Durham's new city manager - Part 1: Why Bonfield left Pensacola

(This is the first in a three-part series on the selection of Tom Bonfield as Durham's new City Manager. In this section: Why Bonfield left Pensacola for the Bull City. Part two: Bonfield's Pensacola legacy. Part three: Can Bonfield lead Durham?)

Since the news broke on Monday that Pensacola, Fla. city manager Tom Bonfield was the choice of Durham's leadership as the new head of municipal goverment, members of the press and the local blogosphere, yours truly included, have been digging into the northwest Florida town, combing through newspaper articles and checking in with over a half-dozen residents and officials engaged in Pensacola's political sphere.

Expect to see more analysis and details come out in the coming weeks, as a clearer picture emerges -- a picture that settles beyond first reactions, and looks back in a more reflective way at Bonfield's legacy in Pensacola and his challenges in Durham. Still, there's enough that we can piece together about Bonfield's ten years of service to be able to take a first stab at analyzing his past, present and future, which we'll do in this three part series.

And we'll begin with the present by addressing perhaps the most obvious question: Why would Bonfield, an entrenched city manager with an unusually long tenure, seek new opportunities in Durham?

From what we've been able to learn, it seems to boil down to three interrelated factors:

Weak Mayor Meets Weak Council: Like Durham, Pensacola operates under a weak-mayor system, in which the city manager position retains significant power over day-to-day decision-making, and is accountable to a mayor and council who share executive and legislative responsibilities. The mayor is a parliamentarian but possesses no real significant power beyond his or her fellow councilmen. Meanwhile, the city council in such a system votes, as a whole, to retain or terminate the services of key employees, typically not beyond the city manager, attorney, and city clerk.

While this system is in place in both Durham and Pensacola, however, in practice it's executed very differently in the two municipalities. According to BCR sources and the zeitgest of Pensacola's blogs and newspaper archives, the Florida city's council appears to be an extraordinarily weak body in terms of leadership and decision-making, often deferring to the judgement of Bonfield and staff on a wide range of matters.

From what we can gather, this has been a long-standing issue in Pensacola, and one exacerbated by the presence of a classic "good ol' boy" network holding the elected reins in City Hall that's reportedy prone to a history of cronyism and back-room dealings, and which exists in a larger metropolitan context with a history of political corruption and malfeasance. The Pensacola scuttlebutt is that the council has grown even more dysfunctional and deferential to staff, suggesting a legislative council adrift and failing to set a clear direction for the city.

Now coming from the Durham perspective -- where City Council and residents are heavily engaged and active in the minutiae, it seems, of every agenda item, every paragraph, every bullet point and projection -- one could imagine soon-to-be city attorney Patrick Baker day-dreaming about a world in which Council just said, "Hey, Patrick, why don't you run this one back to staff and do what y'all think sounds good?"

Yet that can be an untenable and difficult position: authority by disinterest, yet always on the hook for anything that might go wrong. And certainly, it's hard for a city to move forward if elected officials aren't putting their heads and hearts in it, which makes it hard to do more than tread water.

Or, as one Pensacola elected official put it to me in an interview: Bonfield had "begged, pleased, cajoled Council for direction," but continually failed to receive it.

Here's the perspective of one Pensacola politico on the matter (emphasis mine):

As I began to watch city government, attending city council and some board and commission meetings, etc. I initially formed a negative opinion of Tom Bonfield.  He seemed to be overplaying his hand as “manager.”  I then realized he was doing exactly as I would be doing, making leadership decisions when the city council was unable or unwilling to do so. The city council is unbalanced with four really good members, four really bad members, and two mostly good members who seem to bend with the city staff winds, to include the Mayor.  Sometimes the good members are unable to get a fifth to stop dumb stuff or unable to get a sixth to do good stuff. 

I know they see it differently but the city suffers because they can’t get their collective act together as a legislative body.  By default they just seem to do whatever the city staff tells them to do, not always, but too often for my comfort.  I don’t think I’m alone in that opinion, it seems to be a widely held opinion in a city of 53,000.  Some of the city council members are living in a parallel universe and/or are just in it for the status of being important people around town, and the parking space right in front of city hall.

