RFP Staff
♦ While we began to notice an almost rote pattern in City Manager Doug Paris’s responses to various mounting city crises and were suspecting a far more astute and cagey mind was involved, a city manager from outside the county, who lent assistance on a previous article, confirmed for us that Mr. Paris’s responses to the city’s string of crises were almost “carbon copies” of the suggestions made in the Government Financial Officers Association (GFOA) Playbook.
We knew Mr. Paris seldom if ever listens to his “Stepford Wives” City Council who obediently read his scripts at meetings and follow his dictates. If any of the City Council are questioned about the aftershocks from the city’s mounting financial collapse or the bullets flying thick outside of “8 Block”, the council immediately defers to their manager. “What do I tell them? Or should I dodge them until this blows over?”
Over the next few days we will share a 3-part series demonstrating how the city manager attempts marshal publicity to spin the blows delt the city by the Fibrant debacle, the loss of major city services, the manpower crises in the police and fire departments, the “disturbing demographic” and a host of other exposed live wires. The first will appear on Monday.
