Monday, July 13, 2015

South Palm Beach and the amazingly short stint of Jim Pascale as city manager

Dan Moffett at The Coastal Star writes about the Jim Pascale's short time as city manager of South Palm Beach. When you begin the job as city manager it might not be the best idea to wonder if the town should be unincorporated and going with outside law enforcement (PBSO?). But that's what he did and three months later he resigned:
     Three months after leaving Princeton, N.J., and taking over as the town manager of South Palm Beach, Jim Pascale told residents they should think about whether the town should continue to exist. [emphasis added]
     Many were caught off guard. They were planning to celebrate South Palm Beach’s 60th anniversary later this year.
     Bad timing aside, Pascale won’t be remembered for a lack of chutzpah in talking about offing the town that just hired him. But as a career move, it was pretty much suicidal.
     “He had a lot of ideas and was putting them all out at once to see which ones would stick. People just weren’t able to deal with that. It was too much,” said Mayor Bonnie Fischer. 
[and. . .]
     Besides proposing that South Palm Beach might be better off as an unincorporated community, Pascale offered other ideas that set off the firestorm around him.
     He called the town’s Police Department “an accident waiting to happen,” saying officers were poorly trained and an insurance liability that could bankrupt the town. He said it was time to consider contracting with an outside agency to save money and minimize risk.