of time he has ruined the lives of over 44 employees, he has ruined the lives of 133 retirees and he has ruined the lives of the remaining 184+ employees. His Mafia style of Meet & Confer with the City Employee Associations
has left him with every employee hating him.
When he wants his way, he gets it through fear and threat of your job and the Council knows this and allows it to happen. I wonder when one of the associations lawyers will file suit for these underhanded ways?? Some of you may think that he is doing a good job but when everyone who works for you hates you it’s pretty bad.
Just think if you were one of those employees that were fired and lost many years of service to a City that you cared about!
Just think about if you were one of the 133 retirees that had your insurance rates raised 400% and had been retired for 15 or 20 years and had your housing cost go up 400%. It’s not a pretty picture. Many of them will not be able to make it. He has taken $500,000 dollars out of the Insurance RESERVE to balance the budget, the insurance reserve was put there to help the insured to keep the cost down. This is not the first time that this has happened, the insurance reserve has been tapped into on other occasions to balance the budget.
He has done all of this in just a year and a half, but he still got his raise and takes home a healthy check of over
$15,750 a month plus all of his benefits,$500 a month car allowance, full medical for him and his family that the last we heard was still living in Vail Colorado because they did not like the City of South Lake Tahoe!!
This is the man that is trying to outsource all of the jobs in the City to the private sector.
Soon you people of South Lake Tahoe will understand that the only way to change the City for the better is to rid yourselves of the current City Council and City Mgr. Fire everyone of them when election time comes. You have the power to do this and no one else.
I would grade Tony O’Rourke with a F-
Keep up the good work Tony, your time is short, The Council will wake up soon.
Outstanding. Hire a loser, take your government-paid retirement and complain regularly about the job you did. Go away, Mr. Crawford, please.
Give me a break, Crawford. Tough times unfortunately call for tough measures. Tony O’Rourke has performed quite well and made necessary changes to help get our local government back on the path of fiscal responsibility and sustainability. The mess our City is in was not created overnight and will take some time to fix. I give Tony an “A”.
Time to find a hobby
Too bad there are no councilpersons with a back bone to stand tall and say enough. Instead we have a rubber stamp council. It appears that they are intimidated by the the cowboy mentality to ride them hard until they drop. Tony must have been great in the interviews to get hired.
First hand knowledge saw employees bullied into accepting the new insurance plan under threat of being laid off.
And to 22 year local-JSB, the mess the city is in did not happen overnight is very true. The last 3 city managers, who the council let loose with no controls are to blame. The previous city manager ruled by intimidation also. The one before that had his head in the sand and forgot to pay renegotiate critical city building leases causing a terrible mess.
It is time the residents of the city had a city manager who actually cared about the town. It is time for the voters to demand a change. Stop voting for the same type of councilperson. The cookie cutter mentality needs to stop.
Kathryn, I admired the throughness of your January 11th article. You really dug into the details of the Snow Globe event. It was very interesting to finally find out who owns the ball field (CTC) and who administers them(the city)and what the city had done (requiring the promoters to indemnify the city) and is already doing for the future (amending the documents for future special events to include an actual contract).
I do have a question about one thing in the article. It’s not central to the discussion. That seems to be whether you can have a special event with its economic benefits without the damaging physical impacts (very physical in Catherine Whelan’s case). It’s more a question about the journalistic process. How did you conduct your survey to determine that the people making up the Snow Globe crowd (around 9600 per night)were “young professionals”?
Bill – since you were on City Council, you’d think you would know better than any of us the actual financial condition of the city. You getting a touch of Alzheimers in your old age?
Here’e the qualities I’d like to see in a CM and our council:
1) You WANT to live HERE and be apart of this community
2) You declare residency in SLT or Meyers area {LTUSD boundaries}, a California, El Dorado County resident within 3 months of appointment or hiring [there are too many TO hires that do not live here making high salaries]
3) Promote, encourage, train, ask for input and listen to current staff, instead of ALWAYS thinking somebody from the outside may have the answers
4) Rein in the upper management salaries, revoke the 30%+ class & comp study from 3 years ago {there is NO reason that a city employee should be making close to and over $125,000/year in this town}
5) Be honest and forthright in giving the residents the complete ‘numbers’ instead of hiding monies, qualifying monies, etc
6) Do you homework: don’t be so quick to give away facilities, award to the cheapest or be a part of chronism
7) And again, you want to BUILD community; local businesses, local character, and community spirit
Having a strong local community, who take responsibility for their property(s), businesses, actions, schools and this wonderful place we call home should attract tourists who will respect the natural environment & residents, visit and share their stories.
Idealist some may say – more people should be putting it out there. Consider the law of attraction . . .
Thanks Bill,as freedom of speechis one of the corner stones of 0ur country Mr.Crawfordhas every right to speak his mind.
