Sheryl Sculley announced her retirement as San Antonio’s city manager Thursday morning after 13 years in the job and less than a month after voters approved a city charter amendment limiting the pay and tenure of future city managers.
Although the caps do not apply to Sculley, the vote was widely seen as an indication of dissatisfaction with her compensation.
“This is my decision,” she wrote in an email announcing the move, adding that she has wanted to retire for “at least two years” but had remained in the job to oversee major City projects such as the 2017 municipal bond.
“I have committed to the Mayor and Council to stay through the transition to the next city manager, but will leave no later than June 30, 2019,” she wrote. “I believe this schedule will create an orderly transition for the good of the city organization during the upcoming election season this Spring.”
Mayor Ron Nirenberg praised Sculley for her effective fiscal management of city operations and leadership as the city’s longest-serving city manager. Nirenberg said he will speak with Council members about how to proceed with a search for her replacement.
“Sheryl Sculley has proven her mettle in one of the most difficult public positions one can have and can be credited with making San Antonio a healthier, more prosperous, and more equitable city than it has ever been,” Nirenberg said. “We knew this day would come eventually, but the timing is her decision and I respect that – she’s earned that.”
Sculley is the City of San Antonio’s highest-paid employee, earning a base salary of $450,000 in 2017 and $475,000 in 2018. In 2016, she earned close to $590,000, with a base pay of $425,000 and other compensation.
Sculley, 66, is eligible for a performance bonus of up to $100,000. The amount of the bonus is subject to Council’s discretion and job performance metrics established by Council. Her contract has been extended, with salary raises and amendments, five times since 2005.
San Antonio operates under a council-manager government that gives the city manager responsibility over the City’s $2.8 billion budget and for 12,000 municipal employees.
Councilman Greg Brockhouse (D6), who has worked as a consultant for the firefighters and police unions and has said he plans to run for mayor, has been a vocal critic of Sculley’s pay and long tenure, saying she has amassed too much power. He was the lone council member to support Proposition B, the salary-limiting charter amendment passed by 60 percent of voters Nov. 6.
He called for Sculley’s resignation days after the measure passed. The charter amendment limits that the term of the city manager to eight years and the annual compensation for the position to 10 times that of the lowest-paid City employee (roughly $300,000).
“I think the city manager made the right decision,” Brockhouse said. “It was time for change, and the citizens demanded it on Nov. 6. We should be thankful for the years of service Sheryl provided, but it’s time to look forward to the future. And that future is about changing the way City Hall operates and might [lead] to a stronger mayor and council government.”
Proposition B’s new constraints on tenure and salary will make replacing Sculley difficult, Nirenberg said, but he’s optimistic that a suitable candidate will be found.
“Chief among Sheryl’s many strengths is the ability to build a high-performing, professional team,” Nirenberg said, referring to the assistant and deputy city managers she’s cultivated and trained over the years and their succession plans. “Whatever the selection process looks like, my experience and instinct tells me that the best candidates are already local.”
Many City leaders credit Sculley with professionalizing the city’s government while bolstering economic and infrastructure development. During her tenure, she’s cut down City staff through attrition, appointed most of the top municipal executives, overseen major increases in bond programs and projects, and elevated San Antonio’s bond rating to AAA, making it the only city of 1 million people to achieve and maintain that rating from all three major bond rating agencies. Sculley has received several awards from the International City/County Management Association and other organizations.
Before she leaves, she said she hopes she can see the city through successful negotiations with the firefighters union – the driving force behind Proposition B and two other charter amendments.
“I hope they come to the table and negotiate,” Sculley told reporters Thursday after informing City Council of her decision to leave. “Our goal is an affordable and sustainable financial plan for our firefighters.”
At the direction of City Council and then-Mayor Julián Castro, she directed City negotiators to assemble a contract that would start to reign in ballooning health care costs for public safety employees. A deal was reached in 2016 with the police union that starts to do that, but the firefighters union has declined all offers to negotiate until the City’s lawsuit challenging the 10-year evergreen clause is dropped. The San Antonio Professional Firefighters Association’s charter amendments targeted Sculley, the referendum process, and gave it an impasse option in negotiations.
