Speaking of city managers...
A candidate for the job calls Austin a shitshow.
Ella McCarthy of the Statesman reports on the tragic/hilarious story of the city manager of Bozeman, Mont. caught on video discussing the prospect of a major promotion:
In the nearly 20-minute video, which was published in full by NBC Montana, Jeff Mihelich also outed himself as a potential candidate for Austin’s city manager, and he did not mince words about the city.
"But they're a (expletive) show," Mihelich said of Austin.
"My ego tells me 'oh go try it Jeff,' but then the other part of me is like, 'are you stupid?'" Mihelich said.
...Mihelich said in the video that Austin has "nine or 10 City Commission members," seemingly referring to the Austin City Council, which has 11 members.
..."There's no way a city like that operates as it should," Mihelich said.
Much is being made of Mihelich calling our city government a shitshow – a fair assertion – but it doesn't appear that he said it based on any meaningful insights into the peculiarities of Austin politics. Based on what I heard him say, he seemed to either be making a broad indictment of big city governments or assuming that a bureaucracy will not function well if it has to answer to so many different elected officials.
