Reaction in the blogosphere to Greensboro City Manager Mitchell Johnson’s dismissal is overwhelming. But the N&R’s reaction no doubt would be the most interesting.
The local paper of record follows up with a graphics-heavy front-page story that doesn’t say a whole lot. But then there’s the lead editorial:
Foremost, Johnson has remained at the center of the controversy over the resignation, in 2006, of former Police Chief David Wray. Depending on whom you ask, Johnson is a good and decent man who did the best he could under very difficult circumstances — or a child of the devil.
The truth is, Johnson made some mistakes in how he handled the Wray case but rampaging mythologies about vast conspiracies appear more fanciful than factual.
Really? Jerry Bledsoe’s Rhino series was fancy rather than fact? The lawsuits where Johnson admitted that the so-called ‘black book’ was a ‘legitimate investigative tool’ is fancy rather than fact? Give me a break.
If anybody was was spreading mythology that was more fanciful than factual it was Mitchell Johnson and his friends down at the N&R, who employed their collective imagination when covering the story. Just another indication of the cluelessness down on East Market Street.
Meanwhile, John Alexander’s argument the council shouldn’t dismiss “an experienced city manager during a devastating recession” doesn’t hold water. Take a look at the numbers over the last five years and you’ll realize that Johnson is in good part responsible for the financial shape in which the city finds itself, recession notwithstanding.
Which brings me to a word of caution. When it comes to city government, I believe that career bureaucrats like Mitchell Johnson are more the symptom than the disease. City government as become a politically correct institution, from its hyper-sensitivity to charges of racism to ramming smart-growth initiatives down out throats. We need to wary of the fact that the City Council might bring in someone just like Johnson. If that happens, then we’ll be back to the drawing board.
