Here we go again! Less than four months on the job, Naperville Park District Executive Director Daniel Betts is taking a leave of absence. It's been a revolving door of leaders over at the park district, with one controversy following another. The rest of the administration seem to be adept, but there's something about the director post lately.
Why do you think the park district is having such trouble keeping an executive director lately? Is it because the park board is factional and/or dysfunctional? Poor planning and policies? Just bad luck?
There are really 4 separate issues opened in the comments above. While they appear all related that is kind of a jump. Here is my spin on it.
1) Beatable hiring system. In time it will come out that Daniel Betts took a leave of absence not for health or personal reasons but in short because he was again the wrong person for the job and made this abundantly clear by his own actions. So how did he get hired in the 1st place? Most Illinois park districts have been using the same academic based search firm to select executive directors for the past 20-30 years. At one time it was a good system but became flawed as the answers to the test have gotten out. Parks and Recreation insiders flock to IPRA seminars on how to perform well in these hiring situations. They all know each other and study with their network cronies who got earlier jobs. As a result of this study they learn to fake their way through the test and perform better they ever have in real life. Another way to say it is that insiders to the Parks and Rec field can cheat through the tests. Long team, cheaters are generally too lazy to lead an organization to prosper. It takes integrity, vision, immense personal energy and even political savvy to lead a large Park District. Further proven local leaders form other organizations are not even considered for Executive director positions as by definition they are not Certified Leisure Professionals (CLP’s) The obvious solution is to find an outsider consultants like John Maxwell or even John Carver to lead the hiring and training process of our next executive Director.
2) Our Park Board has been floundering since they started to spar with their own executive directors. They struggle with short term memory loss for their own established successful and proven policies. They lack a unified philosophy and the wisdom needed to get back on track. Leading a public entity results in tough choices. Generally what is popular in the short is rarely what is right in the long term. The Illinois Park District code is based on the assumption that professionals with leadership and vision will be hired to handle the day to day operations of a park district and provide a professional level of guidance. The Executive director being the major leader similar to a city manager. The best seasoned Executive Director will actually train his bosses aka the elected volunteer representatives from the community what their role is. Their role is to make quality policy and priority choices based on wisely draw up staff recommendations.
Board decisions are made by a majority decision of a diverse board. Better decisions are achieved when:
a) Quality executive staff are hired and then present the board better choices.
b) Long term Park Board commissioners with proven records of creating chaos resign. I will not name names but if you were on the board through 5 executive directors you have got to begin to consider if your own leadership abilities are the root of our problems. Here is an acid test for you park commissioners: outside of your board work what is the highest success or growth you have lead an organization to? If this is unimpressive then it is time for you recruit a suitable replacement with a better track record of leadership. Here a free tip: Recruit a 1st generation Naperville business builder who has a track record of selfless philanthropy.
c) Park commissioners don’t ignore the chain of command and fail to read or understand established and proven NPD board leadership policies. If a policy is missing or outdated write a better one. Do not waste a year trying to fire an executive director who violated a policy you wish you had. Improve the policy going forward, take the heat in the press for the oversight but don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater until you have a better plan.
d) Minimal turn over in the executive director position is coupled with a smooth friendly transition between executive directors where decades of wisdom are transferred in an extended mentoring process.
The park board needs to establish some leadership and direction either by finding better board members or by reviewing policy’s and procedures that made the park district successful in the past.
3) The city is not qualified to take over the park district. This is an easy one. Just take a look at the track record of dozen’s of floundering city run recreation departments around the state and hundreds around the country. Subjecting recreation and parks to city politics adds a deeper layer of administration and politics that is always counter productive. This is why award winning recreation agencies are rarely city departments. Yes we live in a top 3 city however, just read the paper to see that the Naperville city council is not immune to in-fighting and head cases. Further, the best councilmen are generally overworked and under paid. Council meetings go on and on for hours. These people are not equipped to rally the additional effort it will take to right our floundering parks and recreation leadership issues. They may want to and even be able to but they are just too busy running the city to take on this additional load.
