Join our Mailing List!
Please click the link below to sign up for your community paper mailing list. Stay up to date with all the events going on in your community as well as the latest news.Sign Up Today!
The Northland’s odd couples manage to get the job done
OPINION
By Ray Weikal
We were an Odd Couple family.
In my halcyon days, we watched “M*A*S*H” and “The Bob Newhart Show” and “Taxi” and “WKRP in Cincinnati” and “Three’s Company.” (I’m a “Three’s Company” purist, by the way: Suzanne Somers as Chrissy Snow and Norman Fell as Stanley Roper.)
We also watched “The Odd Couple.”
For you young whippers who’ve somehow found themselves reading the opinion page, “The Odd Couple” ran for five years starting in 1970. It starred Tony Randall as the uptight and obsessively Felix Unger. His foil was Jack Klugman as Oscar Trevor Madison, slovenly and foul.
What followed was some how comedic gold, though I can’t honestly remember a single plot. It mostly seemed to involve Felix whining while Oscar played poker with a collection of usual suspects. By the end of the episode, viewers were reminded that the id and superego together make one, whole and healthy person. We could all laugh and breathe easier and turn our attention to replacing our record player’s broken needle.
But I’m starting to think the show’s writers were on to something. After several years of being a community newspaper reporter and covering local governments, I begin to see yin-yang patterns in many places, particularly among the people who are most effective in serving the public.
The dichotomy isn’t between the classic clean freak and the slob. Instead, it’s about ideas versus actions, dreams and details. In essence, I often find that the best governments are run by people with some combination of the above.
I know, big flashing news, right? But it’s true and it’s important to recognize as we turn our collective attentions to deciding who will handle our public trust at every level of government this fall.
I’ve got a great job because I get to write and report on some really good public servants. Most of the folks I cover are top notch. It’s one of the secrets of why the Northland is a great place to live, in case you haven’t heard. We’ve got a lot of elected and appointed officials who are among the best in the business.
One of the things that seems to make them so good is they’ve often found that magic combination of big and little picture teamwork.
The city of Kearney is a great example.
I had the pleasure to do some substitute city reporter work up there while my esteemed, ever-wise and diligent employers found an editor for The Kearney Courier, a member of our happy newspaper family. (By the way, congratulations to Kevin Smith, our new fearless leader in Kearney.)
Kearney’s dynamic duo is Mayor Bill Dane and City Administrator Jim Eldridge. Dane is the dreamer. When he gets a big idea — a community center, for instance — Dane seems to instinctively know how to get other people to follow his lead. He’s generous, compassionate and a wise leader.
Eldridge is the master sergeant in colonel Dane’s command structure. He’s all details and practicality. He’s an ideal bureaucrat, in the sense that he knows how to get things done. When it comes time to complete the paper work, Eldridge is the one dotting and crossing. He’s cautious, conservative and a wise official.
Dane and Eldridge don’t always see eye to eye. In fact, they can bicker like Felix and Oscar. But Kearney wins by a combo that has a vision for what can be and an ability to see it through.
There are other examples. North Kansas City Schools has Superintendent Tom Cummings (dreamer) and Chief Financial Officer Paul Harrell (doer). In Platte County, Park Hill School District Superintendent and big picture guy Dennis Fisher is ably served by people like money guru Paul Kelly. The city of North Kansas City has Mayor Gene Bruns (macro) and Economic Development Director Jeff Samborski (micro).
So how, as an old pastor used to say in almost every sermon, can this be applied to our lives? Well, I’ll give it a shot, being a big picture guy myself.
What I’ve learned, Aunty Em, is that good leadership requires both sides of the coin, the dreams and details. Without a strong vision, bureaucracy becomes petty and unhelpful. Divorced from pragmatism, clever plans lead nowhere. Together, they serve the public well.
It’s a little odd, but it works.
printable version
e-mail this story
By Ray Weikal
We were an Odd Couple family.
In my halcyon days, we watched “M*A*S*H” and “The Bob Newhart Show” and “Taxi” and “WKRP in Cincinnati” and “Three’s Company.” (I’m a “Three’s Company” purist, by the way: Suzanne Somers as Chrissy Snow and Norman Fell as Stanley Roper.)
We also watched “The Odd Couple.”
For you young whippers who’ve somehow found themselves reading the opinion page, “The Odd Couple” ran for five years starting in 1970. It starred Tony Randall as the uptight and obsessively Felix Unger. His foil was Jack Klugman as Oscar Trevor Madison, slovenly and foul.
What followed was some how comedic gold, though I can’t honestly remember a single plot. It mostly seemed to involve Felix whining while Oscar played poker with a collection of usual suspects. By the end of the episode, viewers were reminded that the id and superego together make one, whole and healthy person. We could all laugh and breathe easier and turn our attention to replacing our record player’s broken needle.
But I’m starting to think the show’s writers were on to something. After several years of being a community newspaper reporter and covering local governments, I begin to see yin-yang patterns in many places, particularly among the people who are most effective in serving the public.
The dichotomy isn’t between the classic clean freak and the slob. Instead, it’s about ideas versus actions, dreams and details. In essence, I often find that the best governments are run by people with some combination of the above.
I know, big flashing news, right? But it’s true and it’s important to recognize as we turn our collective attentions to deciding who will handle our public trust at every level of government this fall.
I’ve got a great job because I get to write and report on some really good public servants. Most of the folks I cover are top notch. It’s one of the secrets of why the Northland is a great place to live, in case you haven’t heard. We’ve got a lot of elected and appointed officials who are among the best in the business.
One of the things that seems to make them so good is they’ve often found that magic combination of big and little picture teamwork.
The city of Kearney is a great example.
I had the pleasure to do some substitute city reporter work up there while my esteemed, ever-wise and diligent employers found an editor for The Kearney Courier, a member of our happy newspaper family. (By the way, congratulations to Kevin Smith, our new fearless leader in Kearney.)
Kearney’s dynamic duo is Mayor Bill Dane and City Administrator Jim Eldridge. Dane is the dreamer. When he gets a big idea — a community center, for instance — Dane seems to instinctively know how to get other people to follow his lead. He’s generous, compassionate and a wise leader.
Eldridge is the master sergeant in colonel Dane’s command structure. He’s all details and practicality. He’s an ideal bureaucrat, in the sense that he knows how to get things done. When it comes time to complete the paper work, Eldridge is the one dotting and crossing. He’s cautious, conservative and a wise official.
Dane and Eldridge don’t always see eye to eye. In fact, they can bicker like Felix and Oscar. But Kearney wins by a combo that has a vision for what can be and an ability to see it through.
There are other examples. North Kansas City Schools has Superintendent Tom Cummings (dreamer) and Chief Financial Officer Paul Harrell (doer). In Platte County, Park Hill School District Superintendent and big picture guy Dennis Fisher is ably served by people like money guru Paul Kelly. The city of North Kansas City has Mayor Gene Bruns (macro) and Economic Development Director Jeff Samborski (micro).
So how, as an old pastor used to say in almost every sermon, can this be applied to our lives? Well, I’ll give it a shot, being a big picture guy myself.
What I’ve learned, Aunty Em, is that good leadership requires both sides of the coin, the dreams and details. Without a strong vision, bureaucracy becomes petty and unhelpful. Divorced from pragmatism, clever plans lead nowhere. Together, they serve the public well.
It’s a little odd, but it works.