Our View: Hogle went by the book

“I just want to say that in the 12 years I’ve served on the commission, this was the first instance of a kangaroo court I’ve ever participated in.”
LBK Commissioner Hal Lenobel

“Al acted rationally and logically. I would suggest Al made the right decision.”
Town Attorney David Persson

“In my opinion, I think the town manager acted not only appropriately but acted courageously.”
LBK Commissioner Lynn Larson

Yowza.

We always say: It’s amazing what bizarre things happen in this little island town where life is so perfect.
Here it was, Longboat Key residents were just calming down after the surprising (albeit pretty much expected) ousting of longtime Town Manager Bruce St. Denis and the even-more surprising hiring of his replacement, when whoosh … another Category 5er blows through Town Hall.

We’re referring, of course, to the dumping 10 days ago of Longboat Key Police Chief Al Hogle as acting town manager and the Town Commission’s reprieve to Planning, Building and Zoning Director Monica Simpson.

As is often said about the truth: You can’t make this stuff up.

To start, let’s first note that the Town Commission deserves credit for having the fortitude to confront lingering and malingering issues (i.e. the departed town manager and previous Town Commissions’ inaction on budgets, pensions and firefighter contracts). The current commissioners should be encouraged to continue in this direction. Tackle the tough issues.

In spite of this and in spite of their well-meaning intentions, with all due respect, commissioners bungled the Hogle-Simpson situation big time. That is, Commissioners Hal Lenobel and Lynn Larson excepted. The majority did what so many elected commissioners, city council members and county commissioners cannot resist throughout the land in our democratic process: They meddled and micromanaged beyond the boundary of their responsibility.

Chief Hogle had all the authority necessary to do what he did.

When two town employees informed Hogle of a hostile work environment in the planning department — an environment that persisted during the St. Denis era and of which all Town Hall employees were aware — Hogle knew exactly what he was supposed to do. He, after all, has ridden his share of wild bulls in the political arena. He has been a career law-enforcement officer in Sarasota, chief in Bradenton, chief in Longboat Key and a former mayor and commissioner in the city of Sarasota. If anyone was well-versed in what those two employees brought to him, he was. And anyone who knows Hogle knows he is not one to make rash judgments.

So Hogle did what he knew he had the authority to do. The first thing he did was call the town’s labor attorney, consult the town charter and the employee codes of conduct. He had no obligation then or even later to call the commissioners. And then he did what the town’s labor lawyer advised him to do — place Simpson on immediate leave without pay.

It was by the book.

And let us remind the citizens of Longboat Key. Here’s what the book also says are responsibilities of the town manager:

“The town manager shall be the chief administrative officer of the town and shall be responsible to the town commission for the administration of all town affairs. He shall establish such departments and divisions of responsibility as shall be necessary and proper for administration of the affairs of the town and performance of its municipal functions. He shall be responsible for the preservation of peace and the protection of persons and property within the town and shall be the director of all public safety forces … In addition, he shall have the following additional powers and duties:

“(a) Direct and supervise the administration of all departments, offices and agencies of the town, except as otherwise provided by this Charter or by law.”

In short, his job is to manage Town Hall and its employees. Hire and fire as needed.

The commission’s job is to hire and fire the town manager and set the town’s policies. Placing any other town employee on leave, or even firing one, is not a commission responsibility.

There is a common refrain in people management: When there is a cancer in the midst, you have an obligation to the rest of the body to cut it out before it spreads. Hogle rightly was living up to that important maxim.

+ New culture at Town Hall
David Bullock, Longboat Key’s new interim town manager, hasn’t started his new job yet, but no doubt he already has absorbed the equivalent of a master’s degree in town politics and the workings of Town Hall. At least one town commissioner has joked with Bullock to the effect of: Bet you’re really wondering what you got yourself into.

It’s pretty clear.

Bullock is walking into an organizational culture with excessive plaque build-up, accumulated over the past 15 years. And it’s going to require some scraping, restoration, removal and, to some extent, the installation of a new culture, new attitude and new way of doing things.

The evidence for this is substantial.

The most obvious is the Planning, Building and Zoning Department. The interviews with the department’s employees about their work environment should tell Bullock that one of his first personnel assignments will be to find new leadership and stabilize the department’s staff.

Bullock will also have the “Vogel Report,” the results of a series of town-employee focus groups and employee attitude surveys. If you read excerpts of this report in last week’s Longboat Observer or read the whole report online (see YourObserver.com, search “Vogel Report” ), you’ll see that Bullock has a major challenge. The comments about department heads was especially damning. A sampling:

• “Come together as a team — stop the bickering, turf wars, talking badly about each other and employees.

• “Get an attitude adjustment — we can’t be positive if you aren’t.

• “Demonstrate respect for employees.

• “Get development in leadership and interpersonal skills, particularly anger management for some.”

And it goes on. Ouch.

For Bullock, these conditions will make his job all the more challenging. He already knows of the external tasks — the Longboat Key Club and Resort redevelopment and expansion; the Publix redevelopment; maintaining the beach on the north end; resolving the cell-tower and pension issues. On top of those, he also will face the usual tasks of learning the personality and desires of the Town Commission and making sure the town staff provides efficient, friendly service to taxpayers. And to complicate matters, he will have the internal challenges of winning the confidence and respect of disenchanted town employees while he cleans house and builds a new culture.

This is what happens when a new leader assumes command.

Welcome to paradise, Mr. Bullock.

POO STINKY
It has the intensity of the cell-tower debate. Should dogs be given a special section of the Longboat Key beach? Should a 150-foot cell tower pierce the island’s northern sky?

There probably are as many dog owners on the Key who want to take their pooches to the beach as there are cell-phone users who are tired of standing on their driveways to make cell calls. The passions are high on all sides of the issues.

The town commissioners took the safe approach last week, forming a committee to study the idea.
Our preference is to keep the beaches the way they are. But resident Charles Nechtem offers a rational approach: Give it a limited try and eliminate it if it doesn’t work.

That makes sense, but like the cell-tower issue, it is fraught with the same not-in-my-backyard dilemma: On whose beach, or what section of the beach, would this be allowed?

Oh boy. Knowing how these issues go, we can expect this one to be another stinker.