I think xlocal, SB and MtGal are on the right track,the CM is a mean spirited person and should go back to Florida. I’d like to say something to all of you that think I should move out of my home of 30 years because I didnt like the snow globe stuffed down my throat,how disrespectful,,I hope I see all of you newcommer flatlanders with your subarus and fancy foreign suvs stuck in the berm so I can drive buy and give you the one fingered solute. Lets take back SLT,time for a recall.
EVERYONE BLOWING A TUBA.
RECALLS, THINGS BEING RAMMED DOWN THROATS OF THE RESIDENSTS CAUSE THEY DON’T HAVE A LEXUS LFA ,BENZ SLS AMG,SUPERWHEELS or a 5000 watt home QUAD SYSTEM.
GLAD I LIVE ON TOP THE MOUNTAIN, DON’T REALLY HAVE ANY FULL TIME NEIGHBORS THAT LIVE CLOSE, CAUSE ONLY THE BIRDS AVOID THE SOUND OF CASH REGISTERS IN THE CITY.
HAVEN’T YOU FIGURED IT OUT, YOU NOT GOING TO EARN ENOUGHT CASH FOR THAT IN A MAID,SHEET STRIPPER TOWN, LOST DREAMS,BAR GRILLS ,HEALTH FOOD,ROCK SKING,EPA DICATORS, PARDISE.
That’s why 70% of the successful people with money have a part time get away up here,MONEY MAKING DOWN THERE.
Where do the peasants go for fun anyway?
NO ONE HERE WANTS TO PUT THE BIG CASH ON THE COME OUT LINE, THROW THE DICE OF THE FUTURE.
There’s NO SURE DEALS IN LIFE OR BUSINESS,YOU CAN LOOK AT IT FROM EVERY POSSIBLE POSTION,PROBE WHERE THE SUN DOESN’T SHINE, NOTHING HAPPENING IN THIS MORGUE OF SILENCE SEEKERS.DOES ANYONE HAVE A IMAGANATION FOR SUCCESS?
THE BASS(MONEY) MIGHT FOG UP YOUR GLASSES,SHAKE YOUR SHORTS, SPILL YOUR DELI SANDWICH.
PEOPLE NEED TO PUT THE BOTTLE ROCKETS AWAY CLIMB ON A DELTA THRUSTER TO THE MOON FOR THE PERFECT SOURCE “RESORT”.
NOTHING CHANGING CAUSE OF NO POSTIVE ENERGY ABOUNDS OR AGREEEMENTS CAN TAKE PLACE HERE, BECAUSE EVERONE WANTS TO BE THE KING OF KINGS.
52 CARD DRAW WITH 100 JOKERS MAKES IT IMPOSSIBLE TO PLAY PORKER.
WRITTEN FOR THE ZEST OF LIFE THAT ABOUNDS IF YOU KNOW WHERE LOOK.
THE WORLD MORE THAN BLACK & WHITE!
Mr. O’Roarke, this is all going to catch up with you sooner or later. Thank you Mr.Crawford I always felt your heart was in the right place. You were just out numbered by the others the Grand jury chased out.
geeper, nothing catching up with anyone other than the ones who voted these same old 3 members that probably bought off the grand jury to stay unsalted in the wounds of our community.
Business as usual.
I like to see 5 council members under age 35, then you might see some change.After all the biggest part our population are young here.
There’s time when the raisin faces need to step aside let the beautiful take over.
Sure couldn’t hurt to try it!
Hangs Ups From Way Back, If they were honest and had a real grip on the city funtions and were not missled from their employee the CM. I would truly welcome them, change is good. Thank you for your input. Almost a raisin face…
Smart cookie young entrepeneur Liz Hallen got my vote this last go round.
I don’t like to see the city out-sourcing our jobs (ice rink, sno-removal, etc.). I do think government benefits around the state/country are being adjusted in a variety of ways to meet future government budgets… we can’t keep owing more than we reap. As a former airline employee, we went to a “B- hiring list” which brought newer employees onboard at a lower cost. Even with unions, retiree benefits were reduced. This broken economy must try to recover, yet try to meet employee needs. But, rather than out-source or furlough, we need to engage employee groups (including management) to buy into a recovery program. As for the City Manager – I think the family should live in the town it works within 90 days. As for City Council – SLT has been broken for awhile now — get some members who want to fix it without being ecocentric. Shame on those who did not know enough to get REAL professional help in signing on the “hole in the ground convention center”. You spent lots of tax $$ and put people out of business for what? A big hole in the city. That is what the Grand Jury should look at again. Someone should have to pay for this travesty. BTW, what makes SLT think a big convention center without an active airport, would fly? I used to organize large meetings, etc., and SLT would never be in the running for a booking. Why? Because access is NOT easy. You need to focus on recreation and business rewards – not conventions.
I think you should run again for council Bill and possibly right a wrong? You got my vote, again.