It’s unclear if her departure will bring the union to the negotiating table.
Castro, then a council member, initially opposed recruiting Sculley from the City of Phoenix, where she served as assistant city manager for 16 years. At the time, he was running for mayor against Phil Hardberger and said her contract was too expensive. Castro ultimately lost the race and Sculley backed out of the job because of a lack of unanimous Council support. Hardberger and a united Council then successfully recruited her to turn City Hall away from corrupt practices and towards professionalism and efficiency.
The next city manager may be in a similar situation, as the entire Council is up for election in May 2019. Nirenberg said he wants to see a new city manager in place before then.
“The political environment needs to be judged in its own time,” he said. “Can we transition to the next city manager? I would certainly hope that voters elect people professional enough to do that. It may be in fact their ultimate responsibility to do so.”
Sculley said she and her husband Mike “have no plans to leave” San Antonio and she will continue to work in some way. “I’ll never totally retire … I have several possibilities.”
Bad day for San Antonio
A dark day indeed. San Antonio is a Manager-Council form of municipal government. Sheryl Sculley is the Chief Executive Officer of our city. Thanks to Ms Sculley, we have enjoyed 9 years of prosperity. She makes it all happen. SHAME ON THE FIRE FIGHTERS’ UNION. SHAME ON STEELE. SHAME ON THE CITY FOR ITS POOR MESSAGING. SHAME ON SAN ANTONIO’s INCURIOUS ELECTORATE!
Too bad, she was worth every penny of what she made.
And down we go. San Antonio is following the lead of the state and country – moving backward instead of forward.
She has done so much good for San Antonio. These will be very tough shoes to fill.
This is unfortunate. Giving in to union thugs, who only have their self interest at stake, is not good for a city official.
Union thugs? Haha. Shes received multiple raises over the last 5 years now sitting on a 700k salary if she receives her 100k bonus (which she will). And the union thugs contract has been sitting in idle for years. Nothing unfortunate for her or the city bud.
this number gets higher every time i see it
Joe, please check in with us and sound off after Sculley’s replacement is hired and has been on the job for a while. I already have one statement for you: “Ya gets what ya pays for” and $300K don’t get much of a city manager. We’ll be lucky to get something along the lines of the runner-up for the Toledo, Ohio, city manager position. San Antonio will sink back to being merely a big population without any hope of achieving its potential as a major American city. I hope you short-sighted resentful jerks who caused the passage of those two props that are deathblows to SA’s future are happy. With bargain-basement leadership for San Antonio on the horizon, it ain’t gonna be pretty around here.
Those “union thugs” are the ones you’d expect help from when you call 9-1-1.
Yes, because THAT’S THEIR JOB!!!!! They need to stay in their lane AND FOCUS ON THEIR JOB and not meddling in the way the city is run. They showed they are willing to HURT the city they serve in order to protect their self interests! Everyone is talking about the high salary of the city manager. What about the salaries of the firefighters? Do you know some of them make &150K? this is much higher than the median San Antonio salary, which I don’t object to. But it would be nice to have cushy job with a high salary free healthcare while the public you serve does not enjoy close to what they are making, And when they are told they have to give up some things because the money is there, they sabotage the city!!! Yes, they are acting in a thuggish way.
I work 911 for SAPD. I’m not in a union so I as well as all the other employees at dispatch except for SAFD get kicked around. Does 15 dollars an hour sound right to you? That’s pretty much average pay for any phone operator in San Antonio. Sheryl made 15 dollars an hour the minimum wage for the city of San Antonio so a janitor makes just as much as an incoming 911 operator. It takes almost two years for a 911 operator to be fully trained and we have a revolving door now. We are licensed professionals that can be sued or even given prison time for screwing up on the job. Anyway, I’m not gonna go into specifics. Like you said, you get what you pay for and now you have a revolving door of semi-trained 911 operators. I chose to get rid of her because of that.
