It is a shame that there is often very little correlation between the ability to get one’s self elected to office and the ability to lead organizations and the men and women who run them. The former takes money, time, connections, sometimes a family name, and usually (to be fair) a lot of hard work, especially in local races where knocking on doors makes all the difference. The latter is a skill which must be learned and honed, even for those with some natural talent at it. 

But get themselves elected these poor leaders so often do. If they are legislators, their policy positions are often far more important than leadership ability, since it’s really about how their votes are likely to come down on any given predictable issue. In executive agencies or smaller municipal lawmaking bodies, however, like the Reno City Council, there is a mix of executive and legislative functions which necessitates good leadership, and where its lack is most acutely felt.

The price of bad leadership in any government agency is always the same – the best employees leave, either to the private sector or to other agencies, and the ones who remain quickly become demoralized and no longer work at their full potential. Bad managers never admit their own responsibility in creating this environment, and instead start looking – with ever increasing paranoia – to the internal politics of their organization for someone else to blame, empowering bootlickers and creating drama and conflict where none ever needed to be. Rinse, lather, and repeat, and soon you’ve gutted an agency that taxpayers rely on for critical services.

If you’ve never experienced such a work environment, count yourself lucky. It is a miserable situation indeed for everyone involved. It’s why I left my last government job. When this happens in the private sector, the problem is largely self-correcting – productivity suffers, and bad leaders either get replaced or companies fold. In government, however, mid-level bureaucrats are nearly impossible to fire, and elected leaders’ job security too often depends on partisan tribalism or name recognition rather than actually doing a good job.

***

I thought about this when the news first broke that Reno City Manager Sabra Newby announced that she would be stepping down this summer, to be followed out the door around the same time by the city’s Assistant Manager Bill Thomas. 

There had been signs that not all was healthy between the Reno City Council members and the professionals they are supposed to oversee and direct. The City Council is non-partisan, but there are certainly factions and alliances. Councilwoman Jenny Brekhus has cast herself for years as Reno’s ardent watchdog and devil’s advocate, but at some point, people in that role sometimes become obstructionists merely for the sake of it. I’ll never forget the Council meeting I observed where Ms. Brekhus refused to vote to approve a site location for what is now my kids’ school (the #3 elementary school in the state, no less!) because she wanted to preserve the “character” of a decade-old suburban tract home development. 

More recently, Newby had taken steps to limit Brekhus’ contact with city staff, who had apparently complained that Brekhus had been somehow unduly hostile towards them, limiting in-person briefings where Newby reported seeing the inappropriate treatment. When Thomas was applying for a position with the Regional Transportation Commission board, Brekhus tried to tank his efforts by sending a letter to his new prospective employer and hinting that he was unethical for taking that job. (The RTC board ignored Brekhus and hired him anyway.)

Newby and Thomas could have simply quit their jobs with a standard two week notice, and left the council to figure everything out without them. They didn’t, because they are professionals – I believe Reno’s government has been very well-served by Newby, and that we will miss her very much when she’s gone. Instead, they are sticking around for several more months to ensure a smooth transition and allow time for the City Council to select a qualified replacement.

Brekhus’ response to this should have been gratitude. Instead, she objected on Friday in a public meeting to Newby or Thomas participating in the recruitment efforts, suggesting (without evidence or reason) that there might be something unethical about them doing their jobs, and preferring instead to spend $60,000 of other people’s money for a headhunting agency. 

Mayor Hillary Schieve rightly pushed back hard, calling Brekhus out for intimating that the city’s staff was “crooked,” and essentially accusing her of chasing Newby and Thomas out the door with her insulting conduct. Now the city has to waste time contemplating hiring consultants to do what we already have perfectly capable people on the payroll to do. 

The most telling exchange to me, though, was when Brekhus sneered at Mayor Schieve’s suggestion that she actually sit down with members of the city’s staff to get their input on what they wanted and needed out of a new boss. “I’m not going to sit with twenty of the staff,” Brekhus said. Oh, no – heaven forfend you actually get to know your own employees!

***

One of the disconnects between getting elected and successfully leading is loyalty. Politicians are notoriously disloyal, even to their own purported principles, as the pursuit of power justifies any broken promise or a knife in any back. Good leaders, on the other hand, understand that loyalty to their employees will make their organization stronger in both the short and long term.

This does not mean blind loyalty – bad employees must be disciplined or fired (for the sake of everyone else who has to carry the freight of the bad apple). But it means you critique in private and praise in public. It means you ensure people feel valued and appreciated. It means you work to address and correct any defects in their job performance, that you recognize hard work and successes with advancement and increased responsibility, and promote based on merit, not longevity or office politics. 

I think Newby has done a fine job, and at the time of her hiring, there was sufficient turmoil within the city government that an outside hire was appropriate to get a fresh set of eyes on the problem. But I find it impossible to believe that today, there is not a single qualified person within the organization who could be an effective City Manager. Grooming employees with an eye toward developing the next generation of leaders is one of the ways you both boost morale and ensure lasting legacies of success. When you don’t promote internally, it is an announcement that the leadership has lost faith in the staff, and an admission that the leadership has been falling down on the job with respect to professional development. And the benefits of hiring someone from Reno to run Reno’s city government are obvious to all. Have we learned nothing from the Washoe County School District’s repeated inability to hire and keep a quality superintendent?

Newby understands all of this, which is why she’s been effective. Brekhus does not, which is why her gratuitous and broad-based insults (whether purposeful or not) impugning the competence and ethics of Reno’s government employees are so toxic (and ultimately self-defeating – politicians who burn all their bridges don’t tend to accomplish a whole lot…)

I spent most of my adult life working for the government. I’ve seen some great leaders in those jobs, but also some really, really terrible ones. I’ve also seen great employees, and a few really awful ones. And of course I want my elected officials holding the unelected bureaucrats accountable to the citizens they serve. 

But Brekhus isn’t effectively holding anyone accountable for anything, in spite of what her supporters on social media will insist upon. Instead, she’s helping drive away talent among city employees (not to mention political allies) and demoralize those who stay. Reno’s citizens deserve an efficient and effective government that works for them, and treating city employees like they stole the strawberries from the Wardroom icebox damages that goal. Either Brekhus must learn to more competently focus her otherwise admirable skepticism about the conduct and scope of government employees, or it is well past time for her to make room for a better leader on the Reno City Council.

Orrin Johnson has been writing and commenting on Nevada and national politics since 2007. He started with an independent blog, First Principles, and was a regular columnist for the Reno Gazette-Journal from 2015-2016. By day, he is a criminal defense attorney in Reno. Follow him on Twitter @orrinjohnson, or contact him at [email protected].