Walker’s parting breaks the peace

The News Virginian
Published: May 28, 2008

The flickering light of comity on the Waynesboro City Council has been snuffed by a familiar gust of dysfunction, which is neither remarkable nor pernicious except for one whose title has become suddenly transitory. Doug Walker will vacate his position as city manager at 11:59 p.m. June 30, a time predestined by the election of the council’s emerging majority, whose activity in the matter appears as curious as it was swift.
Walker’s most vivid transgression appears to have been an original one: accepting six years ago a politically appointed job atop municipal government. City managers, school superintendents and others occupying a similar plane in government hierarchy operate in a world of Iliad, their fates determined by a group more fickle than the gods: elected officials. The result is that once new forces seize Mount Olympus, paths frequently must be cleared for the rolling of heads.
In Walker’s case, it happened this way: After the conservative bloc led by Councilman Frank Lucente swept aside the current council majority with a pair of victories May 6, a member of the newly crowned triumvirate, Councilman Tim Williams, informed the city manager that he had two options, both involving unemployment. Walker could wait until the new majority took office July 1 and then be fired, or he could hoist himself overboard. He chose the latter.
Lucente, who insists he feels an aversion to the council’s constant conflicts while invariably occupying the center of them, heaped kind words on Walker, who surely felt only the sting of hot coals. Lucente told The News Virginian he liked and respected Walker, which leaves to the imagination what might have compelled the events precipitating Tuesday’s drama.
Williams was more to the point, accomplishing in his criticism of Walker, Mayor Tom Reynolds and Vice Mayor Nancy Dowdy the notable feat of sounding bitter while achieving a political ambition at a foe’s expense. “Walker gets what he wants and manipulates council. ... [T]hen Nancy with her script, rips Frank and then Tom joins in. It’s just modes of operation for them. Everything was scripted, everything was prepared. That is why we did what we had to do.”
That having something to do with scripting Walker’s departure in a backroom manner decried by the council’s current minority until it gained the power to act similarly.
People in Walker’s position frequently have little choice but to absorb with grace the blow or else risk being unable to land another job with like hazards. Low roads mean prolonged unemployment, so Walker chose the high, calling the whole affair “the nature of the city manager business.”
In addition to being beneficial vocationally, Walker’s statement also was correct. City managers, he explained, work at the council’s pleasure. They retain their positions only until the next Ares emerges. This allows elected officials to mold the governments which they are tasked with overseeing. Though the council’s current majority has taken to gnashing teeth over Walker’s ouster, the city neither has endured a travesty nor has it of necessity been cast adrift. The sun will rise tomorrow and a suitable replacement for Walker will be found sometime thereafter.
The maneuvering that dispatched Walker is nonetheless disconcerting. That his status would be endangered under a Lucente regime had been widely known since the turn of the calendar. But the rapidity and precision with which the move was executed kindles wonderment. Why the rush? This would figure to tell us something about Walker’s stewardship of the city or the nature of the new majority, but what?
In the realm that is city government, Lucente and his fellow supremes possess the power to decide destinies. It is an authority the new majority has acquired by the rightful means of landslide election victories. But it is not one that should be exercised without clear explanations to the voters who provided the authority. The celestial rustling in the case of Walker has stirred an unease that straight answers might alleviate.