Help Wanted: Durham City Manager, Must Have Common Sense

It’s that time of year when we get a little reflective and start thinking about the woulda-coulda-shouldas. For a lot of people, that includes reflecting on job satisfaction and deciding whether it’s time to update the old resume and start hunting for a new gig.

This week, The Independent Weekly takes a playful look at one of the area’s most high-profile job vacancies: Durham City Manager. The paper has published a spoof application for the post, which is being vacated by Patrick Baker.

Anyway, if you don’t know anything about Durham city government, you might not get the not-so-subtle digs the Indy makes. The fabricated, multiple-choice application asks questions like:

“A sign at the entrance to a parking garage reads ‘No vehicles over 4,000 pounds.’ You’re driving a 2 1/2-ton truck. Do you enter the garage?”

a) Yes, but at top speed so as not to touch the ground.

b) Yes, but turn down throbbing bass on the stereo system

c) Yes, but stick a wad of chewing gum in the huge crack in the wall”

You see, this probably wouldn’t make any sense to you unless you were familiar with the structural problems recently discovered at the West Chapel Hill Street Parking Deck in downtown Durham. Kevin at Bull City Rising outlined the situation pretty well in a recent blog post, that among other things notes that Baker and/or his administration could have been more forthcoming in disclosing to the public that they knew about cracks in the garage’s support beams. Hence the Indy’s witty question above.

So whether you’re familiar with the ways of Durham city government or looking for a good introduction, I suggest checking out the Indy’s parody of the city manager’s application. I wonder if anyone will take the Indy’s tongue-in-cheek suggestion and mail in their responses