Awful news. The best city manager we have ever had one of the most talented professionals I’ve ever worked with in San Antonio. She will be sorely missed and impossible to replace. Proposition B is a now a realized disaster and the loss of Sculley and Frisbie is a one-two punch to the gut for all of those who truly care about city government.
Prop B doesnt affect her or her salary it is a realization that although she did a good job it wasnt 700k good. The next city manager will still be looking at 300k plus incentives. Who can survive on that? LoL
I love how her “salary” amount goes up with every details detractor’s comment.
$300k to run a $3B and 1300 employees? Ok. Can’t wait to overturn this ridiculous amendment. Let’s see who the union will choose to villainize next.
Do you realize that’s the same salary as the city manager of Bryan, Texas? Why would anyone want to run the 7th largest city in the country and receive disproportionate compensation???
Joe,
It sounds like you are about as perceptive as a small brick. Sculley has raised the bar for what the financial standing of ANY city should be. Add to that she’s done it consistently for over a decade and anyone can see that she’s legitimate. Just like the CEO for any profitable business, she deserves her salary. A pay cap under the new proposition immediately cuts down the pool of prospective applicants. Her leaving is not a good thing, nor was proposition b. Only the short sighted or small minded could possibly see a benefit to either of those two things.
Why do you keep making up a fictitious number of 700k? That’s not her salary even with bonuses. Quit lying like the SAFD Union.
700K involves all of her other perks including travel, cell phone, limo, not to mention at her request SAPD protection at her condo. Who are you kidding?
All those perks are commensurate with the job. The next city manager will be afforded the same perks except they will be supremely less qualified because now we’re not going after the creme of the crop. We’ll be asking whomever settles for that salary to be the best we can get at a discounted rate. We’re not buying a used car. We WANT the best money can get in this scenario. The city manager is the one that ACTUALLY MANAGES THE CITY. Who are YOU kidding?
I like how each time Sculley is in the news, these union supporters inflate her salary by an additional 100k. By next month they’ll say she’s making a million!
I’ll listen to what Joe has to say when he learns how to do basic math. Sculley earns $475,000 as base pay and can earn a potential that maxes at $100,000 in bonus pay. Add those two numbers together and you do not get $700,000 Joe. So if you can’t do basic addition, then you are not intelligent enough to make any type of argument that should change anyone’s mind. Now, on the other hand, if you can do the math and you just put $700k knowing it wasn’t correct, then you’re a liar. In that case, none of us should pay attention to a liar.
Oh and Joe, no one say the pay was about surviving. It’s about getting the best. Now if you prefer low balling the pay of all professionals you deal with in your life then maybe I know a doctor who is willing to do any surgery you need for $100. Seems like you prefer cheap over quality.
This is a real shame to be losing such a good leader for the City of San Antonio. I hope they can find a City Manager half as good as Ms. Sculley has been. It will be a tough time to continue any forward movement for the city without Ms. Sculley.
Can’t say I didn’t see this coming, what a sad day for San Antonio.
I hate to see the best city manager the city has ever had leave under these circumstances. I hope she stays in SA and runs for Mayor.
Al, I agree with you. She would make a great mayor following Ron.
Terrible, terrible news.
the people have spoken, and she heard it. Class move by Ms. Sculley.
The idiot masses have spoken… there in lies the problem… you can’t fix stupid and there’s tons of it in town.
Sad day for the city. Truly a professional Manager day in and day out. Big loss for the community. I’ll always be great grateful for the opportunity to serve in her administration.
We are indebted to Sheryl Sculley. Our city will miss her ongoing guidance.
Her successor and our citizens should all be thankful for all that she has done for all of us.
Time for amateur hour at city hall now.
Like that old bumper sticker says: “Keep San Antonio Lame”
Well said! Sad, but true.