So, by default I think Tom Bonfield has had to act as City Leader/Manager.  There’s a leadership void and he steps in as required to keep the city machine running as best it can.  In recent months I know he has twice shopped stories to the Pensacola News Journal to as he says “get out ahead of the city council” on issues.  I find that too much but the city council doesn’t seem to mind, and it seems to help them make up their mind on issues to read about it in the morning newspaper.

I like the latter part of the quote best, though I can only laugh to myself in trying to imagine what would happen if anyone in a city manager role in the Bull City tried that little tactic.

Another source who's been a long-time Bonfield watcher notes that he does "carry a heavy load," and that compared to other municipalities, he bears a disproportionate burden of the governance of the city.

Paradoxically, though, as uncomfortable as this situation appears to have been for Bonfield, the alternative may be worse--

Strong Mayor Push Meets Retiring Incumbent: Difficult that the status quo appears to have been from a governance perspective, the situation has drawn the ire and restlessness of many within the community, leading to a move afoot to transform Pensacola to a strong mayor form of government.

In such a system, the mayor takes on a role as head of the executive branch of city government; the council typically.holds legislative responsibilities. Critically, the mayor retains responsibility for preparing the city budget and other work products, which are brought before council for a vote.

In the strong mayor system, the city manager often reports directly to the mayor, and can be fired on their whim alone.

Compounding matters, Pensacola Mayor John Fogg has served on the city council for almost twenty years, the last fourteen of which as mayor (initially by appointment, and now by election since 2001.) As was clear in the N&O article in which Fogg first confirmed Bonfield's departure, the mayor has clearly been a strong backer of the long-time manager.

Yet Fogg is stepping down this election cycle, with two political newcomers challenging another entrenched city council member (this one with fourteen years of council tenure) for the role. And this change in leadership is coming about just at the very time that a strong mayor approach is again being touted in Pensacola as the solution to weak leadership.

If I were in Bonfield's shoes -- that is, as what appears to be, de facto, much more than an everyday city manager, with a public unhappy with the state of civic leadership -- I'd probably suspect that I'd be made out to be the scapegoat under any new regime.

According to a source, Bonfield has privately described the strong mayor move as one factor, though not the only one, in his decision to seek a change of venue.

A Signature Career Move: A third reason for Bonfield's likely exit has very little to do with the exigiencies of Pensacola politics per se, but everything to do with one of the factors of difference between the two cities that's gotten the most play in the last couple of days: Durham's just a bigger fish pond.

About four times bigger, that is, with a city population of 210,000-plus versus Pensacola's 50,000 residents. (And in an overall Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill CMSA that's three times larger than the Escambia County area to boot.)

All of which makes an opportunity like Durham's vacancy attractive. And, we suspect, particularly attractive to a quarter-century veteran of city leadership.

City managers, you see, face a Quixotic challenge in their move up the ranks. Too little experience or too young, and they end up managing tiny hamlets and suburbs. Too seasoned or too much experience, and they have a hard time advancing to the next level in their career, for fear that hiring cities will see them as a short-timer from day one, waiting to draw their pension at a higher, bigger-city rate.

Bonfield, in his early 50's, seems to be at the sweet spot between these two antipodes of one's civil service career. He's got the level of experience sought in the posting, while still being at a point in his life where he might plan to stick it out for a longer-term duration.

No surprise, then, that Bonfield asked for, and received, a five-year tenure from Council in what BCR understands to be one of the key negotiated points in the deal.

And certainly, that's five years longer than Bonfield might have found under a new mayor and possible new mayoral system.

Comments

[Will]

I'm just leaving a (arguably lame) comment to say that I'm amazed that there have been no comments in any of the posts about Bonfield. Wonder why?

[barry]

Because Kevin has neglected to ask the most important question.

Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts, or Krispy Kreme?

The people really want to know where Tom Bonfield gets his morning joe.

[Sam Hall]

I think Tom will thrive in Durham.

He is smart and tireless. I believe he will respond well to an active council.

r/Sam

[durhamwalkingdog]

being very familiar with Pensacola, I'd have to say there are many great reasons to leave (and I LOVE the Fl panhandle):

4 seasons
topography
trees over 5 ft
bbq
access to mtns and more diverse parks
fewer (really) strip malls
better architecture
the Bulls! and all the college sports teams
no snow birds/more of a year-round population

etc...

[Mike Woodard]

Kevin:

One correction: The Council hires the City Manager, the City Attorney, and the *City* Clerk...not the Clerk of Court. The City Clerk is the keeper and executor of official City documents and other related legal and historical stuff. The Clerk of Court is actually an elected position and is responsible for maintaining all documents related to civil and criminal court processes.

