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Health & Fitness

Welcome back, Carlo

Mayor Jim Ellison displayed both wisdom and nonpartisanship by recommending former commissioner Carlo Ginotti to fill Pat Capello's empty chair at The Table.

It was nearly impossible to predict Ginotti's position on some matters, meaning he was giving thought to each issue. There were frequent good-natured exchanges and occasional heated exchanges across  the table with Terry Drinkwine, another commissioner whose positions were not easy to predict.

Versagi Voice's Conversation with Carlo Ginotti will interest and benefit both new and long-time observers of City Hall. Coincidentally, the on-target and timely  piece immediately below was already in-place before Carlo's appointment.

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Coffee Conversation with Carlo Ginotti 
“Royal Oak is and always will be a place we should be proud of.” 

Although Ginotti had made that point several ways during our conversation, he emailed me later to remind me that there has been too much focus on negatives – at CITCOM and in the press. “As critical as financial management is,” Carlo commented, “budget matters are being addressed, and there are other important matters for us to consider.”

Now two years into his second term as commissioner, Ginotti was quietly vigorous as we touched on everything from my occasional criticism of his performance at The Table to his clarification about the right and wrong time for CITCOM to micromanage the Administration. The commissioner includes the city manager and department heads when he says “Administration.”

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Ginotti, 48, works in the Detroit office of the State Attorney General. 

How, why did Ginotti become a commissioner? “Years ago, I joined my neighbors and spoke during Public Comment in opposition to opening a pornographic bookstore in our area. I must have had the gift-of-tongues, because the next day I received a couple of calls suggesting I get civically involved.” One of his first civic works was to serve on the ad hoc citizens committee established to review the police department. One thing led to another . . .

Carlo and I agreed that the recent budget meeting devoted to the Police Department served a double purpose: First, it returned operational authority to the police chief, within budget limits. Second, the several approaches they used to resolve police department matters can be applied in future budget discussions about other departments. 

Ginotti recalls that during the transition following the resignation of City Manager Larry Doyle and the selection of his successor, Tom Hoover, CITCOM was “forced to micromanage” to pick up the temporary slack in management. He didn’t debate me vigorously when I suggested that after City Manger Hoover and Finance Director Don Johnson were hired, the commission probably continued to micromanage a bit too long.

As an aside, Carlo and I noodled a bit about the different styles of leadership demonstrated by mayors. While he wouldn’t agree with those who have suggested that Doyle was “a rubber stamp” for Mayor Dennis Cowan, the commissioner confirmed the overall impression that Cowan was a strong mayor who “operated as chairman of the board – with the positives and negatives which come from that. Certainly, immediately after he left office, we found ourselves with an Administration awaiting instructions.” 

Which led to Ginotti’s comment that “Mayor Ellison would do well to pound the gavel a bit more!” 

Returning to the Police Department: Soon after the hiring of Police Chief Ted Quisenberry, the citizens committee mentioned above reported finding the department disorganized and not operating effectively. “In a practical sense, our recommendations revolutionized the department’s operations, and Chief Quisenberry effectively implemented many of those recommendations.” (Police representatives served on the committee.) 

When I suggested that it was CITCOM’s rather erratic policy-making about hiring, firing, attrition and all that which led to the recent hubbub about the limits of the police chief’s authority, Ginotti said that it was he who convinced his colleagues to allow no filling of any position anywhere. He described his thinking at the time: “At first we told this or that department that it could no longer fill any spot which became empty, even though the department’s budget was enough to cover the replacement. But then we found other departments hiring as they chose. So I moved to halt filling any position without specific commission approval.” 

That led, among other things, to the police chief being charged with inappropriately “making policy” when he decided, within his budget, to promote several officers to sergeants. That specific problem was cleared up at the recent budget meeting. Now, the thrust is to permit department heads to make personnel changes, within budget, without having to get specific approval of each change from CITCOM. Ironically, it was Ginotti who guided the dialogue to a unanimous decision to reverse his earlier no-hiring policy.

As always in these casual conversations, which are not interviews, Ginotti and I touched on many topics. A bulleted list is the best way to summarize some of his thoughts.

  • “For some reason – maybe because there has been so much negative talk for so long – it is unpopular to be optimistic about Royal Oak. I am optimistic.”
  • Trite but true: “If no one ever disagrees with you. If everyone is happy, you’re probably not doing your job.”
  • There are “single-issue candidates and politicians,” just as there are single-issue voters. Both are hard to work with.
  • Some people get into politics for the wrong reason, and “they lose both the knack of listening and the art of persuasion.”
  • Okay, maybe some of the commissioners talk too much sometimes, but “how, without words, do we influence each other?” Carlo acknowledged that his lawyerly mindset about making a “closing argument” may lead to a bit too much repetition on his part.
  • Excessive criticism of elected officials, including personal attacks, “discourages good people who have much to offer from entering public life.” . . .
  • . . . But public officials need to develop a thick skin, yet stop short of becoming indifferent to residents’ opinions.
  • The Administration needs to be more proactive. It has become too tentative.  “We went after them because we saw no action.”  (Ginotti neither agreed nor disagreed when I said that CITCOM may have gone a bit overboard criticizing the Administration.)
  • The commission should perform “as a Board of Directors. Set policy, whether coming from us or from the Administration. Don’t micromanage. Tell them what, not how. Go after them if their performance does not seem to be meeting policy goals.”
  • Each official, elected or appointed, should resist thinking of government as “my show.”
  • About a couple of his colleagues: “I go to Mike [Andrzejak] for context. Then we may or may not agree.”  About Terry Drinkwine: “He’s great to work with, because he says what he thinks, and you always know where he’s coming from.”
  • Unlike what was true of some previous city commissions, there is not much after-meeting socializing by current CITCOM members.

 About speculation that he is looking at moving up politically – guesses range from seeking a judgeship to another run for State Representative – Carlo says, “I’m not sure one should say ‘never’ or ‘it depends’, but I am sure that the desire to serve your community is not a bad thing.”

(This converstation took place Sept. 10, 2008.)

Frank Versagi is the editor of Versagi Voice.

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