Jeb Bladine: Kent Taylor memories can be passed forward
It seemed fitting, after being privileged to speak at his celebration of life, to reminisce here about the late Kent Taylor, McMinnville’s city manager from 1986 to 2014.
Much of that, however, would duplicate comments from Brad Lunt’s Sept. 12 column on these pages. Still, that column itself merits some repetition at a time when McMinnville leaders are searching for a new city manager.
As Brad wrote:
“He built a strong and loyal team of managers who were able to collectively look at the big picture and prioritize how money was spent in the face of all the conflicting needs. They all worked as a team, and the city always operated with a substantial financial cushion as a result … He really cared deeply about this city, as well as the employees who worked for him … As we look for a new city manager today, I hope we take the time to find someone who is a good listener, demonstrates proven team-building skills, understands the importance of balancing a budget and loves this town. I hope we can find someone else like Kent Taylor, who was truly one of the good ones.”
Many members of that “strong and loyal team” were there on Saturday in memory of their former boss, including Clif Ross, Jay Pearson, Carole Benedict, Doug Montgomery, Mike Bisset, Rose Lorenzen and others. But “boss” wasn’t the word they used to describe Kent — those were words like mentor, caring leader, public servant and friend.
In the 11 years since he retired, various circumstances, events and personalities have altered the internal and external cohesiveness that Kent fostered for 28 years in city government. As today’s leaders seek McMinnville’s fifth city manager, they would do well to revisit Kent Taylor’s celebration of life and the recollections of people who lived inside his world of city governance.
Fortunately, there is a video they can reference. The 100-minute production, with lots of memories, laughter, tears and community, can be found online at the McMinnville Community Media YouTube page.
One of Kent’s many favorite quotes was this one from Maya Angelou: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said; people will forget what you did; but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
For 28 years, Kent Taylor made local people feel good about him and themselves. For my part, Kent made me feel comfortable, appreciated and accountable in our newspaper/city relationship – his door was always open, and we maintained, as appropriate, both public and private communications about city governance and life in McMinnville.
When Kent retired in 2014, our editorial ended: “His tenure has been collaborative, civil, constructive, sure and extremely productive. He’s leaving McMinnville in great shape.”
Here, apropos for the times, is one final quote about Kent, this one from his family:
“He truly believed that differences could be ironed out; that everyone is capable of change; and that even polar opposites share common goals of family, health, safety, quality of life, and the innate need to belong to a community.”
Jeb Bladine can be reached at jbladine@newsregister.com or 503-687-1223.
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