Shannon's Window: The price of keeping up appearances


  • August 10, 2015
  • /   Shannon Nickinson
  • /   community-dashboard

The resignation of Tamara Fountain from the City of Pensacola, effective immediately, was announced Aug. 10 by news release.

Fountain had been the city's chief operating officer with a salary of $114,982.40. She joined the office of the mayor on contract in 2012. The release says she is stepping down to "pursue other options."
Here is a copy of the letter
she sent to Pensacola City Councilmembers upon her departure.

City Administrator Eric Olson will assume her duties.

Vernon Stewart, the city's public information officer, said "the Mayor is currently declining interviews citing our policy not to speak on personnel matters."

The placid tone of the email announcement is a marked contrast to the furor that has enveloped Fountain's work at the city in recent weeks.

It is also a study in the strain it takes to keep up appearances.

Fountain, who was adept at messaging for the mayor, became the center of the whirlwind of late. Questions about her educational qualifications rose to the surface following an interview Mayor Ashton Hayward III gave to WEAR-TV's Amber Southard. He said Fountain had a degree from Florida State University and a master's in business administration from the University of West Florida.

Subsequent follow-ups by the Pensacola News Journal and WEAR found FSU had no record of such a degree for Fountain, and that she only had a bachelor's degree from UWF.

Cognitive dissonance is the term for the stress that results when a person holds two contradictory beliefs at the same time. People will go through great effort to manage the psychological stress that results from trying to keep both of those beliefs alive, even in the face of mounting evidence that one of those beliefs is wrong.

Or, put another way, read this news release:

During her tenure, Fountain has managed the City’s enterprises – including Pensacola International Airport, Pensacola Energy, and Port of Pensacola – and oversaw the establishment of the Mayor’s Constituent Services office. Fountain also managed legislative affairs, serving as both the Mayor’s liaison to the City Council and as the City’s point person on the state level, working to help secure funding for numerous capital improvement projects at both the Airport and Port. In 2013, Fountain spearheaded the “Sunshine in the City” initiative, overhauling the City’s public records system, establishing sunshine training for staff, and rolling out a new citizen-focused website – changes which helped Pensacola be recognized as having the third most transparent municipal website in Florida. More recently, Fountain led the effort to conform the City’s EDATE tax abatement process to state and county requirements.

“As the scope of the challenges I assigned Tamara increased, she met each one“ said Pensacola Mayor Ashton Hayward.

Fountain initially joined the Office of the Mayor in 2012 on a contractual basis to review the City’s marketing and advertising contracts. After successfully transitioning the contracts to local vendors, Fountain assumed the role of Communications Administrator and later Chief Operations Officer.

“It has been an honor to work for the citizens of Pensacola. I will always treasure the friendships I have made at the City and am humbled and proud of what we’ve accomplished together,” said Fountain.

In order to effect a smooth transition, Mayor Hayward announced that the COO’s responsibilities would be managed by City Administrator Eric Olson and other senior staff members.

“I wish Tamara and her family well, “said Mayor Hayward.

Fountain's departure is just the latest step in the shifting sands of City Hall. John Asmar. Bill Reynolds. Colleen Castille. Derek Cosson. Ed Spears. LuTimothy May. All names that have filed through that building on Main Street in recent years.

Not all of them left happily "pursuing other options," no matter what the news release says.

Fountain was the public face of the Hayward administration in many ways.

Council President Andy Terhaar told Mollye Barrows Fountain was “our go-to person to communicate with the mayor’s office. She was trying to build a good relationship between the mayor’s office and the council. We have to figure out that communication aspect. Eric (Olson) and I have good communication, as do the other members, and I expect that will continue."

"The work she was doing was good work, but it’s hard once you’re in the spotlight. She’s someone who prefers to work behind the scenes. I think she felt she wasn’t getting appreciated for the good work she was doing and instead people were focusing on her credentials.”

If Fountain preferred to work behind the scenes, hers typically was the voice that issued public statements from the Office of the Mayor. Hayward has not always embraced the daily soundbite the public expects from its elected leaders.

He has embraced the connection he believes social media platforms give elected officials to the public.

When he returned from the U.S. Conference of Mayors, he spoke about that.

“The days of standing up on a mic during a press conference, when you can so much more rapidly touch so many more people,” Hayward said. “We know TV and traditional media is incredibly important, but how we utilize social media is power.”

Hayward has come under criticism in local media for the use of his electronic newsletter, “Upwords” to reach citizens, especially as it coincided with the demise of “Mornings with the Mayor” media roundtable sessions that took place early on his in tenure in office.

“(The criticism) was bizarre to me when every other politician in America sends out a newsletter every week, I didn’t understand that,” he said.

It is easy to be lured into the illusion of connection that the immediacy of social media offers. All those cute photos and status mean you can craft whatever image you want for the world at large.

But that's not real life.

And while politics is the devil's bargain of substance stylishly packaged, real political life is all kinds of headlines — flattering and unflattering — and all kinds of decisions — good, bad and messy.

Not taking the question doesn't make it go away. In fact, it just makes the questions multiply.

Instagram makes great campaign fodder.

It is not governing.

When the going gets tough, the voice of authority needs to be a voice.

Not a canned quote in a news release.

 
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