Two Letters: One For and One Against Mitchell Johnson

This morning the Greensboro News & Record posted two “Letters to the Editor” that I would like to share with you. One praises City Manager Mitchell Johnson and the other claims that he has handled things “unprofessionally.”

The pro Johnson letter written by Greensboro resident Susan Shore Schwartz says “Extraordinary hype, politics and yes, even some serious issues have brought about a cry from a few to fire City Manager Mitchell Johnson. What a shame this is!

Greensboro citizens, who are used to stellar management of the city by dedicated and professional staff, recognize the leadership, experience and innovation Johnson has developed in his years of service to the city. He is smart, creative, honest and a man of integrity.

He was selected as city manager for many reasons, including his proven success with fiscal management and efficiency, inter-government relations, and community solutions.

He developed facilities that provide cost-effective solutions for current and future community needs. These include the Kitchen Operations Center, the Public Safety Training Center and the Kathleen Clay Edwards and Hemphill Branch libraries.

He partnered with Guilford County to develop and manage an automation-controls system to save energy and operation costs in public buildings. He also worked to implement a merged 911 center for the city and county. Both demonstrate his success in working with other local governments, to the benefit of all parties.

He led the effort with council and city staff to develop the recommendations that became policy to resolve solid-waste disposal issues. Johnson led the development as well of many best practices for local government. These include the city’s technology master plan, which resulted in one of the most efficient technology infrastructures in local government and won national awards, and a call center that became the “face” of the city for its citizens and won an award for technology leadership in local government.

Managing a city is a tough job. It requires someone with outstanding professional and technical skills, the ability to build and maintain a strong organization, and the ability to create successful relationships.

Greensboro is fortunate that someone of Johnson’s talents and expertise is on the job to move Greensboro forward and to provide efficient services to its citizens.

Please, let’s show him respect and give him the time and space required to do his job.
The letter claiming that Johnson has handled items such as the Wray issue unprofessionally was written by William Phar of Greensboro. Phar writes, “As I sit back and watch the comedy of errors by our current city manager, something has become very apparent. In his handling of the Chief Wray situation, he made a decision, along with some other city officials, that was carried out very poorly and, more importantly, very unprofessionally. He made a decision that he thought was correct, but he handled it so poorly, our city has had to bear the consequences.

I know of no business that would fire a top executive and not have some type of plan to maintain cohesion amid all the turmoil and controversy that the city manager should have known would occur.

The city manager clearly made a decision that he was unprepared and under-qualified to make. It would also make sense to me that before I made such a big decision, I would have the full support of council.

In the end, wherever the truth may lie, we need our city officials to be capable of making decisions that will not negatively impact a whole community for this long — two years.
For this reason, our City Council should take a long look at the professionalism of our current city manager.”

The question is, do the residents of Greensboro give second chances?