CC03-27-2018Min_SMLONGWOOD CITY COMMISSION
Longwood City Commission Chambers
175 West Warren Avenue
Longwood, Florida
SPECIAL MEETING
MINUTES
March 27, 2018
2:00 P.M.
Present: Mayor Ben Paris
Deputy Mayor Richard Drummond
Commissioner Abby Shoemaker
Commissioner Matt Morgan
Commissioner Brian D. Sackett
David P. Dowda, Acting City Manager
Michelle Longo, City Clerk
Lee Ricci, Human Resources Director
Magdala Ridore, Human Resources Generalist
1. CALL TO ORDER. Mayor Paris called the meeting to order at 2:03 p.m.
Ms. Ricci gave an overview of the interview process. She said each
Commissioner has interview packets in front of them with the same
interview questions for each candidate along with hard copies of resumes
and electronic copies available on the desktops. She explained that she
would monitor time and there would be approximately three to five
minutes allotted for each question and anything that does not fit into the
time limits could be followed up on individually during interviews the
next day. She offered assistance with how to word questions after the
meeting and before the individual interviews and explained that snacks
were provided in the kitchen. She said that the Mayor would manage
breaks and coordinate the Facebook Live video broadcast. She noted that
all the candidates went on tours of the City that morning and that all went
well. She offered copies of the informational packets created by
Community Development and given to each candidate if desired. She
explained that she provided each interviewee travel reimbursement
documentation and that three of the four candidates chose to drive
themselves and all would be staying at the Embassy Suites. She advised
the interviews the following day would begin at 8:30 a.m. with candidates
reporting to either the Community Building or City Hall and herself and
Magdala Ridore coordinating the movements and locations of each.
Mayor Paris explained that with respect to breaks they were going to try
and push through unless someone notified him that it was needed. He said
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because they were using Facebook Live they would allow the stream to
continue running during a break if required.
2. INTERVIEW CANDIDATES FOR THE POSTION OF CITY
MANAGER.
1. Martin Murphy (2:15 p.m.)
Ms. Ricci introduced Martin Murphy and each member of the
Commission, the Acting City Manager and the City Clerk introduced
themselves.
Ms. Ricci explained that she was the Moderator and would be asking the
questions. If the Commission wants further explanation, then they will
make that request. She said they would open to each candidate the
opportunity to make a summary statement and chance to ask questions.
Question 1. Longwood is predominantly built -out and while the City has
seen a significant increase in residential development, commercial
redevelopment along the City's aging main corridors has lagged behind.
The City also has a Historic District on the National Register that, along
with the SunRail commuter rail station, anchors the City's downtown but
has struggled to attract restaurants and retail. Given the challenges of
aging commercial infrastructure, what do you see as the keys to promote
redevelopment in these crucial areas of the City, and what success have
you had in implementing those ideas?
Mr. Murphy said the current infrastructure in place needs to be addressed.
He said it is difficult to attract any new retail or service industries if the
infrastructure that is going to support those enterprises is weak and/or
failing. He stated one of the first things he would do is assess the capacity
and the condition of the infrastructure that would serve those areas. He
said the second thing that would be very enlightening to do is an
assessment on currently available services and what services are lacking
both service and retail wise, including specialty shops and restaurants and
one company Buxton Corporation, is specialized in retail data across the
country. He advised that one thing unique about that company is they
determine retail leakage in an area by assessing the demographics and the
money spent in surrounding areas and they are able to determine a
community's leakage whether in food, retail or service industries. He
stated that when equipped with that information, a good approach would
be to identify those businesses that typically fill those voids and then have
direct contact with those companies to tell them the benefits of relocating
to Longwood with supporting demographic and financial information. He
said that his experience with that effort was different in that a community
he worked in had a strong and vibrant retail sector with the construction of
a new arterial that diverted traffic around the City to expedite travel time.
