Deputy Mayor Weighs in On City Manager's Looming Departure

New Port Richey City Manager John Schneiger wants to leave his job. He reportedly feels he has lost the support of the majority of the city council.

Deputy Mayor Rob Marlowe gave a passionate opinion on the issue in the comments in our story announcing Schneiger's depature, but we thought they deserved their own post.

Here they are:

The council charged John with cleaning up a number of long standing problems that date back over years and a number of previous city managers. John worked to the best of his ability to address those problems. The required changes did not set well with some folks who were perfectly happy to continue doing whatever they pleased regardless of the rules.

The council charged John with developing a multi-year view of the city's financial future and what he came back with was not pretty. The budget for the coming year required layoffs and other cuts that were not popular. John and his staff developed the budget under the guidelines that council set and council adopted the budget.

To at least some extent, his loss of support among council members is a case of us shooting the messenger because we didn't like the message.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments section.