So Long, Mr. Guhl

Twenty-eight days into the new administration, Acting Business Administrator Bill Guhl resigned his post yesterday. He had been working in the job on a volunteer, short-term basis since the beginning of the month.

It had been generally understood that his was not to be a long-term assignment.  But it was a critical one for the Mack administration, as the new mayor and his staff took office after only a two-week interregnum, and facing a tsunami of horrible financial and management decisions.  Guhl’s experience in Trenton government, as well as Lawrence and Hamilton Townships, gave him a good background to provide a steady hand during the transition. From what I read and understood, it sounds like his likely tenure at City Hall was going to be in the neighborhood of three to four months. That impression is reinforced in another article on the transitional city government that appears today: that articles discusses other key temporary department heads appointed by Mayor Mack as working for a minimum 90 days while permanent appointees can be put in place.That 90-day window sounds like it was meant to be the norm. As much as Mr. Guhl and the Mayor are both quoted in the papers today sounding as if this departure is nothing out of the ordinary, I have to wonder.

Now, I don’t know Mr. Guhl, and I wasn’t at the Council meeting on Tuesday. There was, apparently, a dust-up between Mr. Guhl and at least one member of Council, reportedly ending with Guhl storming out of the Council Chamber. Everyone denies that this is the reason he resigned. I can believe that. That kind of interchange between Council and the Administration is to be expected, and I think even hoped for to some extent; perhaps not as antagonistic and heated as it apparently got on Tuesday. But I do like the idea of Council asking good, pointed questions from city department heads, in order to get information out and to allow the Administration to defend their plans and policies. In any case, Guhl’s been around the block a few times. What happened Tuesday has to have happened to him before in his earlier jobs, and probably far worse.

But I can’t get my head around how his departure yesterday is a good thing, or reflects well on either him or Mayor Mack. It’s an embarrassment for both. If, as some are hinting in the papers today, Guhl had gotten frustrated over the last few weeks that he wasn’t being listened to, and his advice not taken, then his abrupt departure makes sense.

In this case, Guhl comes off perhaps as a bit of a hothead, leaving in a huff. A man f his background and experience volunteered for the job and knew what kind of a situation he was walking into. But, the man WAS a volunteer, getting paid not a dime for his effort, and he lives in Hopewell, for Crissake. Leaving an impossible situation is a lot easier if you’re not relying on a regular paycheck. Although I don’t know him, I am sorry to see him go.

This reflects badly on the Mayor and his new administration. To lose experience such as Guhl’s – so soon! – for any reason is a definite loss of talent to Mr. Mack. However, if Guhl left in resentment because his advice fell on deaf ears, that is very distressing and might well lead to a lack of confidence in this new administration at a time that couldn’t be worse for this town.

The Mayor needs to be upfront about this, and speak to the circumstances surrounding this resignation. For Mayor Mack to blithely pretend that it was nothing out of the ordinary, to say that he hadn’t expect Guhl to have stayed around THIS long, is insulting our intelligence.

As of 2 PM today there are no updated wire reports nor any press releases from City Hall. There needs to be more information, more explanation, from Mayor Mack and his people.