He explained that a couple of factors played into the demise of that retail
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sector. He said the traffic corridor was changed and by the time it took to
actually construct a new retail outlet center and it was ready for
occupancy, the retail sector had firmly reestablished itself along the
corridor so they were left with a vacant downtown that did not provide
quick access. He stated that he took a different approach when trying to
resurrect the area by forging a campaign to transform it from a retail
district to a service district with a mixed use residential component on the
upper floors of some historic buildings. He said through various programs
and grants, they brought new life to the downtown by creating low income
housing in some areas and market rate housing in other areas and slowly
they were able to attract different services such as insurance companies,
doctors' offices and lawyer's offices and they were successful in
anchoring the U.S. Postal Service in the downtown core which was key in
transforming it into a service district. He explained they were able to
convince the U.S. Postal Service to invest some of their own money into a
building owned by the City and lease it back to them for $1/year and in
exchange the U.S. Postal Service would pay taxes on the newly renovated
property previously valued at $100,000 on the original tax rolls, and now
after renovation, valued at well over $1 million, and they agreed to pay
those taxes for 23 years. He said in time, they filled all the vacancies with
other human services such as the Social Security and Unemployment
offices so it firmly became the service district of the City. He said then
what followed was the need for Cafes and restaurants and specialty shops,
so it became a unique historic area for the City and today continues to do
very well.
Mayor Paris asked Ms. Ricci to find out who in the City had a copy of the
Gibbs study that was done.
Commissioner Sackett said that many of the areas on Mr. Murphy's
resume in upstate New York were historic and dying because they relied
on one main industry, and therefore, they are seeing high unemployment
and lower quality of life for many people. He explained that our area is
similar in that we pride ourselves on our history but that we are only two
by three miles and not a big City; so how do we keep our history here and
where do we put the things to redevelop our industry? Commissioner
Sackett asked if Mr. Murphy saw any points of interest within the City.
Mr. Murphy said that the infill is going to be important as well. He said
preserving the historic buildings will be key and he appreciates the fact
that the City has taken measures to designate an area and you can identify
when you are a certain place and the City has done a good job of
establishing an identity for the historic Downtown. He explained that
oftentimes it's not necessarily the mass that is necessary to support it but
keeping the uniqueness and the original buildings is key. He said that
some of the communities he worked in have had historic areas and tried to
bring in new retail but there is a significant difference when you can see,
feel and touch a historic building as opposed to going to a new building
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with a sign that says this is what used to stand here. He said it is a much
different feeling. He said the fact that you have a lot of that infrastructure
in place in the historic buildings should be the focus to draw in and not
necessarily take over the area you have created.
Question 2. Please tell the Commission how you view the relationship
between the manager and governing body? How do you view your
relationship with city staff, local government, individual residents and
groups?
Mr. Murphy said it is certainly a critical relationship between the City
Manager and the City Commission. He said the relationship needs to be
built on a foundation of good communication. He stated the Commission
needs to hear not just the good but also the bad news, but the relationship
of trust is first built on a foundation of good communication. He believes
the City Manager is a key liaison between the City Commission and the
Department heads. He said the City Manager is often the face of City
government when interacting with other governmental agencies and he
represents the City Commission from that perspective. He said interacting
with the business community and residents is critical and that the Manager
needs to be accessible and visible to the Community as well as
Department heads and employees in general.
Question 3. What techniques have you found to be most successful in
assisting local government officials establish and implement long and
short-range goals for the community?
Mr. Murphy thinks that what worked well for him and other elected bodies
is going through the process of a formal strategic planning session. He
furthered that the mission and value statements could either be updated or
reaffirmed and then he would identify what the goals are from the City
Commission's perspective and involve the Department heads so that they
can help pinpoint some objectives to reach those goals. He noted that this
is particularly helpful if it can be done in advance of the budget so that
Department heads can specify what in their respective budgets can help
the City Commission further their objectives.
Commissioner Sackett asked Mr. Murphy to explain the difference
between mission and vision. He added how do they work together and
what would be the Manager's role in it? He ended with is it a guiding
force for you or something you need to change?
Mr. Murphy answered that it is certainly a guiding force and it would
continue to be. He believes the vision statement reinforces the overall
mission of the Commission and what the Commissioners vision the
community will be 5, 10, or 15 years from now. He explained it is a
guiding statement that needs to be freshened over time as objectives and
goals are completed but certainly the budget serves as an annual vision
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statement because it spells out how the money is going to be spent to in
fact realize the vision which is supportive of the mission statement itself.
