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"If the employee's performance is deemed unsatisfactory, a follow-up review is scheduled, and if the employee has not addressed the issues raised by the supervisor, termination may be considered." Sounds like the City Manager will have a chance to amend his ways before he can be fired.
Journal Review
34 comments:
Not completely true. This is what Nicky Vaugh is advocating, but Council can terminate for cause. Process starts if they vote to initiate termination proceedings. Then manager is placed on Admin leave. He has 5 days to request a hearing. If he does, Council holds a hearing w/in 15 days and then votes to either reinstate or terminate. If Manager is not terminated for cause, he gets 6 months severance, if for cause, then no severance.
The issue is not the Charter, or even these provisions of contract which are standard in the industry. The issue is that the contract is open-ended. Most City Manager contracts are for 2-5 years, and then get renewed or extended, giving Council the ability to let it expire w/out terminating.
I don't see how Art benefitted personally from this Knox St. fiasco. He simply made some mistakes. He has no history or prior problems in fact quite the contrary, he was an exemplary employee, Going straight to termination without any warnings is not normal. Why fire him for this, really why?
He should be fired for lying, for gross incompetance in public affairs, and for negligence in his managerial duties.
Did you say he has no history of prior problems? Are you kidding me? Do a simple google search of Sciorra and Casoppolis MI and then do one in Horseheads NY. This guy has done this before, being fired or run out of town as he tries to cling to power. He's only interested in taking what he can get from people, staff and the community, not giving anythin to the people he's supposed to be serving.
Anon 4:41 thanks for the clarification.
Chris Robbins at the Journal says City Council will meet to fire him on Monday, fwiw.
Cheese plant, defense jobs, American Communities town homes, veterans business incubator, Cassopolis, Horseheads, smearing the Wades, taking no responsibility for anything, letting minor situation metastasize, costing city additional grant money by failing to deal with problem expeditiously.
A model employee only if your name is Nick "Junior Mint" Vaugh or Dan "Pot Smoke" Skamperle.
What does his prior job have to do with his performance here? That had to be known when he was hired, so he starts with a clean slate. Every one of those council members lie, and the biggest liar is Nelson. He admitted to breaking the charter said he would do it again and the next meeting he denied saying it. That is just one of many. Art is no angel but he is the smartest person up there and his work got Nelson re-elected. What is going on right now is foolish. There are no grounds to fire this man and you are all going to find out when he walks away with a big check. You are walking right into his retirement web, just wait and see. I'm not an Art supporter, these are just the facts.
No grounds except wasting city money on an obsolete cheese plant, signing an agreement with a sham "developer," promising people that a man who can power nuclear submarines with car ignitions will be bringing 200 jobs, promising a veterans business incubator, lying about the Wades, lying about Main Street programs to make Woods look worse, costing the city grant monies, making the city a laughingstock by managing personnel issues so poorly that the issue is "600,000 unread emails."
Yeah, take that sterling record into consideration, add to it the fact that the pompous Woods brought in all the grant money that permitted Sciorra's successes (where they can be found), and you're looking at a $100 K CEO who's getting over on a poor city.
I'd be delighted if Bill was put to pasture, too. He's corrupt and stupid.
A boss must take responsibility for small matters to prevent their becoming major problems. The boss is the public face of the organization. The boss has authority over his employees, and must manage them to produce the desired results.
A good boss does not make a small problem bigger. A good boss does not seek to spread public blame to blameless individuals outside his organization. A good boss.
Art is not a good boss. He sought to avoid the oversight authority of Council (which could have been a real lifesaver for him) by pushing contracts through the Growth Fund when he didn't feel like submitting to Council questions or oversight. Oops. When the paper started asking questions, he publicly brought up unrelated issues for the purpose of discrediting an employee whom he should have terminated quietly a long time ago if that was, indeed, the direction he had determined to take. The effect of these wild, flailing public statements was to make state funding agencies run quickly from Ogdensburg.
The tough thing about being CEO is that you're tasked to manage tough situations even if you didn't create them.
They (the last council) paid about fifty thousand dollars to hire a consultant to find this man for them.. They were pleased with their choice and they gave him the direction they wanted him going in.
The new council took office four years ago and outside of Shollette and Morley backed his every move. He lied to people, he was incourteous to people yet Nelson and his followers backed him.
This Knox St issue became visable as early as May but council still backed him..