There are hundred’s of park districts who compete for national awards in public parks and recreation. The award winning districts do not have Naperville’s problems but all are envious of our resources, demographics and community support. Yes Naperville Park District with all its silver spoon advantages rarely even applies for these awards because internal leadership issues suck up staff's energy and rob staff who are willing to work hard of any achievable rallying goals. Win or loose shooting for excellence awards is a win for residents as a motivational for our mid level park district staff and leadership.
4) The Naperville Park District must find a consultant to train the board to be productive. Without a strong and stable executive director this process is essential every 10 years. John Carver is a consultant who helped the park board a lot in the early 90's but the effects only lasted for about 2 election cycles. Leadership is rare but not rocket science and is teachable by a wise mentor. Good leadership is a rare, learned and practiced art. Politics and shortsighted or self serving agenda’s is what comes natural to those with a little power. It is a sad truth that our park board is still floundering in a downward spiral due disagreement and a shortage of wisdom. If you are a new board member with vision there are no guarantees that you will not be voted down by well meaning but clueless incumbents. Worse, our current board’s follies are a testimony of the quality of individual it takes to win a low profile election. Recently cable TV re-ran some pre election interviews of our successful park board candidates taped prior to the last election. A buddy of mine was laughing at the short sighted and impractical views that were held by ultimately successful candidates. Mostly the candidates were generally misinformed as you might expect from a novice. They were not bad people just 1st graders in a high school world. A consultant can help them grow a lot and see their role of finding and guiding executive staff. So elections are not guaranteed solution either. A consultant has a chance to set the direction and vision that is lacking due to constant Executive Director turnover. A consultant need not be a national $500/hr public speaker. If the board members are asking for help and will listen them there are many local people who could help. Here are some ideas: the board could put together a temporary advisory committee of some of the visionaries who lead the park district in the successful years. Bob Funston, Glen Kost, Chuck Koch, Wendy Welch and Bill Young could offer some perspective for your selection committee if not the consultants themselves. Some of these park district legends would do the work for a cup of coffee and a chance to do some more good. From neighboring award winning Park Districts how about Ray Morrill, Bob (Skip) Dunsmuir or Dan Cermak? Naperville has all the advantages of tax base and community involvement, support for youth sports but has never even come close to winning any national awards for leadership or vision in Parks and Recreation. These people have the proven track records of performing where we fail yet we never ask them for any help. Jealousy and foolish pride seems to be our Park Board’s worst enemy. Thank god that they are finally asking for help. What ever the consultant charges it is much less expensive than the problems they have created with the status quos.
Three potential reasons were offered and the first two hit the proverbial nail on the head! How perceptive.
Why is there such high turnover in this department? Hmmmmm sounds like a problem that tends to be higher up.
Maybe the Sun knows more than it is reporting? But if Daniel Betts has a personal issue that needs his attention (that requires him to leave Naperville temporarily), labeling this as "Park District follies" is unfair and sensational journalism. We'll know more after tonight.
As always there is a lot more to this story than we presently know. The likely reasons are pretty straightforward and easy to predict, so no need to speculate until more facts are known.
Maybe we would be better off seeing what it would take to disband the Naperville Park District once and for all? We would all be far better off if the park district was just another department within the City of Naperville.
It used to be that way years ago. Years ago our "city fathers" were famous for short sightedness and making really bad decisions. Splitting the park district off as a separate body was one of those really bone headed decisions. Maybe now is the time to correct this long lasting mistake?
Maybe this has something to do with it...
There are two big piles of undelivered Park District Fall catalogs that have been sitting on the public sidewalk near my house since last Friday afternoon. Since then it has rained and now they are a mess!!
I'm probably stating the obvious here, but I think the problem goes a little higher up the chain of command. When you have a board that is apparently so dysfunctional that it feels the need to bring in an outside consultant just to help them improve communications amongst themselves, it's indicative of serious issues that probably impact the entire organization.
have you ever known anyone who needed to take a leave of absence?
it could be health problems for all we know. Did one of your staff members take a leave of absence before his passing. Not to be insensitive, but you get my point. Stop poking and prodding, because there could be a serious health issue here..