With the news of Graham Pervier’s impending retirement, Forsyth County now finds itself in the same situation as the city of Winston-Salem, which is hunting for a new city manager.
Nobody is irreplaceable, but replacing Pervier won’t be easy. He’s essentially functioned as an eighth county commissioner, and he has an institutional knowledge and understanding of how Forsyth County works—and doesn’t work—that can’t be picked up in a crash course or by reading a history book.
In addition, the politics and realities of the board have changed in the past 19 years. It’s more conservative, money is tight, demands are growing, constituents have gotten angrier. As I’ve noted before, the best city-county managers don’t just carry out the will of the elected body; they educate and lead. Tough balancing act.
The Google-free house: Interesting interview with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in Fortune. Yeah, he’s got gazillions of dollars, but he won’t hook his kids up with the technology that counts! Here’s what he says: Question: Do you have an iPod? Answer: No, I do not. Nor do my children. My children--in many dimensions they’re as poorly behaved as many other children, but at least on this dimension I’ve got my kids brainwashed: You don’t use Google, and you don’t use an iPod.
Your host is Ken Otterbourg, the managing editor at the Winston-Salem Journal. It's a forum to discuss the media, from
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