San Antonio is not lame. Thanks in part to Ms. Sculley’s efforts.
Say it isn’t so!!! This is a sad and bad day for San Antonio !!! And I have to question Brockhouse having a seat on the council and being employed by the union- sounds like a conflict of interest to me and very self serving !
Employed by what union? You meant to say he has a Union endorsment and that is no violation its business as usuall.
He was a consultant for the union until he became CM. And they’re still very much tied. Very very shady.
He was previously employed by unions.
He still is employed by the union. He is a corrupt, lying union thug. It is now my personal goal in life that “Lyin’ Greg” will NEVER see the inside of City Hall again.
hey this gal I one tough mama, she never backed down and did her job very well and honorably. I always appreciated tough and smart women that can work with men and do a remarkable job. Shame on them that couldn’t support her. City will have a hard time filling those high heels.Greg is an idiot. ” Its not the palace its the people in the palace”. It the city manager that keeps the city running smooth, its not the council.Who on that council have the ability to do her job? No one. She made them all look smart. I happy for her live goes on and yahoo for her. Job well done girl.
I so agree with you. I’m afraid of what will happen now. Already people are leaving city jobs.
Echoing the sentiments above and many voices in San Antonio. This is a VERY SAD day for San Antonio! Sheryl Sculley straightened up City departments, policies, and nixed an ‘old boy network. She created a responsive and ethical city government. We lose a lot with her departure. And now, we will have subpar candidates to choose from because of the salary cap. Ms. Sculley has transformed City government and San Antonio! Thank you for thirteen years of exceptional leadership!
I have no personnel problems with Sculley or her $$. But, “responsive & ethical”? Most recent scandals involving the City Center Office & Tricentennial Commission come to mind. And, have you ever called 311 for what should be routine work for city staff? Responsive isn’t the first word that comes to mind.
It is annoying that calling 311 can take about 45 seconds to get through all of the options. On the other hand it provides a great service, I’ve called in over twenty reports of pot holes (also more online) and each one of them has been filled within a couple of days pending weather. That is pretty efficient. They would need more staff if more people called in once finding out that they could get potholes fixed so easily, by just making a two to three minute phone call. You can also call back to check status and they also give you a confirmation number. Pretty worthwhile process. I agree though, that they need more staffing, and longer hours of operation.
Maybe the city can hire more 311 phone center staff and pay them $24k per year, only prob with that is that would mean, that due to the passing of Prop B, hiring city staff at 24k would only allow the next city manager to make 240k annually, about 40k more than an average NFL referee.
Good for you! We have different experiences. I’ve familiar w/city services and the amount of time and bureaucracy involved to get even the little things done. I know many people who stopped calling 311 because nothing was done. I don’t think additional staff is the answer. Many of us go directly to the council office to get limbs trimmed, crosswalks marked, trash picked up and potholes filled.
I thank Sheryl Sculley for her work during her 13 years. She is an amazing leader. It will be very difficult to find someone with her experience and expertise for the for such a low salary. Good luck with that!
Well it seems that the forty percent of voters who lost Prop B are well represented in the comment section lol.
It’s that vocal minority, just can’t let it go, can ya?
Right, David, the “vocal minority,” as you put it, ain’t gonna let go because we care about the future of SA and limiting the caliber of possible future City Mgrs by substandard salary and term limits will only get us what YOU voted for — a crappy city doomed to incompetence. Welcome to SA — where blatant stupidity is always in fashion.
Well done Sheryl. You moved our city forward in so many ways, with many many accomplishments! Enjoy your new found free time!
