Racial Spoils Crowd Tries to Intimidate City Manager Ott

Statesman reports breathlessly on hypervenitlating at city hall, City leaders try to quell storm over Ott - Hispanic group had questioned city manager about firings, hiring: "Top Austin officials, including Mayor Will Wynn, are urging residents to "unite as a city" amid concerns about a potential racial divide in how the public is forming opinions about City Manager Marc Ott."

Mayor Wynn's bed-wetting flapdoodle about 'unity' is because Ott happens to be black and two recently fired officials happen to be hispanic. The chickens are coming home to roost on the racial spoils system, built up on the patronage of HUB (historically underutilized business), racial quotas and ethnic group pandering. The racial spoils 'diversity' crowd is getting skittish that a City Manager is daring to make the decisions of, er, a city manager.

The comments in the Statesman article are fascinating for revealing the real storm - the utter and complete lack of justification and disapproval for reverse discrimination and the racial spoils system, and the disgust for the ethnic intimidation squad that City Manager Ott (rightly) refused to grovel to. A sample of the many comments:

Diversity is just another word for discrimination. guess who is gonna get left without a piece of the pie ?? white folks thats who. the City of Houston is already lost- if you are white ( particularly a white male) you won't get a job or a contract there.

Let me see if I got this straight ... a "person of color" get special privileges in regards to winning a business contract with the city, and that's good "diversification". But ... if that were to happen to a white-owned business, it's "discrimination".

He is the 2nd BAD HIRE that Austin has hired. Police Chief and Cith Manager.Need to rid the city of both.

10 - 1, a meeting. What a hidden agenda. I think the 10 of them are being racist. They weren't representing me as a white person. I think General Manager Ott is doing a good job, and I don't appreciate the "mob" affect of the 10 hispanics. It's actions like that, that give them a bad name.

If the man fires 2 hispanics and 2 black men are appointed immediately lets take a second look.
Otherwise the race card is getting used up, and it's a damn shame too because there are times when it IS a racial issue.

One thing I've never missed about Austin since leaving is the death grip held by the Hispanic population and the do-nothing attitude of the Austin City Council. Austin could be a truly great city but potential greatness is held at bay by the same elected officials who are installed over and over and over again. What a waste for a place I dearly love and in which I grew up.

As a City of Austin employee, I have seen a lot of racism especially with executive members. It saddens me that our new city manager is going to continue with this behavior as well. I recently learned that one of our executives that is viewed as being recist has been playing golf with Mr. Ott. This does nothing to encourage us (city employees) that he is going to put a stop to this behavior. Regardless of how long Mr. Ott has been in place he still should have the common sense on how to deal with sensitive issues of this nature. Give him a chance? What do you think the last 6 months have been!

Wow, this is so great that this has gone on for 4 or 5 days, and now involves the time of two Council members. Gosh, with a billion plus dollar budget and high fees, taxes, the worse traffic in the world, and tons of other non-important things to worry about, they get to spend time on this./ Makes one proud to be an Austinite.

Its time to put the bone, back into the backbone of this city and move forward. Stop using race as excuse to get your way. Because truth be told, the city of Austin has never stop discriminating against minorities, no matter who sits on the dias as the City Manager, Mayor or as a City Council member. Treat others as you want to be treated. The unification of this city will occur only when we START believing and acting like we are children of the Most High God. At the present, He is not pleased with our behavior.

This amounts to the jerkoffs who work at the City crying racism since Ott is not going to put up with their "business as usual" (i.e. unqualified leadership fearing for their jobs). And he doesn't appear to be intimidated by the leftover Toby hangers-on. as a taxpayer, I hope Mr. Ott sticks to his guns, shakes out the troublemakers and turns city government into some form of a respectable entity. Us taxpayers deserve at least that much.

I support Ott. The man has only been on the job six months and because he does not pander to 'special interests' then now they are out to get him. The City Manager is not an elected official. He is appointed by the City Council and serves at their discretion. The City Manager has the discretion to hire/fire whom he chooses. If you have an issue with his performance, then take it up with Council at open hearings and make it an issue that will cause a change. What a waste of time for taxpayers to have to hold hands and sing Kumbayah or whatever.

I wonder if the fact that Ott is not white is hindering his performance as City Manager. Guilt-tripping white Austin liberals are used to walking on eggshells when addressing demands from minority groups. I'm sure Toby Futrell would have assumed the proper deferrential attitude towards the Hispanic delegation. As a member of a minority group himself, Ott is probably not used to having the race card played against him.

SO HE'S RACIST BECAUSE THE PEOPLE HE FIRED AREN'T WHITE?

I find it ironic the Hispanic leaders wanted to discuss Mr. Ott's commitment to diversity but then got agitated because he didn't immediately fall into the stereotypical "Yes Boss" submissive tone they expected. I guess a strong minority figure isn't a good thing....unless you are of the right minority.

instead of focusing on diversity in the workplace, how about hiring the best people for the job, and firing people that aren't getting the job done. Let's give Ott a chance and see how he performs before we start knocking him.

Gonzalo Barrientos is no longer an elected official, and he has no right to question anyone, about anything. The problem here, is that the good old boy network is offended that a black man is standing up to them. I am very proud of the new City Manager. And I would remind Gonzalo Barrientos that he is not an elected official and his meddling in not only unappreciated, but it may also be illegal.

These 'leaders' are the only people who appear to be the slightest bit upset...judging from the reader comments on the related articles, the lack of reaction from Mr. Ott and the lack of protest parades up and down Congress Avenue...there is NO storm.

Another sloppy, trashy, driveling article by the Statesman trying to create a furor over city governance. This is embarrassing reporting, but we're used to it from our little bottom tier paper.

The Statesman is once again guilty of editorializing by using a sensationalistic headline.