dkSez : : : : : : Don Kahle’s blog

In the past week, I’ve had four conversations with people that centered around how to “get things done” here in Eugene. Probably more than that, but four that I can count. The hiring of the new city manager was explicit in two of those conversations, implicit in the other two and many others. But that’s only half the story, because the city manager’s job is to direct the work of 1500+ employees, which is an important way of saying what’s true for any manager: they don’t actually DO anything (at least not themselves)! I was given the privilege of being one of the citizens able to “interview” the finalists when they all came to town in early February. I’ve taken this as an opportunity to give a first-person account of what I saw, but also to do a little bit to frame expectations for a man coming to do a difficult job.