Lori Johnson: Atwater gets a competent city manager despite mayor’s objections

Re “Split Atwater City Council appoints interim city manager” (Front Page, Dec. 13): I applaud the Atwater City Council for its selection of Art de Werk as new city manager. Despite a smear campaign and a no-holds-barred effort by Mayor Jim Price and others, the council made a wise choice. De Week comes on board with 43 years of distinguished government service.

It’s strange that Mayor Price’s criteria for the selection was that the individual must have extensive experience as a city manager, with no previous relationship with any council member, and come from outside the immediate area. Yet Atwater’s previous interim manager, endorsed by the mayor, never served a day as a city manager, came to the position from another office inside city hall and had a long good ol’ boys relationship with most city officials. It appears the opposition to de Werk is based on hypocritical reasoning that could not pass the smell test. So, Art de Werk, welcome to Atwater. Good luck herding all the feral cats in one direction!

This story was originally published December 14, 2017 at 4:24 PM with the headline "Lori Johnson: Atwater gets a competent city manager despite mayor’s objections."