Question 4. As you may know the City of Longwood has three unions,
Teamsters, IAFF and I JOE. Please tell us about your experience with
unions?
Mr. Murphy said labor relations is one strength he can bring to this
position in that he has been lead negotiator on contracts for each
community he has worked for, the largest being in Courtland County, with
five different unions and over 650 employees. He said he was always
directly involved in contract interpretation and grievance proceedings and
he found the negotiation process was often extended longer than necessary
and a lot of momentum was lost between meetings because it could be two
to three months before the two sides sat down which required refreshers
each time. In the past, he proposed an idea with the assistance of the
Public Employee Relations Board (PERB) for them to provide a facilitator
at a meeting between management and the union with neither side under
any obligation and either party could revert back to traditional negotiation
process if desired because progress was not being made. His plan set aside
three days, with both sides sitting down with the PERB facilitator and
bringing five issues to the table. He reported that of the five times they
tried it, each time was successful and within three days they had an
agreement that was reviewed by the respective parties and the contracts
were ratified. He declared the process to be exhaustive but found that once
everyone got invested in the process after the first day, both sides were
less likely to walk away because people were committed to the process.
He stated it was probably one of the most productive negotiations he was
involved with and would consider doing it again.
Question 5. How would you go about building commission consensus on
a "split" commission?
Mr. Murphy said first you need to understand each party's side and
position and the ultimate goal of each individual. He stated that once you
have a clear understanding of both sides you can then try to find that
middle ground where the ball can be moved in the right direction and
people can be focused on the overall good effort that does not detract from
the Commission's ultimate goal to find common ground and be prepared
to compromise.
Commissioner Sackett asked what Mr. Murphy meant by the right
direction because he finds that a subjective word instead of objective.
Who's right direction?
Mr. Murphy answered the overall direction of the Commission as a whole.
He said he did not have a good example to share but if it diverges 90
degrees from some of the committee members, it's going to be a difficult
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discussion. He explained that he thought it comes down to compromise. If
those in a certain position feel like they have not given up their goals for
the community, then there is an area for compromise. He went on to say
certainly if it's in direct conflict with what some of the Commissioners
feel the direction the City should be going, it's going to be a much more
difficult conversation and he surmised that is why at the end of the day the
reason a vote is taken.
Mayor Paris asked if Mr. Murphy would be comfortable saying as City
Manager this is the direction we need to go if there is a three -to -two (3-2)
split; knowing that he may be on the opposite end of two Commissioners.
Mr. Murphy replied in the affirmative. He said that one of the primary
responsibilities of the manager is to provide the information the
Commission needs to make a decision and offer the experience and
background he has in making his point and explaining why certain
recommendations are being made.
Question 6. Describe your experience in formulating and implementing a
budget or capital project. Are you familiar with funding sources for
municipal government other than General Fund? Describe some examples
of acquiring additional funding sources for economic development and
infrastructure projects?
Mr. Murphy answered that he was responsible for developing,
implementing and reporting on budgets as small as several million dollars
all the way up to budgets in excess of 125 million dollars. He said he has
experience with both large and small budgets and is familiar with different
funding sources other than the general fund to finance capital projects and
even operations for that matter. One of the largest capital projects he
worked on as County Administrator was the Legislature voted to construct
a 16 million dollar emergency interoperable communication program for
100% radio coverage throughout the County which would allow for all
governmental agencies' law enforcement and emergency responders to
communicate on the same channel. He created an innovative financial
package which included leasing some of the equipment from a vendor,
bonding some of it and obtaining funding from New York State for a
lion's share of the project. One of the reasons they were successful in
securing funding from the state was because they were ahead of the curve.
He noted the City already had it designed and was ready to put it to bid
which allowed them to obtain more than their fair share of the funding to
get it done. He reported for economic development projects he tapped any
and all state and regional funding they could, especially in the
revitalization of the downtown district. He advised they secured a historic
preservation grant to restore what was a historic passenger depot that had
sat vacant for 20 years and after funding was secured, as luck would have
it, there was a fire and they lost the building. But rather than just let the
grant go, they lobbied to use the funds as part of the downtown project. He
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clarified that because it was a Department of Transportation (DOT) grant,
the funds had to be transportation related. He said they had a difficult time
but made a successful argument to convince the federal DOT that the post
office they were trying to direct funding to had previously served as a
pony express. He continued that they also utilized other smaller grants and
multiple financing sources on that project as well, in addition to
syndicated historic tax credits for low income housing. He expounded that
the owner of the building was able to sell the tax credits he was going to
receive in order to establish his own equity on the project which then let it
go forward.
