Does chief planner fail job test?

Questions are being raised about whether Omaha Mayor Jim Suttle's hire for city planning director meets the legal qualifications for the job.

The city charter specifies that the planning director must have at least five years of experience in a “city planning post.”

Suttle's incoming planning director, Rick Cunningham, has a resume that reflects extensive experience in the private sector and as a government consultant focusing in the areas of engineering and architecture. But he has not worked as a city planning employee for a municipality.

The Mayor's Office says Cunningham, who worked with Suttle at consulting firm HDR Inc., is qualified for the position.

The city's human resources director approved the hiring on the grounds that Cunningham's related experience is sufficient. And the city attorney says the charter can be broadly interpreted.

But City Councilman Chuck Sigerson and Jim Vokal, a former councilman and Suttle critic, said the hiring goes against the city charter. Both said their criticisms revolved only around the charter requirements; Sigerson even praised Cunningham's resume as impressive.

“I'm not sure where the wiggle room is,” Sigerson said. “Am I dealing with semantics? I don't think so.”

Cunningham holds degrees in engineering and architecture from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

He comes to the City Planning Department from Parsons Brinckerhoff, a planning, engineering and construction management firm based in New York City. There, he was senior vice president and a national sales manager.

Before that, Cunningham worked at HDR, where he became senior vice president.

His resume cites experience working on a series of government transportation and sewer projects in Missouri and Kansas and developing a facility master plan for Johnson County, Kansas.

Early in his career, he worked with the renovation of north Omaha's Blue Lion Centre, an urban renewal project at 24th and Lake Streets.

Upon naming Cunningham, Suttle said his appointee's “breadth of experience in architecture, engineering and planning is a rare commodity.” Suttle said Cunningham was “extensively involved with urban planning” while with HDR.

Cunningham's secretary in the City Planning Department said he wasn't available Thursday to comment. He started his new job Monday.

Tom Marfisi, the city's human resources director, said Cunningham has done all kinds of government planning work as a contractor and worked with government bureaucracy, city regulations and zoning issues.

“I didn't have any problem with him at all,” Marfisi said.

City Attorney Paul Kratz initially declined to comment about the issue, saying he hadn't looked into it. Later, in a conference call with The World-Herald involving Suttle spokesman Ron Gerard, Kratz said that he had looked into the issue and that it is acceptable for Cunningham to have performed work for a city, even if he wasn't employed by a city.

The charter language, adopted in 1956, says the planning director shall have at least five years experience “in a responsible city planning post as shall qualify the Director for the duties of the office.”

Two other director positions — finance and human resources — specify that their necessary experience can come in either public or private fields.

Kratz said narrowly interpreting the charter “doesn't reflect reality in today's world” that some cities don't run their own planning departments, choosing instead to hire consultants.

“I don't think it should be and can be so narrowly read,” Kratz said.

But Sigerson and Vokal are using a more strict reading.

Sigerson, who says someone anonymous brought the issue to his attention, said the charter doesn't specify that the planning director can have equivalent experience.

Vokal, who was knocked out of the mayor's race by Suttle in the spring primary, said the charter cannot be waived to allow a hiring.

“We've got to make sure that we're following city charter,” said Vokal, who ran against Suttle for mayor and formed Omaha Moving Ahead PAC to keep tabs on the new mayor.

“Mayor Suttle did not follow city charter with this hiring.”

Vokal, who works in commercial real estate, said he was not criticizing the hiring from a real estate and development standpoint. But Vokal said he has been contacted about the issue by three people, including one who works privately in planning and someone anonymous.

Sigerson, who suggested the possibility of making Cunningham the “acting” planning director, said he wants to work with Suttle to “solve this problem.”

The Mayor's Office is standing behind Cunningham's appointment.

Gerard said Suttle did not waive the city charter and is proud to have hired “the first African-American planning director in Omaha history.”

“Insofar as the Mayor's Office is concerned, Rick is qualified for the job.”

Contact the writer:

444-1128, jeff.robb@owh.com

« Metro/Region

Share