Elections came near and nelson needed to make contact with the general public again.. Going door to door he found out the hard facts that he wasnt going to win backing this manager..
Nelson threw the manager out the window at that time in order to extend his politcal agenda whatever it may be..
Through all of the drama and excitement Nelson held dramatic meetings to packed houses at city hall. When someone spoke for the manager Nelson allowed the crowds to beco e loud and abusive.. He called Woods the arrogant root of the problem back her to give his version of what happened..
Now that we are getting attorney poor Nelson sits like a little boy that just crapped his pants at the meeting letting Morley rant..
Patients and truthfullness was all that was needed to let this man go the proper way..
Oh but I woulnt have been re-elected would I..
A couple of you are blaming Nelson.A couple of you are blaming Morley. Blame the real root of the problem, Art. OK, Nickie.
My real concern is after Art goes who is going to run the city? We are missing a planning director who absorbed other positions while he was in office, a new assessor and a CFO who does not want to take the CEO position for any period of time. In fact he is also part of the problem. Nelson looks at his job as a springboard to greater things. We are a ship wandering aimlessly into the night. God help our city!
First of all art sciorra is here to stay. Take a close look at your choice for councilor. Yes. Wayne bubble butt ashley. On Friday he said he was in favor of sending art down the road. Now he says you will have to wait and see how he votes. What a joke. Also, check out kelly's comments. Fat chuck and bubble butt hold court at McDonalds.
Your new hair councilor has no opinion except that of chuck kelly or Fred, I love miss vickie, Bean. You put him in office now live with him.
By the way, Jen Stevenson also wants to keep uncle art. Hosmer only wants to please everyone so he can keep drinking beer on facebook.
God help us all in Ogdensburg.
The votes are there. SOB is gone...
Pooled Ignorance !!
Nicky has been a blight on the face of Ogdensburg. January will not come soon enough and he can go back to school.
Nick was a wannabe from the begining.. Skamp an idiot but a popular one.. Powers a rubber stamp for Nelson.. Cilly there for the OVRS.. Morley to babble.. Ashley there to vote with Nelson.. Nelson.. For his future in the 118th but only if Addie runs for Senate.. Nelson cant beat Addie on her worst day...
I see the re-appearance of DeDe possibly to run against Patty as a Donkey...
The manager has to go regardless. The entry of the Scaranac Lake attorney for recent news makes me believe Nelson has contacted Martin Murphy to come back possibly..
Marty is a hell of a nice guy, but would be a disater as a manager. Why do you think the housing program was so f-cked up
And don't forget about the code office. Mart was a hands off manager - not the guy for the job if you want accountability
Some of you may diffeer in opinion about what I am writing but this is how I sse our problem. Ogdensburg is from the good ole boy era. Relatives and friends hired for years. Friend of friends cousins etc thus we have a workforce full of incompetant leaders.. I cant imagine trying to manage that . You would actually have to fire upwards of forty employees for not doing their jobs right.
I can imagine trying to manage it. I would start by coordinating personnel decisions to actual needs rather than the political calendar of my elected official buddies. And I would resist the temptation to make asinine, uninformed statements to press. Or to promise fantasy jobs. Or to tell the newspaper exaggerated lies about functioning programs to discredit rogue employees. This guy is, and has been, a mean-spirited moron. And he's costing us more than just attorney fees...even if Nelson has proven himself too dumb and bloated to deal with the situation properly.
Ogdensburg is a good-old-boy network of Republicans who are about as conservative as Nancy Pelosi.
But you forget, they keep getting re-elected..
Nelson is an everyday guy who speaks well. He dosnt necessarily know what he talks about but he says it well.
The swing vote tonight will be Wayne Ashley who was put in office early by Nelson for this purpose only.
I am split in my thoughts about Sciorra.. The most basic things I like in a person is honesty and he failed in that respect. I lean towards firing him for that reason only.. No other reason will do in my book.
If hes intitled to a sect 78 hearing I sure the city will lose without good very good cause. If hes not then they probably will be safe.
I personally would just let him go after his contract expires. I also would do my own hiring the next time regardless how long it takes to find a canidate. Cosmo dosnt fill the bill either and should not be in charge for any reason..
You are correct about Cosmo. He is part of the problem at city hall. He should be looked at after the city council hires another city manager.
