LINCOLN CITY – The Lincoln City council has terminated their pro-tem city manager after a month on the job.
The city council hired David Benson of Tillamook to be its temporary manager in May after Daphnee Legarza resigned after three years in the job.
Benson had more than 30 years of local government experience under his belt including the role of assistant city manager for League City, Texas. He holds a Master of Public Administration degree from the University of Houston and a Bachelor’s degree from Yale University.
Benson was one of four finalists in May to become the city manager of Creswell in Lane County, but was not selected. The year before he was a finalist for Tillamook’s interim city manager, but was not chosen.
Benson began working for Lincoln City in June, but lasted a month before his contract was terminated without cause Monday. The city council met in executive (closed) session before deciding his termination.
According to a Lincoln City spokesman, no further information was supplied about the reason for Benson’s termination because the issue is a personnel matter.
The council will discuss its next steps during a work session Monday.
- Shayla Escudero/Lincoln Chronicle
This is embarrassing. Where are the grown ups?
Local government leadership here is disastrous and why is that? Because to take a leadership position in these small cities is to enter a glidepath to disaster. School Superintendents, City Managers, County Commissioners, Fire Chiefs, and other committee hired, committee supervised positions come in as the “new hope” and then enter a glide path and the question is not so much “will this end in a crash landing?” but more “how long until this ends in a crash landing?”
The impact on communities is that there is little continuity of programs and people, resulting in chaos. And the expense!!
I worked for a top notch school superintendent in a district with a history of running off leaders. He told me about this glide path when he came on board and it played out that he worked, successfully, for seven years and then local rabble rousers targeted him, resulting in a $400,000 payout and untolled additional expense in an organization wide re-organization under the new favorite. That one lasted a few years, as did the next, and the transition was destructive and disruptive. The same dance is happening in small and medium cities all over Oregon, and it has been going on for decades.
One consequence is that smart experts negotiate a contract that ensures their financial security and likely consider the community where they serve, a temporary home.
The solution is for the adults to step up by running for boards and councils, then bring a bigger picture, longer term perspective to oversight of the agencies. It can be hard. It can be awkward. It can bring unwelcome attention. It is generally thankless.
That’s why we have to pay attention, vote carefully, and support quality leaders in the long term. Before that can happen though, courageous locals have to step up and make that level of commitment to our community.