Wednesday, Sept. 18, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
IT'S curious that -- although state law prohibits the city of Las Vegas from discussing personnel problems -- that the only specific reason given for firing planning chief Donna Kristaponis is that she was looking for another job.
Kristaponis, who had worked for the city for 14 months before being fired effective Monday, had applied to head up the planning department in San Francisco.
Should she have told her bosses -- City Manager Larry Barton and Deputy City Manager Lynn Macy -- that she was looking for work? Probably so. After all, she'd come to work for the city in July 1995 and was already looking to make the move to San Francisco a year later.
But that's not the issue.
As Kristaponis points out, her tenure in Las Vegas' high-profile and high-stress planning job was marked by new initiatives: An overhaul of the city's archaic zoning code, a restoration plan for the blighted downtown area and a private consultant's work on rewriting a master plan for the northwest before development has robbed the city of its chance to create sensible growth.
Criticism of her department from Mayor Jan Laverty Jones and Councilman Michael McDonald is less appropriate for Kristaponis than it is for the structure of handling planning and zoning, a system that existed long before (and, we fear, will last long after) she leaves.
With the bluster stripped away, it comes down to the fact that Kristaponis was fired because she was looking for another job.
Every employer naturally expects to keep good employees, especially department heads and others in management positions. Successful operations depend on continuity and strong leadership.
It's difficult to do that if employees only intend on staying a short time.
However, how many employees interview -- and win -- other jobs while in their current positions? It's not unheard of.
Ironically, the very act of firing Kristaponis will serve to increase the paranoia many workers feel when looking for new jobs.
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