There are a lot of comments going around town about the loss of key leadership in the city.
Several fine public servants have left Mustang recently: our superintendent, school maintenance director, coaches, city finance director and now our city manager.
These employees have worked very hard to make our school and city a better place. It is disheartening to hear rumors that fine people like this left over anything other than a better opportunity for them and their career.
In all cases, these fine people worked for boards or the City Council elected by you. Their direction was and is always guided by you and your elected officials.
Having worked for elected officials before, it can be frustrating to not always have the boards accept your recommendation, but I can easily say these people all understand that is part of the job.
Mustang government and schools are run by boards with no one person having absolute power. The boards entrust our managers and employees to execute the will of the people.
In some cases, Mustang simply does not always have what some of our key employees are looking for in a career.
We may not have the size, the economic combination, a large fishing lake or many other factors that may attract leaders to Mustang.
We do have a great place to raise our families, have family outings and are close to a strong job market. Why each person decided to leave is their own “personal” decision.
I would ask those who would prefer to try and stir up things or jump to false conclusions to consider this.
There are some very bright and strong leaders looking to Mustang for future positions. All it takes is a few untrue or incorrect assumptions to remove Mustang from the list of potential locations.
I will always urge folks to speak their minds, but work with facts and be constructive and positive if possible.
We have lost some fine leaders, but we are also set to attract potentially even better ones. The City Council has a plan, which will be discussed in future meetings to choose a new manager for our city. It will be a professional, non-biased process.