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Peachtree City Manager Robert Curnow — one year after his arrival — has resigned, thus setting off another search for the person who will manage the day-to-day operation of the city of 38,000-plus residents.
Here is a statement attributed to “the city” about his departure:
“We are grateful for Robert Curnow’s dedicated service as the City Manager of Peachtree City and wish him all the best in his future endeavors. With his departure, we want to assure our residents and stakeholders that there will be no loss of continuity or service. We are confident in the capabilities of Assistant City Manager Justin Strickland, who will ensure a seamless transition of ongoing projects and services, which will continue uninterrupted. Our commitment remains steadfast in delivering high-quality services and maintaining the well-being of our community.”
The “we” in the statement presumably is “the city.” Mayor Kim Learnard had no statement for The Citizen, since she’s in a snit about our opinions about some of her official actions.
After Curnow’s last day next month, current Assistant City Manager Justin Strickland will step into the vacancy temporarily, as he did the last time the permanent city manager — Jon Rorie — resigned.
Strickland — who’s been here three years now — says the city’s biggest challenge will be to keep “the momentum going.”
“The city has a good staff” who “work well together” and that will assure continuity in city operations, Strickland said.
Foremost on the city’s to-do list is the completion of the sale of land off Ga. Highway 74 South to provide a second building for the city’s Police Department.
A building already is there — including the current OnTarget gun range — which will be refitted to provide more space for expansion for the department to move into. The current headquarters building will remain, but officers will have an additional 20,000 square feet to work with.
So now the questions will arise: Was City Manager Curnow counting the days for one year to pass so his resumé would not be negatively impacted in seeking his next job? Did he realize what he was getting into when he signed on here?
Will the next city manager realize that Mayor Kim Learnard runs the show and the new manager will have to adjust to her daily directions while the other four council members show up for two meetings a month to stamp or react to whatever the showrunner has decided needs doing?
Quick city charter lesson: The city government is known as a “weak mayor — strong manager” form of governing. In other words, the mayor has NO statutory authority to order the city manager or any other city employee what to do or what not to do. That’s the full 5-member council’s duty — if they choose to exercise it the way they should. That is black-letter law contained in the city charter and ordinances.
But if the mayor thinks otherwise — well, let’s just say it doesn’t take long for city employees to figure out who really is in charge, legally or not. The city’s expanded communications operations already gets its shots called by the mayor.
(P.S.: The mayor is assembling her reelection campaign team using local taxpayer funds to give her a big leg up on whoever dares to challenge her second-term inauguration two years from now. “Mondays with the Mayor” video weekly will grow.)
Is this what happened to Bob Curnow? He came in thinking he was in charge, answerable to a full 5-member council — as the city charter and ordinances say — but discovered that he really answered to one person only?
I think Mayor Kim says we can take our weak-mayor notions and shove them up where the sunlight of public opinion never shines.
Oh, and check me on this: my totally off-the-wall guess is that there may be a gender change for the next city manager. About time, right?
[Cal Beverly has been the editor and publisher of The Citizen since 1993.]
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