Thank a Firefighter the next time they hold out their boots ‘for charity’ on the street corner. By the way how much money was spent/wasted on their effort to promote the propositions? Mr. Brockhouse acted as a consultant?!!! Oh really. Anyone look into his finances? Smells like a conflict of interest. Ever wonder what it was just the Firefighters? I’ve never seen a tent with tables attended by three people at an early voting location for propositions. Even if they were volunteers their time is worth something. With all the issues we have to deal with today, this manufactured salary envy is not one we needed to spend thousands? hundreds of thousands? (hopefully not the M word) to promote and fight this non-issue. This is why we can’t have nice things San Antonio. #can’tshakethesmalltowntag #citystalled #cityonthedemise
Disappointing. Thank you to Ms. Sculley for her professionalism and accomplishments. I hope that the excellent staff she has attracted and kept on board can move ahead successfully to maintain our city’s positive growth and bond rating.
It’s a shame the fireman’s union and Brockhouse have taken this negative stance against the city of San Sntonio after winning an election on false pretenses. Hopefully, the voters will wise up and show Brockhouse the door, and put some limits on union influence on city management.
This is a bad day for San Antonio and our future as well. A small number of people passed the propositions. Scully raised the quality of San Antonio’s management to a level it had never had previously. Her salary was completely in line with other cities of similar size. Few cities have a AAA bond rating, the loss of the rating could cost millions of dollars in interest. Sad day.
San Antonio will get what it deserves – a city manager who will work under the restrictions imposed by Prop B is either desperate or woefully lacking experience.
Once again, San Antonio will take a step backward; meanwhile the division between residents grows wider, reflecting the mean-spirited politics that are dividing the country on a national level.
Sculley earned every penny – we are so much better because of her!!! We also lost another outstanding employee as a result – Frisbie, who vowed to leave if she did. Brockhouse’s blind ambition is at the root of this evil and I can assure you the north side will never support his mayoral bid. We have lost all faith and confidence in his decisions. Shame on Brockhouse for putting himself first above our best interests!!!
Thank you Sheryl for a job well done…
What’s the Governor’s base pay? What’s the City Manager of Houston’s base pay? What’s the base pay for a 4 star general? What’s the President’s base pay?
I could go on. City Government is public service, not private business. When the Mayor of a City has a platform to speak at USAA, urging their employees to “Vote No”. We might have a problem as to who runs the city, the citizens or private corporations. Thank you Ms Sculley for your service.
Sad day for SA. Frankly I think it should be Brocklehouse stepping down. He’s in the pocket of the union boss (who isn’t actually a fireman himself). They both should go!
All I can say is; GOOD RIDDANCE!
Good Riddance? Who needs the best of the best? Who needs great fiscal responsibility? Who needs completely qualified and professional results? Not us. We’re San Antonio. We’ll settle for the lowest possible bidder. What ignorance you have mastered. “Good riddance” is the least informed response so far.
Just ignore Pancho. He’s always sounding off and yammering about things he is ignorant of, jealous of, or too stupid to know the difference.
Good riddance Pancho. I betterNEVERhear a word out of you when the new totally unqualified City Manager screws things up.
Comprende Pancho!!!
Do you have any idea what she has done for San Antonio? Do you think her job was a walk in the park? I have met her and seen her incredible work ethic, she earned every penny. Most people cannot even begin to fathom her high level responsibilities, public pressures and long hours. Only an ignorant and uninformed person would garner such a lame response.
What a sad day for San Antonio and it’s citizens to lose a city manager who has been widely regarded as the best in the U.S.
Thank you, Sheryl, for doing an amazing job for San Antonio, and for your grace and forbearance with the blowhards!
Whoever’s going to be applying for your job needs to be forewarned that being subjected to heckling from the peanut gallery goes with the job.
Rivard is deleting comments against Sculley
Really?? Read the moronic dribble from “Pancho”. (not his real name).
Stupidly dangerous.
From the Rivard Report Comment Policy:
“We expect commenters to adopt a civil and courteous tone. We reserve the discretion to delete comments that contain:
-profanity or obscene and indecent language;
-threats, personal attacks, or defamatory statements;
-hate speech directed at race, color, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, ethnicity, age, religion, or disability.”
If the editors are deleting comments, I’m sure it is for a valid reason. They are very fair and only delete comments that blatantly violate their standards, which is their right.
