If you don’t spend a lot of time on social media sites, good for
you! If you use that spare time to get healthier, wealthier, or wiser, you are a
much happier person than many of your friends and neighbors – and former
neighbors.
On the other hand, there is something you are missing.
I am speaking, or course, of the animosity and resentment that
exists between longtime residents regarding relative newcomers, homeowners regarding
renters, drivers regarding bicyclists, bicyclists regarding drivers, residents regarding
developers, and ordinary people regarding local government.
Here are some specific comments that I’ve collected from the past
two years:
“There are ugly buildings everywhere you look. The council is only
interested in money.”
“The town has sold out to the developers. It’s a shame.”
“The traffic is ridiculous. You can’t drive down Main Street
anymore.”
“They keep taking away parking spaces from businesses. Nobody
cares. Their customers will just go someplace else.”
“The town I grew up in is ruined. I will never move back.”
“I came back to Watertown to visit my mother and I couldn’t even
recognize the streets. I will never move back here.”
“This was a special town. Not anymore. What made it special is
gone.
“Normal people can’t afford to live here.”
“Newcomers from Cambridge are trying to turn us into another Cambridge.”
“We have already turned into Somerville.”
Enter the new Watertown City Manager, the former Executive Director
of Strategic Planning and Development of the City of Somerville, George
Proakis.
The city manager search committee reviewed twenty-three applications
from those wishing to be interviewed. Twenty either failed to make the cut or
dropped out for reasons of their own.
On May 9, at a special meeting of the city council, the
three finalists came before the public to introduce themselves and to be
grilled. George Proakis was up first.
I expected that many of the questions would be very specific
focusing on whatever particular issue was nearest and dearest to the resident
asking their question.
I went to the podium to ask him my own question. I wanted it to be
broad. I wanted to see if, without prompting, his answer would address deep divisions
within the Somerville community that would have a bearing on how he would
address deep divisions in Watertown.
I asked him this question:
What was the single biggest struggle you faced
in dealing with the people of Somerville and how did you handle that?
Here is the beginning of his answer:
“I think the single biggest struggle occurred
early in my time in Somerville when we were trying to solve…one of the
quintessential problems of local government in Massachusetts is trying to solve
the pull and disagreement between those who want nothing to change and those
who want to make all of the difference in the world in our community by
changing everything.”
The “pull and disagreement.” He certainly hit that nail on the
head. He might have stopped right here and taken the next question from the
podium but we would soon be learning that when George Proakis answers a
question, he leaves no particle of it unanswered.
He continued:
“And I think really when you get down to it,
one of the fundamental issues is that communities are going to change. They’re
going to change whether you like them to change or don’t like them to change
they’re going to change.”
Change is going to happen, whether you like it or not. This will of
course upset a bunch of people who air their grievances mostly or only on
social media sites – especially those who believe that the Watertown they once knew
has been hijacked by developers with the help of our elected representatives.
“What you have in a position of city manager or
in a position as I have in Somerville right now is a determination to make
whether you let those changes happen or whether you guide those changes.”
How will the new manager guide change? He provided a solid road map
in the remainder of this answer and in his answers to other questions in both
the meeting on May 9 and the meeting on May 12, where
this time he would face questions, not from the public, but from each member of
the city council.
At the May 12 meeting, George was up last.
Councilor Izzo asked him a question that needed to be asked. Of the
three finalists, George was alone in not being a current town/city manager. She
asked him how he would handle being a first-time CEO.
“The challenge of being the chief executive
officer involves having the right team, doing a lot of listening, doing a lot
of delegating and making sure that the team as a whole is pulling in the
direction of the vision and values of the community and where the council wants
everybody to go and that is certainly on a larger scale than what I have done
in communities where I have worked but I do believe that I can pull those
pieces together and continue to do that in that circumstance.”
This is the first part of his answer and it was pitch-perfect,
summarizing his management style, while conveying the rare managerial combination
of confidence and humility. He then went on to add details and examples.
Here and throughout the process, George did what the two other
candidates did not do. Both of the other candidates took every opportunity to
assure us that they could do the job. George used his time to demonstrate
how he would do the job.
The sharp contrast between a three-dimensional candidate and his
two opponents, who both came off as two dimensional by comparison, was crystal
clear.
At the end of the March 12 meeting, with all the interviews
completed, City Council President, Mark Sideris opened the meeting for
discussion. There would not be an official vote – that would come later – just
discussion. Would the councilors tip their hands as to where they were leaning
or would they choose to play it close to the vest?
Well, they did more than just tip their hands. They threw their
cards on the table for all to see.
Council Vice President Piccirilli, deciding that there was no
reason for subtlety or nuance, or hand wringing (They were all so great, it’s
hard to decide) declared that “George Proakis was head and shoulders above the
rest.”
Council President Sideris ended the discussion with his own
declaration that he would be voting for George Proakis and he would not be
changing his mind.
Every other councilor, except for one, either stated or strongly
hinted that they would be voting for George. Councilor Palomba told us that he was
not ready to weigh-in, because he needed to go back through his notes.
Go back through his notes? What did he see that the others didn’t?
Or what did he miss that the others saw so clearly?
But it was Councilor Gardner (I can’t believe I’m saying this) who
best captured the essence of the Proakis performance.
“I too was so impressed by George Proakis and I
don’t want to pile on but I just will say I thought his answers were the most
substantive and specific, which I really appreciated. There were a lot of
generalities that were said over and over again.”
True. Giving generalities is playing it safe. But we saw for
ourselves that generalities are not part of the Proakis repertoire. At this
moment, when transparency is such a popular buzz word, he was not just
transparent, he was aggressively transparent.
“I think he really understands at a level that
I don’t think I yet understand, I hope I do one day, the intricate connectivity
of the issues that we’re facing. Climate has to do with transportation, has to
do with urban growth has to do with revenue growth from businesses coming in,
has to go back to housing so we have all these things that have to work to
together and I think he thinks of these things in a systemic way which I think
is important.
And I think he’s a learning machine.”
Yes, Councilor, he demonstrated that he is both teacher and student
− natural
roles for a manager who embodies generous amounts of both confidence and humility.
The councilor continues:
“And I think we’re going to need him, because
whoever gets this job is going to have to hit the ground running very very
quickly.”
In an answer to a resident’s question, at the May 9 meeting, George
said: “There a thousand ideas swarming through my head of what I might do if I
get this job but I haven’t figured out what I will do first.”
I strongly suspect that he has already hit the ground running and
that some of those thousand swarming ideas have already begun to see the light
of day. We will soon know what he decided to do first.
The councilor ends with a final observation:
“And I think he’s got a very curious mind.”
Yes, Councilor, all lifelong students are driven by their
irrepressible curiosity.
On May 24, by a unanimous vote of the city council, George Proakis
became Watertown’s first city manager in over twenty-nine years.
As he goes about his job and as his actions and style become known
to the general public, social media will begin to heat-up. It is the nature of
the job that he will become a hero to some, a villain to others, and probably a
mixed bag to the majority.
Probably sooner than he would like, he will be facing some very
deep-seated cynicism.
Government doesn’t give a damn about what we
think!
Government does whatever it wants to do!
Government thinks we’re stupid!
Government has always told us lies and always
will!
What those of us who have carefully watched the interviews have
learned is that George is both a world-class explainer and listener. He will be
on an endless mission of reaching out to the entire community.
The question is:
How much of the community will be reaching back?
Bruce Coltin, The Battle for Watertown
