From the Roundtable: High-level resignations feed the local gossip mill

Often what interests us the most is what we know the least about.

This is certainly the case with our natural – some might say morbid – curiosity about people and their jobs and the gossip that flies around in the Age of the Internet. That was certainly the case in May and then earlier this month when, within the private, legally sequestered realm of personnel relations, two high-level local government officials announced their resignations.

First it was the somewhat abrupt removal of Columbia-Boone County Joint Communications Director Jim McNabb, who had been in that position for nearly 10 years. The change came shortly after Police Chief Ken Burton arrived in March, and it appeared that McNabb was sacrificed so that the chief could enlist one of his “own” as communicator-in-charge. Police Capt. Zim Schwartze has taken over the job on a temporary basis until a replacement for McNabb is secured. As is virtually always the case, we’ll probably never get the whole story behind McNabb’s departure.

Joint Comm performs vigilant, though largely unseen, duties, and those of us who monitor their activities on scanners have noticed that the dispatching system over the years has become more streamlined and orderly. (A side note: This is undoubtedly only the beginning of changes that will affect those who eavesdrop on public frequencies, and the “hobby” of tuning-in is probably winding down. Existing analog technology will sooner or later be junked – as funds allow – and replaced by impossible-to-monitor digital systems. This move would give JointComm the already proven ability to plot the location of cars and individual officers on huge illuminated maps.)

The second major departure was Kraig Kahler, director of the city’s Water and Light Department. City manager Bill Watkins issued a statement that said he asked for Kahler’s resignation.

Watkins said he “had no doubts about Kraig’s professional integrity and intelligence.” This situation appears to have been a case in which Kahler’s technical qualifications were satisfactory, but problems within his own family led to his professional downfall.

Transitioning his family hundreds of miles from his former home in Texas to Columbia may have been too overwhelming. A pending court date and public utterances that discomforted several council members tipped the balance in his disfavor, so it was time for Kahler to seek opportunities elsewhere. Again, there’s more to the story than we’ll ever see in print.

There has been a lot of talk, mostly positive, about Chief Burton’s performance so far, but little attention has been paid to our Water and Light Department. Watkins named the department’s chief engineer, Michael J Schmitz, as interim director as of Sept. 5. There should be an extensive public discussion of his potential succession to permanent head of the department and of the vetting of external candidates, because this is a particularly challenging time for the 105-year-old municipal utility. The city must make crucial decisions about its power supply before coal-fired turbines are retired. The challenge will be to find a person with the requisite technical qualifications without the concealed baggage of family problems that could be the candidate’s eventual undoing.