Bidding Danny Williams goodbye

Cleveland Heights Mayor Seren now has failed in his second attempt to fill the position of City Administrator. And this was not for lack of finding excellent candidates. First, he failed to retain Joe Sinnott. Now he has failed to retain Danny Williams.

I once wrote in the Heights Observer that Mayor Seren found a good man when he hired Danny Williams. Mr. Williams has the right skill set. He is an experienced administrator. He always has worked well with others. As critical as I have been about Mayor Seren in the past, I thought he got something right this time.

Mr. Williams will quit at the end of the year. He made an impressive public announcement to CH City Council about his reasons. No one can doubt his sincerity. His primary desire to make a different kind of personal transition in later life is understandable.

But Mr. Williams also had “professional” concerns. He believes his talents are not a good fit with what is needed right now. He called himself a “facilitator” whose approach is “to help build camaraderie” and to “build goodwill.” He observed that Mayor Seren is concerned with “a process improvement management approach.” He noted these two approaches are “not mutually exclusive,” but they also are not “automatically compatible.”

Mr. Williams said he thinks he was not “adding sufficient value that [he] was capable of” in the mayor’s management scheme. He concluded that his own approach “may be in the future” but “it’s not now.”

And so, Danny Williams feels it is time to leave. But what he did not discuss in public concerns me.

Cleveland Heights has never needed a facilitator more than it does now. Mayor Seren has been picking fights with council members. Both sides have lawyered up. The mayor has alienated members of several community groups. He has managed to lose the services of several key city employees in a record-short period of time. And he has started a fight with the CH-UH school board over use of [the high school] swimming pool.

This level of community discord is troubling. Residents deserve much better conduct by a public official.

Mr. Williams will remain as city administrator through the end of the year. Perhaps he will leave then with a great legacy by facilitating one last time and helping Mayor Seren learn to play nicer with others.