Mar. 13--Two words that curl, swirl and meander across the screen of Mike Hein's computer monitor will move with him from the county building to City Hall.
The slogan on Hein's screensaver, "Abandon pride," was inspired by an E.M. Forster short story, said Hein, who expects to be officially functioning as Tucson city manager by April.
In the story, the young protagonist can see and ride to heaven a horse-drawn vehicle that is invisible to academics, experts and other pretentious adults because their pride obscures their vision of such things.
Circumventing pride and egos to focus on the gist of a problem is the key to solving it, Hein said. That no-nonsense style of tackling problems earned him a new job: Last month, the City Council unanimously voted to offer Hein the position of Tucson city manager. He'll succeed James Keene, who announced his resignation in October to head the California Association of Counties after a four-year tenure in Tucson. Hein has said he'll be paid $185,000 -- $7,000 less than Keene was -- to oversee a $1 billion budget and more than 5,900 employees.
Prominent local business leaders lobbied the council to drop its national search and select Hein, who hadn't even formally applied for the job. Tucson Mayor Bob Walkup said that rather than caving to pressure from business leaders, council members "came together on their own," recognizing Hein as the best person for the job.
Hein, 38, who lives in Oro Valley and has three children, has more than 14 years of experience in public service, including stints as Nogales' assistant city administrator, South Tucson's interim finance director and Marana's town manager and as a Pima County deputy administrator.
The Star asked a group of people who represent a broad spectrum of the business community -- not those that backed Hein at the outset to provide questions they'd like Hein to answer. He responded to those questions during a face-to-face interview last week.
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