This is how you hire a new city manager. You have a committee of 6 people. Two people should be residents of Ogdensburg. Two people from business sector of Ogdensburg. And two councilors.
The committee then chooses three candidates who will then go before the public at a city council meeting. The council will then vote on the most qualified candidate. The starting salary should be no more than $65,000. per year for the size of Ogdensburg. Currently there are many people looking for a good job with benifts.
Above all be selective and take your time. Do not hire an outside firm to hire a new manager. Save the city $50,000. All the city council has to do is ask for help from the voters if they need assistance in this area.
But they will probably just hire another person without checking his background and we will be right back to square one.
You are correct about the process, but the salary should be $85-100k. You need to pay people competative wages to attract and especially retain a professional.
A lot of these condersations makes it sound like Sciorra's being fired for one big mistake (819 Knox), but in fact he's been lying and pulling these stunts for 5 years. He takes credit for the positive accomplishments of his staff. And then, he's the first to point a finger at someone else whenever he or one of his staff screws up. No leadership, no control of his department heads, and no initiative. Ask Sciorra: how is it that $103 million in economic development dollars are doled out to the North Country, but the City of Ogdensburg gets ZERO dollars for housing, job development, tourism, waterfront projects, or public works improvements. Answer: INEPTNESS
If Sciorra hadn't run the Planner out of town, you know Woods would have been at the table making sure Ogdensburg got our piece of the pie!
I'm not sold that Woods was such a tremendous asset. But I do agree that with him and without Art making a mess of this story in the press, we'd be doing better than 0% of $103,000,000
I can't believe the way some of you just repeat foolish absurdities that make no sense. The City Comptroller, Phil Cosmo, is a hard working decent guy who has worked hard on behalf of this community for more than two decades. Anyone who has watched him at city council meetings has seen he tells councilors the truth, not always what they want to hear. He got passed over six years ago because he wasn't a yes man like Art.
The only person who has trashed Phil has been Art. Yet a lot of you people who claim you recognize that Art can't be trusted are foolish enough to believe Art's accusations against Phil.
Phil deserves better than to have his reputation damaged by people who appear to be clueless about how to tell truth from baseless fabrications.
Let me get this straight. You want to place a $19 million budget and a staff of over 100 employees in the hands of someone you would be willing to pay about what an experienced correctional sgt earns.
Don't get me wrong, I know some great guys who are sgts and they do great work, but I don't know any who would suggest they would be competent to handle overseeing a $19 million budget or a staff of 100 employees.
In this world, you get what you pay for. People with management degrees and real experience are not cheap. Ogdensburg's charter outlines a procedure to help city council hire someone to run the city. The ystem has worked very well fopr this community for almost half a century.
Just because a few city councilors decided to hire a yes man six years ago is no reason to blame the charter. The charter system attempts to keep city government out of the hands of part-time amateurs who pass around rumors as fact and are too clueless to research the allegations that get tossed around as if they were facts on anonymous websites.
Ogdensburg needs an experienced professional, not a nitwit or apolitical hack.
Well said. And Phil, while a nice person and pretty honest, is not the visionary dynamic leader the City desperately needs.
Art needed to be fired, but Skamp was correct and Powers were not incorrect when they said he did more good than bad. Same for Woods. As a team, they did a decent job. The real test for Council now is to bring in seasoned professionals to stabilize the ship and continue to build on the good work of the past few years.
So by your way of thinking just because a DOC Sgt Makes $65 k per year we should pay more for a city manager. Your way of thinking is the reason the state of NY taxes are so high.
Next following your way of thinking we should pay our local patrolman the same as a NYS Trooper makes approximately $95,000 per year.
Right now it is an employer's market. Ogdensburg should be able to select a good city manager with the current employment conditions in the US.
But people like you will give away the keys to the city. Just like the school board does with it's $124,000 superintendent.
In order to attract the best available talent to the position of city manager, you have to offer pretty good incentives. Why would a smart, talented person want to come to a place like Ogdensburg?
I don't think there is anyone in the city smart enough to be a city manager anywhere, let alone a place in as dire straits as the burg. This place is a burnt out, crime-ridden hell, and it is no individual's fault for letting it get that bad - it is the people. I sincerely doubt whether there are enough good people left in Ogdensburg to deserve a place any better than the dilapidated cesspool they currently live in.
You also have to consider that the department heads are making almost as much as the city manager, so there is really no choice you have to pay.
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