Daily Archives: August 12, 2009

City of Peoria

New city manager may come from Wichita

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Scott-MooreAccording to a breaking news story in the Wichita Eagle newspaper, a finalist for the Peoria City Manager position is Wichita’s Assistant City Manager, Scott Moore.

[Wichita] Vice Mayor Jim Skelton said today that Moore has indicated he will likely leave Wichita for the job.

. . . Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis and Councilman Gary V. Sandberg would not confirm they are negotiating with Moore. But they confirmed that he is a finalist.

They said the Peoria City Council will negotiate with the finalist and vote on a contract, most likely at their next council meeting Aug. 25.

Moore got strong endorsements from Ardis and Sandberg.

“Scott, in particular, has a very strong background and experience working in a big city like Wichita, which is helpful,” Ardis said.

Moore’s experience with tight budgets, such as the one he and other officials faced this year, is attractive, Ardis said.

. . . “We feel that Scott’s experience in that realm will be very good for us,” Ardis said.

Sandberg visited Wichita several weeks ago and was impressed with the city.

He said his questions are about why Moore and other Wichita officials didn’t more closely vet a Renaissance Square developer who had several lawsuits for nonpayment of bills and bounced checks.

Moore was interim city manager at the time, though Director of Urban Development Allen Bell accepted the blame for not relaying background information to council members.

Moore was also the Interim City Manager of Wichita while the city searched for a new City Manager. According to an October 2008 Kansas television news story, “[Wichita] city policy doesn’t allow the interim city manager to also apply for the [city manager] job.” According to the story, Mayor Carl Brewer said Moore “was given the option of taking the interim job or applying like everyone else.” Since then, Moore was a finalist for the city manager position in Corpus Christi, Texas, but (ironically) lost to Corpus Christi’s Interim City Manager Angel Escobar. Before the job went to Escobar, and Moore was still a finalist, the Corpus Christi Caller-Times published a glowing profile of him:

Former Wichita Mayor Carlos Mayans said Moore faced some political turmoil in the city.

“Scott always handled that with a quiet demeanor,” he said. “He’s not a confrontational person; he’s about getting the job done. The world of the big-city managers is a world of egos many times. I don’t believe you will see that in Scott.”

He worked to entice businesses to Wichita and redevelop its downtown, planned repairs to the city’s failing infastructure and oversaw expansion at the city’s airport and rail system.

Hmmm… Expansion of the rail system…. Sounds promising! The Caller-Times also added a little more info on why Moore took the Interim City Manager position with Wichita: “Wichita city officials already told him he wasn’t qualified to hold the post full-time, the standard rejection he had heard before.”

Here’s a quick bio on Scott Moore from a City of Wichita press release when Moore was appointed Interim City Manager:

Moore was the top administrator for the City of Ellsworth [Kansas] from June 1997 to June 2005 when he became Wichita’s Assistant City Manager of Operations….

Moore is a native of Bastrop, Texas. He attended college at Southwest Texas State (known now as Texas State), where he earned a business administration degree in 1994. He played wide receiver for the Division I Bobcats. In May 1999, Moore earned a masters degree in public administration from Wichita State University while serving as the top administrator for Ellsworth. Moore’s achievements in Ellsworth include uncovering a high-profile embezzlement case, negotiating an $800,000 legal agreement with the Kansas Department of Transportation and securing future financial commitments to assist the city-owned visitor center.

His honors include being named Ellsworth’s Chamber of Commerce Citizen of the Year in 2003. In 1999, Gov. Bill Graves presented him with a certificate of recognition for becoming Kansas’ first African-American city administrator. He also coached middle school basketball in Ellsworth. In 2007, the Wichita Business Journal selected him as member of its coveted “40 Under 40” honorees. Moore currently sits on the board of the Boy’s & Girl’s Club of South Central, Kansas….

Before Ellsworth, Moore worked four years as a budget analyst for the City of Austin, Texas, which is near his hometown. He is married to Tammy, a native Lyons; they have two daughters.

And here’s his resume from the same site (copied to the Peoria Chronicle’s archives).

If hired, Moore would replace Peoria’s Interim City Manager Henry Holling, who was appointed in January 2008 within a couple of weeks after former City Manager Randy Oliver’s departure. Oliver is now the City Manager of Surprise, Arizona. The City Council started a search for a new City Manager last year, but then suspended the search until after the latest municipal election.

City Council, City of Peoria

Why isn’t the council nixing the hotel deal?

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I listened to “Outside the Horseshoe” on WCBU last night before the city council meeting. One of the guests was Second District Council Member Barbara Van Auken. During the course of the show, she mentioned several times that the city needs to do what any citizen would do when faced with lower income — start cutting expenses, and start with things that are wants, not needs. I completely agree with that kind of thinking.

Unfortunately, this thinking does not translate into action for Van Auken and most of the other council members when it comes to the City’s plan to give $39.5 million to Gary Matthews to build a huge addition to the Pere Marquette and affiliate with Marriott hotels. As much as I opposed the sales tax increase for the proposed downtown museum, at least taxpayers had the consolation of knowing that museums have some civic value. Not so with the hotel.

The city has an opportunity to get out of the deal at this point. The developer is unable to get private financing, and has missed contractual deadlines. The city is in a position to walk away from this deal and save the taxpayers $39.5 million on a “want” that could be repurposed for a “need” elsewhere.

Why is it that the city has no trouble raising taxes to help private developers (which benefits only a few), but wrings its hands at the prospect of raising taxes for basic services (which benefits all)? Why does the city have no problem levying a 2% tax on restaurants to benefit the civic center, but won’t raise taxes 2% on packaged liquor to help plug a $10 million budget gap that affects police, fire, and public works? And they won’t even consider a property tax increase, of course.

The hotel deal needs to be canceled immediately, if not sooner. There’s a reason banks aren’t loaning Gary Matthews the money. The city would do well to heed the banks’ decisions as a warning that this is not a good investment for the city — and by “the city,” I mean the taxpayers, who are ultimately providing the money.

“Everyone has to share the pain.” “We must cut ‘wants’ so we can provide for our ‘needs.'” All these platitudes are meaningless as long as the city council continues to pursue the hotel plan.