Mike Woodard

[Bull City Rising]

@Barry: BREAKING NEWS. Bonfield prefers... Tim Hortons! Is he really a Canadian sneaking into the country working? Will he sing both anthems at Carolina Hurricanes games? Can he sneak in some delicious coffee? (OK, it should be obvious I'm kidding. And I have no idea what cup of joe Tom Bonfield prefers. But, hey, Barry's right -- nothing like a little coffee action to bring out the commenters. :)

@Mike: Good catch, my bad. Corrected.

[Mike]

So why did Mr. Baker lose his city manager job then be hired as city lawyer? Even after letting his law license expire? Hmmm

Mike

[Bull City Rising]

@Mike #2: I'm not sure that's how I'd see the situation. Is Baker going to win any World's Best City Manager mugs on his way out the door? No -- but I don't lay that much of the blame on him for that.

Baker never had the experience to be City Manager in the first place. In spite of that, by all accounts, he worked his tail off in the job, improved morale in City Hall, and made about as good a showing as anyone could in an untenable situation.

To my mind, having Baker return as City Attorney gives us something extremely rare: a municipal attorney who actually has experience running a city.

The current City Council made the right move in encouraging Baker to retire. They also, I would argue, made the right move in slotting him into the attorney role.

[Mike]

Thanks for the info Kevin.

[Michael Bacon]

I'd also point out that Baker got his job because of the exceptional job he did as Assistant City Attorney. And I'll note that Baker, despite having no experience running a city, was far better than his predecessor, Marcia Conner, who had all the requisite city manager training and background. Yes, he failed in three rather critical areas, but there wasn't the sense of perpetual chaos that reigned under Conner.

[Kenneth E. Lamb]

As a former member of the Board of Trustees, and now the executive director, of The Friends of The Community Maritime Park, the most important economic initiative in the history of northwest Florida, I can attest from personal experience that Durham chose wisely when it picked Tom Bonfield.

See it for yourself at: http://www.CommunityMaritimePark.com and you'll quickly discover why, after all he has done to move the Pensacola Bay Area forward, we are so sad to see Tom leave us. Durham, you are bringing in one of the most impressive leaders I've ever seen to hold the reins of professional municipal administration firmly with the grip of unquestionable integrity.

The Pensacola Bay Area's Vince Whibbs Sr. Community Maritime Park is a $240-million project that will create more than 1,500 good-paying jobs, preserve the last remaining stretch of waterfront in the city for the public's perpetual enjoyment and recreation, and expand the resources of the University of West Florida into the field of marine archeology while opening up downtown workers and "just love to learn" seniors to immediately available classes a simple walk from their homes and workplaces. The park will pump incredible amounts of sales tax revenues into the city's treasury, thus relieving the burden of property taxes to fund government.

Oh, and wait until you see our multi-use stadium, suitable for baseball, football, soccer, festivals, and concerts - ticketed events that will draw crowds from four states: Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana.

Tom's steady hand on the tiller immediately focused city resources to carry out the landslide voter mandate following a referendum approving the project. It will pump $59-million annually into our economy in just salaries and wages created by the park alone. Secondary effects will easily top $100-million in new economic activity.

In his time here, that is only one of many points of pride for us in Tom. He made never-before-seen strides in race and gender equality, brought ever higher levels of professionalism to the city's administration, and constructed a diverse "Big Tent" for all to gather beneath and participate in making Pensacola a destination and investment highlight of international interest.

His steady, sure-footed leadership gave credibility to the park project that this month has more than 10,000 opt-in subscribers to the Friends' emailed news report. The site referenced above will see visitors from more than 40 nations seeking information about being part of this historic economic miracle; June's hits jumped 70% from April's level, and will top more than a third-of-a-million by month's end.

Yes, Durham, you did yourself right with his selection. He is just as much at home with "folk" as he is with professors. He made our unprecedented "Covenant with the Community" public policy contract into a role-model for guaranteeing equal distribution of jobs and minority-owned enterprise contracting. It is a national role model for bringing everyone to the Table of Opportunity.

With Tom at the helm, there will be no glass ceilings - only a stairway to which all can climb to realize their dreams - just as he inspired Pensacola to dare to dream at all.
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