I wasn’t beyond feeling it again when he publicly announced
it at Thursday night’s city council meeting. And I’m not beyond feeling it now
as I write this.
I think a great deal of Ryan personally and
professionally. He has served the city exceptionally
well, and by both personality and skills perhaps the absolute best person that
could possibly been found to succeed long-time manager Tom Rockovich when he
left the city.
Ryan and his family were presented a fantastic opportunity.
And I’m glad for him, despite my sadness at seeing him go and my concerns for
Oil City and the difficulties we will face in the transition and selection of a
new manager.
Being a city manager is not a job I would want, especially
in one of Pennsylvania’s core communities. The deck is stacked against you. I’ve
had many long conversations about the job, its pressures and frustrations with
a friend who is a city manager elsewhere in the region, and I’m left wondering
why anyone would do it. We should be forever grateful there are talented people like Ryan and my friend who desire to
do it.
Council moved to contact Peter Marshall of Municipal
Resources Inc. to see if he would meet with us and outline our options and
ideas for a manager search and selection and possibly functioning in the
interim. Peter Marshall assisted council in its previous manager search that
resulted in the hiring of Ryan. I think everyone on council at the time was
more than pleased with his work and the approach we took for selection of a new
manager under his tutelage.
It is going to be a difficult search, and it can’t help but
also present some operational difficulties for the city. Certainly some of the
things those of us on council individually or collectively would have liked to
see made a short-term priority will have to be put off.
I suspect this transition is going to be harder than the
last, in part because we no longer have an assistant city manager to step in on
a temporary basis.
I have to close this column by noting that I’m amazed,
frustrated and bemused at some of the rumors circulating in the community that
have reached my ears, and I suspect I only hear a fraction. I know of no conspiracy, no “done deal” for a
replacement or any of the other many things that are being said, or alluded. I don't think anyone else on council does either.
