City Manager resigns

Tuesday, April 9th, marked the end of the Chuck Strome-Kathleen Gill 26-year reign in New Rochelle.  With Gill’s resignation and settlement with the City, a search for a new City Manager will begin.  As the City Council conducts a nationwide search, residents have expressed an overwhelming desire for the next administrator to be an experienced manager who will take policy direction from elected city officials with fidelity; that they will seek to create within the various departments that report to the City Manager a culture of respect and public service; that transparency and meritocracy will govern hiring practices and promotions, and that City contracts will be evaluated based on their track record rather than personal relationships with senior staff. 

Tuesday also saw a large turnout at Citizens to Be Heard, in which many despaired of Gill’s resignation and predicted dire consequences for the City due to her departure.  However, as was pointed out by speaker Michael Cammer, there is a general discontentment in New Rochelle that cuts across political, racial and geographic lines.  Issues such as overdevelopment, lack of public input in development planning, the poor conditions of roads, the steady increase in city taxes, and flooding are of common concern for most New Rochelle residents.  Railing against the City Council for exercising their right to change the administrative head of the City, the perennial critics of city services did not connect Gill to any of the City’s failings, but rather attacked the newly elected Mayor and Council, claiming misdeeds and mismanagement.   

Gill’s supporters seemed unaware that each and every one of the common areas of widespread concern are in fact reflective of the job done by her and her predecessor.  

During her 20-plus years in New Rochelle, Gill had many different, and oftentimes overlapping roles.   She was Corporation Counsel, Chief of Staff, Interim Development Commissioner, Deputy City Manager, City Manager, and Chair of both the Industrial Development Agency and Corporation for Local Development. She was also involved in the handpicking of commissioners and advisory committees and appointing and dismissing board members.  In her dual role as Corporation Council and mentee of former City Manager Strome, she advised all aspects of government on what could and could not be done without any challenge.  This concentration of power, checked only by the City Council’s right to remove the City Manager, is not considered best practice today.  By removing Gill, the Mayor and City Council are exercising their power to be more vigilant than their predecessors and curtailing the concentration of unchecked political and economic power of the next City Manager.