The City and its Culture - Hallandale resident speaks out on his hopes for Halandale Beach, Susan Stanton and the final results for city manager

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Lynn-

I followed your blog postings on Susan Stanton's job prospect in Hallandale Beach. I attended the public meetings that introduced and vetted the four finalists. I cannot speak to any one-on-one interviews or meetings between the candidates and city staff, but I read all of the background material provided to the city by the search firm. I also attended both a public reception to meet the finalists and the entire public meeting for the candidates' final interviews.

I really think that Susan Stanton's answers to all of the questions blew all of the other candidates completely out of the water. Her experience, her judgment and her blunt assessments were obvious to just about everyone in attendance. The other candidates mostly sort of spoke in corporate speak, and it was difficult to retain what had been said in answer to each question posed to them. Most of the answers also generally applied to name-any-city. Stanton's answers reflected her obvious effort to research everything she could about Hallandale Beach's particular dynamics and prospects. That was also reflected in the search firm interview material.

Anyway, I think that there were two problems for Stanton:

One, an internal candidate for manager is currently directing the CRA. I have been very opposed to an internal candidate for the CM job because of recent history in that regard in Hallandale. Our prior manager had moved up in the city from welder in Public Works to manager over 25 years, and the man who replaced him moved up from Finance. Too many residents would be suspicious of the commission selecting someone yet again from the ranks who may have established a flexible reputation amongst the political dynamics in town. Most of the commissioners, therefore, wanted to choose an individual who they believe could best smooth over past tensions and suspicions engendered by a prior manager who had moved up the ranks over many years and played a very political game until he flamed out and was ultimately fired.

Susan Stanton perhaps wasn't perceived as the ultimate choice in regards to smoothing over such tensions amongst residents even if she could have been capable of doing so. The commissioners likely wanted to select a new full-time manager who could help foster greater trust from the public after a difficult recent history- beyond doing the job of managing. They were impressed, I think, with Renee Crichton's more corporate persona, which reflected how they hope the city may be perceived in the near future, especially because almost all the commissioners fancy themselves as professional politicians rather than simply as residents serving the local community. They like the idea of a polished, more corporate persona.

Susan Stanton was the second choice for, I think, most of the commissioners. Their first choice for most of them was Renee Crichton, a very polished, sincere and sweet deputy manager from Miami Gardens who has a past history with Hallandale earlier in her career, but she'll be taking at LEAST a twenty thousand dollar salary cut to work here, which concerns me greatly. She says that she wants to move from a deputy manager to Hallandale's city manager even if that means a pay cut.

I hope that Renee Crichton will be up to smoothing tensions in town as well as aggressively asserting policy that's in the best interests of long-term objectives. That has to be done in the face of the electoral concerns of the inevitable political hacks always seeking re-election. Renee may be perfectly qualified, but it might be a good idea for her to consult with Susan Stanton given the very obvious level of experience that was well-reflected in Stanton's comments to the commission.

Susan Stanton's experience was quite obviously far, far superior to the other candidates. Her knowledge and foresight as well as her understanding of what creates unnecessary tensions amongst elected officials seemed terrific for the job. It was very disappointing to see Stanton come in second even if Renee Crichton appears to be a blessed choice to the commission. I think that most everyone in the commission chambers was truly blown away by Stanton's answers to the questions posed. Stanton also gave the best answer to a question I had posed at the reception the evening before. There is certainly the distinct possibility that Stanton is good at answering interview questions and analyzing a city's condition and its prospects, and that doesn't necessarily translate into the best management skills available. Those skills can only be put to the test on the job.

What concerns me about Renee Crichton, however, is the huge pay cut that she should expect. I wouldn't do what she's doing. That's what worries me. I don't know the details, but she certainly is extremely well-liked and seems to have it good in Miami Gardens, which also has a pretty good commission. I think that she'll likely be really easy to get along with, however, but I'll have to see as time goes on if she has a distinct vision for the compact, congested city that is Hallandale with its dynamic options for business and quality of life.

So, that leads us to Stanton's second problem in getting that job: if it weren't for Renee Crichton being willing to take a drastic salary cut to come here, Stanton may have won the day. Who knows? Perhaps the current CRA director would have become the first choice. Whatever could of or would of been the case, in the end it wasn't Stanton's troubled history as a manager or discomfort with her gender identity that caused her to be passed over. It was Hallandale's recent history of the commission and management that led our commissioners to believe that they needed a more smooth, corporate persona like Renee's, who also has an impeccable resume that included working under a prior manager in Hallandale, to take the job. Of course, there are many other reasons, but I don't pretend to be privy to everything or to even a lot.

Therefore, it's not just the candidate. It's the city, its recent history, its current culture and the fit that commissioners are looking for. Renee is young and pretty and sweet, and that will be a huge change from recent history when managers (prior to our current interim manager) had been a lot more rough around the edges.

We'll see what occurs, but all I can say is that Susan Stanton's analysis of the city's current status and possibilities and her truly blunt and entirely reasonable assessments were so refreshing and on target that I couldn't get to sleep for a while that night after the meeting. Even the guy running the audio-video in the back of the chambers was impressed with all of her answers. So was the lady sitting next to me, who attends every commission meeting. I talked to another city employee in a prominent position who expressed the same opinion. I am considering contacting Stanton and letting her know what I think. I don't know how she'll feel about talking to anybody, however.

I'm sure that Stanton feels that a major disappointment had occurred, but she should know that every time she offers her own assessments of a city's prospects and how to avoid problems and create a better vision, she's likely gaining new fans who are rooting for her to find success. I'm a new fan.

~AMHallandale