If Stephanie Cutter hasn’t been a breath of fresh air at Savannah City Hall, then all of the city’s 2,500 employees have stopped up noses.
It has been two months since Mayor Edna Jackson and City Council unanimously named Cutter as acting city manager. She replaced Rochelle Small-Toney, who resigned on Oct. 4 under threat of termination,
Cutter, a 55-year-old career city employee, had been one of Small-Toney’s top lieutenants, But so far in her latest role, she seems to be the anti-Toney. Or is it the Biggie-Small?
Cutter, I’m told, leads by consensus. he’s not the kind of boss who says, “If I want your opinion, I’ll give it to you.” Instead, she wants to know what her top staffers think, even if they disagree with her.
She comes across as quiet, but not timid. She seems to be a good listener — always a fine quality, even with some of the loudmouths on City Council.
If she has an ego, she’s either a magician at hiding it or it’s the same size as a gnat’s underwear.
“I’m not perfect and I’m going to make mistakes,” she said Friday during a conversation.
Thank you, Ms. Cutter. And congratulations.
She has just zoomed to the top of the finalist list of local public officials for the 2012 Honesty and Candor Award (actually, it’s a short list, as I just made it up).
Sitting across the table with Cutter reminded me of something — how time flies when you’re not reading about yet another controversy at City Hall.
It’s hard to believe that Cutter has been in charge for two whole months.
These days, the biggest news under the Dome is the 2013 city budget, which must be approved by the end of this year. This Thursday, the mayor and City Council are expected to give this plan a second look, then decide whether spending cuts, fee hikes, a property tax increase or some or all of the above will be part the mix.
Budget talks are important. But they rate a page full of Zzzzs compared to the diet of news reports that came out of City Hall before Small-Toney hit the bricks. They included articles about a mountain of unpaid invoices. Putting liars on the city’s payroll. Fancy office renovations. Sticking taxpayers with outrageous travel expenses. Violating pay policies.
And that’s only the more recent highlight reel.
But if Small-Toney was like Velcro, then Cutter is Teflon. Nothing seems to be sticking. And that’s good for the mayor and City Council.
They picked Cutter to follow Small-Toney because they needed a collective breather until they could regroup and recruit a new city manager.
And who knows? Cutter said Oct. 4 that she wasn’t interested in applying for the city manager’s job. But if Steady Stephanie delivers a 2013 budget that’s tied in a neat bow, perhaps this “acting” part of her job title could morph into something more permanent.
She has already done some other smart things — naming Dick Evans as an acting assistant city manager, bringing Marty Johnson back to director of special projects and dumping the position of the ciry manager’s right-hand flunky that paid $98,644-a-year.
Here’s another point in her favor: She doesn’t like to pay big bucks to private consultants who then tell the city what to do.
“I’m consultant-shy,” she said. “I think we’ve got a lot of excellent city employees who can do the same work.”
That’s bad news for some people who like to cash in on their connections at City Hall. But where is it written that taxpayers must subsidize friendships?
Cutter, who has worked for the city for 23 years, is a shoo-in to remain acting manager in January, when the mayor and council must decide whether to extend her current work agreement.
Meanwhile, two final observations. When Cutter looks at people, she seems to see people. Not conspiracies. Or hidden agendas.
She also meets weekly, every Monday at 3 p.m., with Mayor Jackson. That keeps elected officials on the same page with city administrators — something that had been previously acking, which contributed to the past odors of improprieties wafting from City Hall.
Thus it may not be a coincidence that Cutter came up through the city’s ranks in the Sanitation Department.
She knows that the best way to keep the garbage from stinking isn’t collecting it on a regular basis. It’s avoiding the stinky stuff in the first place.
Tom Barton is the editorial page editor of the Savannah Morning News. tom.barton@savannahnow.com