A reader has kindly sent along a link to a story about former Whitewater, Wisconsin City Manager Gary Boden, entitled “Councilmen: Gary Boden was forced out.
The story in the newspaper published in the Clinton Herald of Clinton, Iowa, until recently Boden’s place of employment as city manager, describes conflicts between Boden and Clinton’s mayor, Rodger Holm.
Reportedly,
Talks of finding a new city administrator surfaced early in June because of two disputes between Holm and Boden, Kearney said. One of the disagreements he said was a letter, not approved by Holm, from Boden to U.S. Congressman Bruce Braley, D-Iowa, stating Clinton’s primary transportation funding need this year would be U.S. 30/67 at Liberty Square instead of 19th Avenue North. Clinton has garnered money from federal stimulus dollars to reconstruct an existing portion of 19th Avenue North and to build the extension of 19th Avenue North to Mill Creek Parkway.
The other, according to Kearney, was discussions Boden had about the city investing $1 million to help fund the construction of the Lincolnway Railport. Once completed, the project would provide Mississippi River and highway access, the availability of three electric providers and three major natural gas pipelines, as well as access to the Union Pacific railroad mainline and the Chicago and Eastern line for freight trains.
‘Rodger felt that Gary had somehow committed the city to use the million dollars in bonding capability for economic development to backstop the million dollars they felt they were short without council approval,’ Kearney said.
(The story discusses a municipal severance payment to Boden if he departed involuntarily, but not if he resigned. Payment conditioned on involuntary departure, without wrongdoing, is common.)
Boden left as Whitewater’s city manager long before I began publishing FREE WHITEWATER in May 2007.
Over the years, I’ve occasionally been asked what I thought of Boden. Smart, I’d say, but often imperious. When Boden left, it was predictable that our common council would look for a different type, someone without Boden’s manner.
One cannot doubt that, outwardly, they saw in Kevin Brunner’s apparent humility the antidote to Boden’s manner.
On policy and results, though, I think the difference between the two is less significant. Whitewater’s fundamental economic conditions aren’t appreciably different, and her social conditions are arguably worse. (It’s a contention that I’ll develop fully another time.)
One thing’s truly the same, though: the same insular, stodgy, self-congratulatory clique that chose Boden later chose Brunner, also. They may have, in their minds, corrected for one mistake, but left a greater problem unfixed: This is a town that refuses to acknowledges problems, to the point of absurdity, and so corrects few fundamental economic and cultural troubles.