Good lesson on unintended consequences. Why do citizens complain about a city manager making a big salary? Unfair? You go do it. It’s not easy. Now we’ll be picking from B and C list candidates. You get what you pay for. The city manager salary is a drop in the bucket and hugely important to the future success of our city. The voters aren’t playing long ball. Really, the majority are too ignorant to make an informed decision. Let’s just complain about the most important city employee making a C suite salary.
Sculley announcement immediately preceded by promotion of city employees Frisbie and DeLaGarza to bigger bucks at SAWS. Curious. We are left to
speculate, what’s next for Ms. Sculley in or around city government?
When is the IRS and State of Texas gonna bust those “nonprofit” churches that tell their parishioners how to vote? Uh, Reverend Billy Bob Joe-Boy, that’s ILLEGAL. Let’s hope Nancy and her team of New Wild Women in the House of Reps. roll up their sleeves and empower the IRS to stop tax-free status to those churches that make even one peep about political candidates. Remember those “Vote the Bible” ads all over SA when Barack was running against that nice Mormon boy, what’s his name? I visited several of those churches’ websites and even phoned a few then and they were BLATANTLY endorsing Republican candidates. Memo to IRS: Pull their tax-free status and hit ’em hard for back taxes.
Memo to James Hagee and colleagues: What part of “separation of church and state” don’t youse guys understand?
The city has been transparent as to how bond projects are handled since Sheryl Sculley was hired – projects which will attract HUGE tourist dollars – also, downtown San Antonio has completely changed. People live and shop there now. The Riverwalk has been extended. UTSA is going to start building in downtown San Antonio, including student housing – which will attract MORE visitors and MORE business. The San Pedro creek project will bring more activity to downtown. City council meeting agendas are posted online days before meetings, with links full of supporting documentation. City council meetings are streamed online. Why is Sheryl Sculley being vilified? What a huge, sad and unnecessary loss for us! Also, it can’t be a coincidence that Mike Frisbie is leaving city government too, as well as Jose De La Cruz. There’s sure to be other resignations.
Just curious, why is everyone making such a holler about the 60% of voters, Brockhouse, or even the union? The mayor favored her. All but one of City Council favored her. The business community favored her. The RR and the EN favored her. That is powerful.
She is the one who resigned. No one voted her out. No one reduced her salary, her tenure, influence, or her power. If you ask me, it was a bad move on her part for the citizens of San Antonio, and if she herself really believed as many here seem to do that the next CM is bound to wreak havoc on the city, then she could have stayed until the CC/voters could have had the chance to at least partially remedy this situation for the next CM and to the benefit of the future of San Antonio. Not to poke a sore subject, but her compensation would have been well worth it to stay an extra while for the good of everyone else. That is of course unless she’s planning on running for mayor herself.
You’re missing the point. Correct, no one voted her out, but the majority voted in mediocrity going forward. Since she was grandfathered in, I was hoping she would stick around another decade. You think she’s owes this city anything? Haha. Sure, just put off other plans and stick around for a city that doesn’t appreciate or have the mental bandwidth to comprehend the complexities and importance of her job. Laughable.
Laugh it up, doesn’t add up to me.
I never said she owed anyone anything, just that if she was as afraid as you are about mediocrity going forward, it would have been worth her time to give CC/voters some time to make it better going forward. We can agree to disagree about that, but you yourself stated that you hoped for her to stick around another decade, she decided no. Don’t leave her decision making out of the equation is all I’m saying.
If your company voted and determined you make too much money for your job, and the next person we hire will make half, would you stick around? She owes her employer NADA. This city is as cold blooded as any other corporation. In hindsight I wish she would have resigned the day after the election to send a big middle finger to the voter base that voted her in, the majority of whom pay very little in taxes if anything. Great country we live in. You get to be a mooch and still complain.