Question 7. What is your experience in dealing with the media? Do you
view the media as a positive or negative force? And, please explain your
perspective.
Mr. Murphy said he had dealings with the media in all his positions, both
good and bad. He advised the media plays a key role in the community in
getting the information out that the citizens want and need to know. He
said the only time he took issue with the media was when the information
was incorrect or inaccurate, and it is the Manager's responsibility to get
that information corrected as soon as possible and push the media source
to make that correction publicly. He understands the media has a job to do
and sometimes a flashy headline sells more papers than a more subdued
headline but they are woven into the fabric of the community, and it's
important to have a productive and respectful working relationship with
them.
Question 8. We are going to present a scenario and ask you to tell us what
you would do as the City Manager.
It is Friday at 2: 10 p.m. and you are contacted by the Police Chief
informing you of storm damage that resulted in power lines going down
on the SunRail crossing. This blocks our State Road 434 and Ronald
Reagan intersection. Per the Power Company, the City may lose power
for multiple days. Lyman High School is set to release at 2:20 p.m. and
traffic is expected to build for rush hour. Please tell us what you would do
as the City Manager.
Mr. Murphy said the first thing he would do is ask the Police Chief to
contact the school to see if they could hold the students and not release
them at that time. He said hopefully the school has a mechanism in place
to notify the parents to let them know that the release won't be taking
place. He continued that while the Chief was doing that, he would be
reaching out to the City Commissioners to bring them up to speed and
then he would contact any utility companies and the State Police to advise
them because obviously there may be some traffic problems. He stated
that he would get in touch with the Department of Public Works to begin
at least a rerouting of the traffic to immediately divert traffic from the area
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(given his limited knowledge of the grid system) and begin contacting the
surrounding communities that may be feeling the effects. He explained
that it is about trying to put the pieces of the solution in place and get them
mobilized as quickly as possible, making notifications and working
directly with the utility to see how quickly the outage can be reduced to
maybe a maximum of a day. He said he would respond immediately to
diverting traffic and keeping kids in school and then, as you learn more
about the situation, the options and alternatives would begin to present
themselves.
Commissioner Sackett said that if a storm were to hit he wasn't sure if
school would be open to begin with, but that we also have state and county
roads that would need to be worked with, but we also have a COP
supporting group, a police group and a CERT team available to help, so he
would imagine all of those groups would be called into play.
Mr. Murphy responded that he would rely on the Police Chief to make
those connections, and that his first response would be to make sure
himself and the Chief had a plan they were putting into place and
mobilizing all units and then notifying the Commission.
Question 9. Describe an ethical dilemma you have faced in the workplace.
How was it resolved? What was your role in the resolution? What, if
anything, would you do differently if you were faced with the same issue
again?
Mr. Murphy replied the issue was relatively minor and occurred when he
was a department head with seven or eight staff members. There was a
code enforcement officer who received a parking ticket on a City vehicle
while he was on the job. He called the employee into his office and asked
what happened, and the employee said it was past practice to always park
in that location. Mr. Murphy advised that the employee needed to pay the
ticket and also provide him a copy of the receipt once it was paid. He said
he and the employee had a personal relationship as they were from a small
community, and the employee was offended that Mr. Murphy would ask
for a receipt. He explained it was nothing personal and that it was for the
employee's protection and to be able to report to the City Manager at the
time to show the City did not lose or pay the ticket but that the responsible
employee took care of it. He said that while it was a relatively minor thing
because they had a personal relationship, the employee tried to make it
personal.
Question 10: Describe your first steps upon assuming responsibility for
the position. What do you hope to accomplish within your first year, and
Why Longwood.
