Fort Lauderdale Doesn’t Have a City Manager Problem. It Has a Leadership Problem.

A MESSAGE FROM  THE PUBLISHER

By Bobby R. Henry, Sr.

        How many city managers does it take before we admit the problem may not be the city manager?

That is the question every taxpayer in Fort Lauderdale should be asking.

Over the past decade, our city has become known for something no city should be proud of: a revolving door in the City Manager’s Office. We have watched respected professionals come, go, resign, get fired, or simply decide they have had enough. (Miami Herald⁠)

At first, each departure seemed like an isolated incident. Now, it looks like a pattern. And patterns deserve examination.

Fort Lauderdale operates under a commission-manager form of government. The City Commission hires the city manager, sets the expectations, evaluates performance, and ultimately determines whether that manager stays or leaves. In other words, the city manager works for the Commission not the other way around. (Wikipedia⁠)

So, if one city manager fails, perhaps the manager deserves the blame. If two fail, maybe it was bad luck. But when the list keeps growing, logic tells us to stop looking at the employee and start examining the employer.

Lee Feldman served seven years before being dismissed. Chris Lagerbloom lasted only a few years before leaving. Greg Chavarria resigned. Susan Grant stepped in as acting manager. Rickelle Williams, recruited after a national search and praised for her credentials, is now gone after just over a year. (Miami Herald⁠)

At what point does the Commission ask itself, “Are we creating an environment where anyone can succeed?”

Businesses understand that stability matters. Universities understand that stability matters. Hospitals understand that stability matters. Cities should understand it, too.

Every time Fort Lauderdale changes city managers, priorities change. Projects stall. Employee morale suffers. Department heads begin wondering whether they should continue following today’s direction or wait for tomorrow’s administration. Confidence inside City Hall erodes, and public confidence follows.

The taxpayers are left holding the bill. Recruitment costs. Severance packages. National searches. Lost momentum. Lost institutional knowledge.

And yet we continue acting as though replacing another city manager will somehow solve the problem.

Perhaps it won’t. Perhaps the problem is a political culture where consensus is difficult, expectations shift, alliances change, and professional administrators become casualties of political disagreement.

The Commission should ask itself some difficult questions.

Are city managers receiving clear direction? Are they being evaluated using consistent standards? Are commissioners unified behind a common vision? Or is every manager expected to satisfy five different bosses with five different agendas?

Those questions deserve honest answers.

This isn’t about defending any one city manager. Every executive should be held accountable for performance. Accountability is part of leadership.

But accountability must also extend to those doing the hiring.

If every coach, you hire gets fired… If every superintendent leaves… If every CEO walks away…

Sooner or later, the board has to examine itself. The citizens of Fort Lauderdale deserve stability. They deserve leadership focused on solving problems instead of creating political drama. They deserve a Commission that spends as much time evaluating its own performance as it spends evaluating everyone else’s.

Because the evidence is becoming difficult to ignore. Fort Lauderdale doesn’t appear to have a city manager problem. It appears to have a governance problem. And until that problem is addressed, changing the name on the office door won’t change what happens inside City Hall.

Sometimes the hardest mirror to look into is the one reflecting ourselves.

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