Annapolis Capital Punishment

The Mayor has decided not to renew Public Works Director John Patmore's contract, apparently after he expressed doubts about the Mayor's pet project of holding a triathlon at City Dock. Maybe that's the reason, maybe not. It had long been rumored and reported that Patmore had been fired from this same position by previous Mayors so perhaps this is just another one of those times. CP has found him to be a mixed bag, based upon the times he has worked and communicated with Mr. Patmore over his many different tenures. The previous director, Margaret Martin, either resigned, was fired or allowed to resign. Although hardworking and energetic, Ms. Martin was an unusually irritable and irritating administrator.

CP has maintained that overall, our PW Dep't does a good job of attending to the city's many infrastructure, road, refuse and utility needs, albeit with the major exception of not being proactive in terms of communicating and informing its constituents. CP has long argued for a position in the dep't to act as a public information officer and/or ombudsman.

The big challenge now is that taking over this top spot will be our globetrotting Sister-Cities Coordinator, also known as City Administrator Bob Agee. Yes, the man who should have lost his job over the ongoing and unresolved Market Space debacle (can you say "sinecure"???) will now take over at DPW. This will surely cut into his busy travel schedule to places such as Brazil and India. City Code says the DPW director must be a licensed engineer--is Mr. Agee???? Perhaps Mayor Moyer should have kept Patmore and fired Agee and at least a few of the other overpaid and underperforming $100k+ city department heads. Once again, this is why we need a City Manager form of government.