Mostly behind the scenes,
Wes Minder worked diligently as the Chief Innovation Engineer for the City of Kansas City, Missouri. He is a licensed Professional Engineer with a Master’s in Business Administration and over the course of his career he has earned a sterling reputation as one of the top 12th & Oak problem solvers.
Yesterday he turned in his resignation and fired off
this public tweet:
"Well it's official now. After 16 years of slashing red tape, my last day with KCMO will be 3/13. It's been a fun ride. Words cannot express how I've enjoyed working with and meeting a lot of you."
Social media offered about a hundred likes and a couple of dozen comments but absolutely no context.
Here's what we know right now . . .
The Heavies are worried and they've been on the phone with Council and the Mayor trying to figure out the problem and, more importantly, how it will impact their business.
Reality Check: An employee crisis is underway at City Hall. There is more turmoil amid lawsuits and resignations now than in the past 8 years. Remember that our blog community was
FIRST to report a discrimination lawsuit against the Office Of Culture & Creative services. Today,
the newspaper follows-up our reporting with a few more deets. Overall morale is fading quickly and infighting among workers seems to be spiking with a tragic undercurrent of racial animosity slowly building. No matter who gets the job, the new City Manager must mend fences across departments and throughout the entire workforce.
But better than our deep background . . .
FIRST ON TKC!!! HERE'S INSIDER WORD & DETAILS ON WES MINDER'S RESIGNATION AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR KANSAS CITY!!!
Here's the insight and preview of the future . . .
City Hall Community Stunned
The Brain Drain is beginning at City Hall with one of the brightest lights extinguishing this week.
Chief Innovation Engineer Wes Minder is leaving 12th & Oak after a decade plus of making things happen.
He was known as someone who plowed through the layers of BS at City Hall, and got projects done on time and under budget. When the rubber met the road and Council needed something done, the smart ones called Minder because they knew he didn’t care about credit… he just wanted results. While some thought Minder a jackass, there was no denying he got the results.
The construction community and business leaders, as well as many at City Hall who appreciated Minder’s work ethic and creative solutions, are now left wondering how many more good people are going to stay around in this hot economy and who's going to pull the strings behind the scenes.
Unlike other City Hall lifers like Bob Langenkamp and Randy Landes who went out the revolving doors to "do nothing" agencies and won't be missed, the capital improvement program will suffer as one of the best people in the metro at bringing outside money to City Hall will now be consulting for other governments.
It's the canary in the coal mine. If someone like Minder who has stayed through bad budget times when he could have jumped ship earlier has now jumped, how many more good people are getting fed up with 2% raises and will bail, leaving us with only the unemployable?
Unless the mayor and council get a city manager who will clean house and jettison a bunch of helpless and ineffective directors, this is just the beginning.
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Developing . . .
