49 News sits down with City Manager Norton Bonaparte
4:46 p.m. Wednesday, July 16, 2008
49 News: Let's get right into it could you go ahead and describe your job for us?
City Manager: The role of the city manager is to provide the city government with a professional that under the direction of the city council administers the affairs of the city government. The city council's responsible for setting the policy, for setting the "what's to be done," and the city manager's role is to make sure it's done as effectively and efficiently as possible.
49 News: Can you go ahead and describe the difference between maybe an administrative form of government and a manager form of government?
City Manager: The city manager works at the pleasure of the mayor -- at the pleasure of the city council I should say -- which means that the city council can fire the manager at any time. But if the manager is doing a good job, the manager continues so you don't have every four years a change in the administration of the city simply because of an election. I think that it's important to point out that the city of Topeka is a municipal corporation. We are 1400 employees and budget approaching $200 million. Changing the top leadership every four years simply because of an election is not an effective way to run an organization. If the manager is not doing what the council wants, the council has the ability to fire the manager at any time.
49 News: This question comes from Andy as well. He wants to know your plans for downtown revitalization?
City Manager: Unfortunately the city does not have an economic development staff person. We used to but part of the budget cuts was we no longer have a staff person dedicated solely for economic development.
49 News: Does that mean that the city doesn't have a plan for downtown?
City Manager: It's not that the city doesn't have a plan. I think there are a number of issues going on, part of it is the market right now. You have a number of stores that are currently vacant. You have last year the dollar general move out from downtown which was unfortunate and certainly there are efforts to attract things downtown but the city government in itself is not in a position at this point to really be actively recruiting.
49 News: This one comes from Fred. Fred says, How can there be no money to mow the high grass when the cost are put on the landowners taxes and collected for the city?
City Manager: The amount that we have budgeted include anticipated funds from all sources including monies that we will get from fines that are levied against property violations. When we prepare a budget we already included money we thought we would collect. So it's no new money. Yes, there may be money that is collected from people that have been fined because they did not mow their grass or other code violations, but that's not new money. That's already built into the budget.
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49 News: But isn't there a certain amount carved out for say mowing grass?
City Manager: No, there was $60,000 that we had spent on mowing in 2007. When the council required that we cut contracts and commodities by 3.2 percent, the public works department had to cut about $260,000 from it's budget and $60,000 of that was from the amount that we had contracted for mowing.
49 News: Right now we're in the budget period and you had said in the report you sent out to the media that gas prices were one of the biggest factors in this year's budget. Tell me what kind of affect that's having on the budget and how you guys are dealing with that.
City Manager: We operate a number of services that are very gas intensive. The fire department, the police department public works. You look at the police department it'd be very easy to say "well, we'll stop patrolling." But if were really looking at making Topeka a safe community, police visibility is very important to our residents. The only way that they can be very visible is having the police cars around and patrolling. That's $4 a gallon is a whole lot more than $2 a gallon which is was not that long ago. So those are costs that we don't control. Certainly we're looking at how we can be more efficient in our allocation of gas resources. We're certainly looking at modifying some of the departments and how they do use their vehicles, but we certainly can't just stop patrolling the streets of Topeka.
49 News: Now, you've been at the city council meetings and you've seen the firefighters protesting every single week there. A few weeks ago there was talk of a sick-out. Whether it was actually a sick-out or whether it wasn't, there was a little bit of suspicion there. Why not fire Chief Giles?
City Manager: There's no reason to fire Chief Giles.
49 News: Can you elaborate?
City Manager: I say the opposite, why should I fire Chief Giles? I have not been presented with any information or any evidence that chief Giles is not properly managing the fire department. I look to the fire captains the fire battallion chiefs, the shift commanders to be responsible for the suppression of fire to respond to the fire. What I look to the fire chief is making sure they're managing the budget of the department and if they're doing things a chief should be doing, which I feel Chief Giles is doing, there is no rationale or justification for me to fire Chief Giles.
Reaction from Kent Dederick
Tonight, Fire Union President Kent Dederick watched the 49 News interview with Norton Bonaparte. Afterward, he gave his reaction to the interview. He said that Chief Giles has fulfilled his administrative duties. "They have to stay within budget and I guess Giles has done that, but he also has to be able to lead the people, to motivate the people." So Dederick admits Giles has been leading the department, but maybe not the way firefighters want it to go. After a year of vocal protests, does Dederick think it's time to just give up? He says they'll keep protesting until they see a change.
49 News: Is there a way to maybe to deal with this infighting between the department?
City Manager: I've met with the fire union executive staff I've met with the fire union president. We continue to have discussions and certainly if they bring issues to my attention that are relevant to the fire-fighters in terms of equipment or other things, within the budget we'll certainly accomplish those things but in terms of firing Chief Giles I have not been presented with any evidence to tell me he is doing something that he should be fired for.
49 News: What's one thing you're most proud of and what's, let's say, your biggest regret.
City Manager: Well I think that what I'm really proud of or being delighted of is being apart of the process of moving Topeka forward. Earlier, Kendall, you mentioned heartland visioning. That to me is one of the most exciting things going on. When I first came here I found that the native residents of had a lower opinion of Topeka than people like myself that have come from other places. I think Topeka needs to get a jumpstart on its own psychic moral. We certainly have work to do, particularly when it comes to our roadway maintenance and we are having a plan for that that we will be announcing in another couple of weeks, but I think that overall, I'm excited about being in Topeka right now when it seems like we're on the cusp of really having a whole different community.
49 News: Now, on the flip side of that, what's your biggest regret or maybe one thing you would have done differently as city manager.
City Manager: I can't think of anything I would have done differently. Certainly as you go about there may be some things in hindsight but nothing sticks out in my mind.
49 News: And your pleased with all the decisions you've made as city manager along the way?
City Manager: As of now, yes. And certainly there are times when there could be other corrections and other times that new information comes about that makes you look at some of the decisions, but as we move forward we will continue to do the best that we believe is best for the citizens of the city of Topeka.
Previous story in Series
- 49 News sits down with Mayor Bill Bunten (July 9, 2008)
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