If I had 40% support of the company, 7 out of 8 of the board of directors, the CEO, the investors, and the PR team on my side with a fair compensation package, fully knowing that I was the only one qualified to actually ride this storm out, then you’d bet I’d stick around.
Agreed about the mooches and complainers.
After 13 years in SA, and with her successful career and track record running successful cities, I’m positive she’s financially independent and this was probably the last straw. She doesn’t need the job, and what a beating of a job it is. I wouldn’t take it for 700k (fire union fact checked; haha). Next time let’s vote on new firefighters getting 1/2 of current benefits.
Better yet, can we start a petition to turn SAFD into a volunteer force???????
Is it possible to reorganize the city manager role into a board of supervisors?
Really?
Go back down to the basement, put on your aluminum foil hat, and await further instructions.
Council-Manager form of governance works! Glad to see her agree to assist in transition; hopefully, we can have a new hire before the final departure date.
Now, I DO NOT expect Fire Union to negotiate a new contract until after the May Municipal elections. Let us see what 1 + 10 City elected officials decide upon concerning Replacement process- This is what WE as Voters should pay close attention to. Will the replacements for recently departing city senior executives be selected at this time?
Anyway, Let evergreen clause on Fire Union contract run its course; Start fresh or even Stand Up a County Fire Department.
I agree that the current Council-Manager form of government is good. Must not ever let elected politicians try to manage anything. Politicians are always inept managers and generally corrupt.
We need to start the process to overturn Prop B. Kinda like BREXIT for the UK: The unintended consequences will be terrible for the city.
I once lost a job after years of hard work, and it was an embittering experience. Sheryl is not “losing a job” per se but is in the unenviable position of learning first hand that no good deed goes unpunished. Bless you, Sheryl, and thanks for your years of labor in our behalves. We’ll miss you terribly if you decide to leave San Antonio in the rear view mirror.
What do we have to do to roll back this charter change? Let’s start now collecting signatures to reverse this narrow-minded effort.
Now, I read a few comments that make sense ( and I agree with) concerning roll back/repeal the recently passed Charter Prop B ( throw in Prop C,too). However, there is some rule concerning placing Charter amendments on Ballot
( frequency?). Maybe, ID can respond concerning the COSA Charter Amendment process.
I am filled with joy! Our inner city neighborhoods are wide awake and enlightened. We will for sure be expecting a seat at the table as to who our next City Manager will be. Scully had a great gig here, 13 years! She underestimated the deep connections we all have in our downtown neighborhood’s. We tried to reach out, but her hubris got in the way. Sorry girl! You just didn’t get us!
It’s not joy, Mary, it’s ignorance with which you are filled. Ignorance is bliss, right? What exactly did she underestimate? She wasn’t fired, she quit. She quit because it’s you and your “us” that doesn’t get it. Just wait to till those “deep connections” have to start rooting around even deeper for support from city services that will suffer under poor management. We’ve been getting better as a city every…single…year, but you just don’t get it.
Well you will expecting for a very long time, Mary. You and your merry band of buffoons will have NOTHING to do with the selection of the next Manager since it is a staff position selected and hired by City Council, not you. And she didn’t get to the position as probably the best city manager in the Country by under estimating anything. Oh she got you alright, girl!
So she is gone. Everyone is replaceable. We are still the second poorest big city in country with only Detroit as the worst. San Antonians believe all of hype because we are a city that gets excited over Krispy Kreme, IKEA and getting a pro football team which we built the Alamodome 30 years ago and I am still waiting although the Chamber of Commerce and Express said it was a “sure thing. Even now now a b0oming national economy we can’t get anything taller built than a 23 story Frost! It says that you are a city of the last century.Just look at little Austin’s skyline and airpost! Soon you will see that all you will be able to say is: Remember The Alamo which you gave away to the State for nothing!
Although Sheryl Sculley was a good city manager, her salary was just outrageous. Phoenix has a bigger budget and more city employees and the city manager gets more than $150k less. Yes this change is good. There are a lot of good qualified people that can do a better job with less pay.