Last week, this publication reported what many in Troy had already heard. Mayor Robin Oda will not run again next year. And Patrick Titterington, the Director of Public Service and Safety, will retire in February after twenty years with the city.
The mayor told Council the two events are unrelated. We should believe her. But facts have a way of tying themselves together. Whatever the cause, the result is the same: a mayor in her final year will choose the person who runs City Hall, and that person may stay for decades.
Consider what the job is. The director keeps daily operations moving. The director holds staff accountable. Inside City Hall, this is the steady hand on the tiller. Outside, it is a voice residents hear and a leader in the community. By any measure, it is the most important decision a Mayor in the statutory form of government can make.
Start with what the mayor got right. She has hired an outside firm, Management Advisory Group, to help find and screen candidates. Good. Once the job is posted, strong applicants will come from across the country, and sorting them is work for professionals. No one should quarrel with that.
Now the harder part. The law gives the final decision to the mayor. It says nothing about making it alone. Those are different things, and leadership lives in the gap between them. A mayor can decide and still ask.
Try a simple question. Why should a person with a year left in office choose someone who will outlast her by ten years, perhaps twenty, as the current Service and Safety Director? It isn’t fair to the candidates, who will wonder who they really answer to. It isn’t fair to the next mayor, who takes office in January 2028 and inherits a choice made without them. And it isn’t fair to residents.
Some will say the mayor was elected to make this call, and she was. But a mandate is a reason to listen, not a reason to skip it. Council will vote on the contract anyway. Why wait until the person has been picked to ask what Council thinks? Boards, commissions, and the public have views worth hearing before the decision, not after.
There is also the matter of trust. Many residents already feel out of the loop. A closed process for the biggest hire in city government will confirm that feeling. An open one could ease it. That costs little and may earn a great deal. Trust in local government is built in small moments like this one, and lost in them too.
What would an open process look like? Candidates could answer questions in public. How would they approach downtown? Economic development? The budget? Working with businesses, schools, and neighbors? Residents deserve to hear those answers before the hire, not guess at them afterward.
Finally, consider the opportunity. After twenty years under one leader, a change at the top is rare. It is a chance to reset the culture inside City Hall, and to ask what the city does well and what it has simply gotten used to. Promoting the next person in line would waste that chance. Troy has usually looked outside for this job, and the habit has served it well. Nothing about this moment argues for breaking it.
So here is the ask. Let the consultants do their job. Post the job. Introduce the finalists in public. Let Council and the community weigh in before the mayor decides. The final choice will still be hers. Her successor, and every resident, will live with the result long after she leaves office.
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