Letter to the Editor: Rally Behind Our New Leaders As They Learn And Grow

-By Bill Kelly

Our newly appointed City Manager starts work this coming Monday (although he has been here for many days). Mr. Duran is tasked with a seemingly impossible goal--fixing Hercules’ finances and restoring the community’s trust in our government.

Some of the citizens of Hercules have become very adept at criticizing our elected and/or appointed officials. I put myself in that category as any reader of this publication may well know. Petitioning our government is a sacred right protected by the First Amendment. We citizens should be wary to practice restraint of tongue and pen however, especially in situations like those Hercules now faces.

The tasks assigned to Mr. Duran are not really impossible but they are difficult.

What Mr. Duran needs most, in my opinion, is time.  Time to clearly define the problems. Time to brainstorm the myriad available solutions. Time to make choices among those different courses of action. Time to gain support on the Council and within his staff. Mostly, though he needs time to put his plan in place; and, then he needs the time and the patience to see if the plan works in the real world. Finally, he may need the time to see that Plan “A” is not working as hoped and implement Plan “B”, or maybe even Plan “C”.

There is no one among our five City Councilpersons who had completed as much a one year in office. The City Manager is new and has never been a City manager or Assistant City Manager before. The City Attorney, while experienced as Deputy City Attorney, has been the final authority for only about a month now. The Finance Director is new to our City and while very experienced in Redevelopment matters, is now dealing with General Fund issues as well – these are very different.

The point is that now is the time to rally behind our leaders as they learn and grow; and. maybe we should think about toning down the judgmental and critical observations for the short term while these people get used to working with one another.

Just on citizen’s opinion.