![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi88TbmkH3PIBc1ZRtzyGWMGn_fVFRRpnJUPId3ZkSD1LAbavuLlxQxqx_cJ7B4UwRDj5I7Jl05ys1P0Q0cU5tFAXHt-7nqnfMKejL-sFqXa9Bp6ZyiIEhSep3E5QSi9uO4ArRa6Q/s320/Karl+Dean.jpg)
New Nashville mayor Karl Dean
Thank you Bill Purcell for giving your all the last few years and thank you for showing the world what a class act you are.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvXWivHKTNBN67-HzCcXj1Bbpuj_slP_xB_4XPFgUXIC1Os40jH-kuSkkZj4pTakiIgA64RZmarzCswz5B3k6utk_MPH_AX3-1vfUvflGDm_Se0ZisuRo7S-kuyIPVVkNpG_AwmA/s320/bill+purcell.jpg)
Former Nashville mayor Bill Purcell
Here is an excerpt from the Tennessean newspaper:
When Bill Purcell took office as Nashville's mayor in 1999, his office was missing something — furniture.
There was no desk for Purcell in Metro's courthouse and City Hall. The previous mayor, Phil Bredesen, bought a desk and other furniture for the mayor's office eight years earlier, and he took his property with him when his term was up.
"There was no furniture, just not a whole lot left over," former Purcell adviser Patrick Willard recalled.
The unceremonious handoff left Purcell determined to leave behind a raft of furniture — and copious guidance and direction — for his successor. As Karl Dean took office Friday, that determination started to pay off.
Several months ago, Purcell hired a 29-year-old political operative, veteran of transitions and former Purcell staff member, Ellery Gould, to put together a guidebook.
"He just wanted to make sure that we closed everything out without dropping any balls," Gould said Thursday. "And he knew I was a fairly good juggler."
Choice tidbits offered
The manual covers the mundane and the crucial. Among other tidbits, it tells Dean and his aides:
• Which department heads the mayor can appoint and which ones are chosen by boards and commissions. How to appoint the ones he can, especially the finance and law directors.
• How to work the voice mail on the phones.
• Whom to contact in the news media.
• Where to park and how to get keycards, cell phones and Blackberry handheld communication devices.
• The format for congratulatory letters, certificates and proclamations.
• Whom to call to fix the photocopiers or — and this is either mundane or crucial, depending on your perspective — replenish the coffee supplies.
"It gives tools to ask informed questions from day one," Gould said.
Read the full story of this gracious act in the Tennessean.
No comments:
Post a Comment