Crossville Resident makes case to council to at least consider hiring David Rutherford back as city manager

With the top six city manager candidate pool down to only 3 left, a letter to council members from Crossville resident Liz Denton has come to light encouraging them to hire David Rutherford back.

Crossville has been without a professional city manager for 9 months since Rutherford was forced out in April 2016. 

Former Crossville city manager David Rutherford

Liz Denton is a Crossville resident who has been involved in the Horizon Initiative but her letter dated January 24 and addressed to all 5 members of the council states she is writing as a concerned and engaged citizen as well as a professional with 30 years experience in the area of organizational psychology 

Denton states, "In two years' worth of my observing both work sessions and Council meetings, it is clear that the different roles of Council (Board of Directors) and City Manager (CEO/President) are not always respected or followed. I question if this occurs because of a lack of clarity or understanding about the differing roles, or, perhaps more problematically, because of a lack of acceptance of this division of roles. Either way, this issue may be part of our city's history of a ridiculous amount of turnover of city managers."

She continues offering the following recommendation, "Since we're at the very beginning of a new year and a new Council and will soon have a new City Manager, professionally I would recommend the Council have a full analysis, discussion and agreement on the specific roles and responsibilities of the Council and the City Manager. There seems to be underlying misunderstanding and disagreement on these issues that by their very existence will create dysfunction and chaos and mistrust on the part of Council members and definitely mistrust on the part of citizens (and, ultimately, it will continue the dysfunctional pattern of city manager turnover)."

Denton said she felt that the manager candidates currently under consideration did not have the experience or qualifications of previous manager David Rutherford who also applied for the position.  She recommended that the council consider Rutherford for the position.  

Denton listed a number of reasons for her recommendation that council consider Rutherford:

• There was standing-room-only attendance during the first special-called suspension meeting and full attendance during the second special-called suspension meeting. This full turnout of concerned citizens occurred despite these two meetings being called with extremely short notice and during the middle of the day, a hardship for those with daytime jobs. And, obvious to anyone listening or paying attention, the overwhelming majority of angry and upset citizens who attended (or were unable to attend but talked extensively about it afterwards) wanted him to stay on board as our City Manager.
• He had an excellent working relationship with the majority of city employees, from department heads to office staff. At political risk to themselves, a significant number of city employees signed a petition to keep him as City Manager.
• His two years experience as our City Manager and familiarity with our entire governance and management system would mean that no time would be wasted with a brand-new person coming on board and having to learn everything and everyone. 
• The majority of citizens I've heard from, including in emails related to a survey I conducted last summer, believed there were no substantive reasons for his termination and who have expressed a wish that he was again our City Manager. You may not realize the anger that his termination generated among the citizenry at large, and I've heard comments related to that ever since and as recent as last week.

Denton talked about the history and her concern about "shady and sweetheart deals in Crossville's past and summed up her letter with the following statement, "Our community needs to heal. We need to collectively develop trust, optimism, citizen engagement and support of our elected officials, and more respect for citizens on the part of Council members. I strongly believe a re-hiring of David Rutherford would help heal the relationship of our Council and our citizenry and would show such good faith on the part of this new Council that the majority of citizens would rally round and support the Council. We could all move forward working together to solve our problems and realize more of the potential of our very wonderful community."