Mr. Murphy answered that the easiest part of the question is why
Longwood so he would start there. He said he worked in smaller
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communities throughout his entire career, and he has learned over time
that is where he gets the most enjoyment because he can have a role in a
project or a decision that he can literally see the benefit of that to the
community. He went on to say he likes to be closer to the work and he
found that when he was a County Administrator, while it was rewarding,
oftentimes he was delivering state services at the county level so he didn't
get to work on projects like the park or things like that. He enjoys those
things very much and he likes to have a position in difficult decisions that
make a difference in people's lives in the community. On the tour today, it
was clear to me there is a real sense of community in Longwood and it's a
very special place. I've been around Florida a little and visited other
communities but the sense of community here is very clear, and you can
see it and feel it. I can tell this is the kind of community I would enjoy
working in and becoming part of. In the first year, first I would get to
understand the position of City Commission members, understanding what
their goals are and where they are headed and get an understanding of how
the departments operate and why they operate that way. One thing about a
new manager coming in is you get to ask a lot of questions and find out
why things are the way they are and what the culture is in the workplace.
Getting a good handle on where the City is and what the plans are for the
immediate future and assessing the financial status of the City is one of the
things I would like to do as a Manager. I like to have a good sense of
where we are financially to get us through the coming months and
understanding the organizational focus.
Commissioner Sackett said he understands that Mr. Murphy will work
hard to understand the culture among our teams. He asked how you learn
the culture of the City. How have you previously become involved in the
outside the workplace culture?
Mr. Murphy answered that by volunteering with some of the community
and neighborhood groups.
Commissioner Sackett asked for an example.
Mr. Murphy stated with the Church, we had our Easter dinners and
Thanksgiving dinners and Sunday Coffee so that's how his wife and he
first started to orientate themselves with the community. He said he also
reached out to the two colleges and who he needed to be in contact with
and have a relationship with, as well as, the local Rotary club. He plans to
observe how the departments and the Commission do their jobs and all
those things will reveal the culture of the workplace and how things really
get done.
Commissioner Sackett said if he goes to an event around here such as the
Easter egg hunt, you will know how things get done, people will tell you.
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Ms. Ricci asked if Mr. Murphy had any questions for the Commission or
any last statements.
Mr. Murphy replied he would emphasize that his core competencies are in
planning, economic development and community redevelopment, and his
strengths are in finance, budgeting as well as labor relations and
organizational development. He said he has had a ground up career which
means he has a working knowledge of all City departments and he
believes he can work effectively with the Board, employees and the public
to move the community forward by fostering a culture of enthusiasm,
inclusion and transparency. He said he is a strong advocate for cooperation
and teamwork, innovation, equality and respect of all citizens. He said he
looks forward to meeting with everyone one on one and he appreciated the
opportunity to be here and thinks Longwood is a special place.
The Commission took a break at 2:53 p.m. and reconvened at 2:56 p.m.
2. John Klimm (3:15 p.m.)
Ms. Ricci explained that she was the Moderator and would be asking the
questions. If the Commission wants further explanation, then they will
make that request. She said they would open to each candidate the
opportunity to make a summary statement and chance to ask questions.
Question 1. Longwood is predominantly built -out and while the City has
seen a significant increase in residential development, commercial
redevelopment along the City's aging main corridors has lagged behind.
The City also has a Historic District on the National Register that, along
with the SunRail commuter rail station, anchors the City's downtown but
has struggled to attract restaurants and retail. Given the challenges of
aging commercial infrastructure, what do you see as the keys to promote
redevelopment in these crucial areas of the City, and what success have
you had in implementing those ideas?
Mr. Klimm said he wanted to thank everyone for the opportunity to appear
before them. He said he would be remiss if he did not at the very
beginning publicly acknowledge the Human Resources Director, the Fire
Chief and Mr. Krueger who were very accommodating and helpful to him
as a candidate over the last day. He stated in terms of economic
development, when he took the tour today, he was struck by the vibrancy
of the City. He said the City has challenges but in comparing Longwood
with some of the other communities he was in, he thought that because of
what appears to be a very capable staff, he thinks the City is headed in the
right direction. He continued that first and foremost he thinks that with
any community, there needs to be a committed, dedicated and capable
planning and economic development staff. He explained in doing his due
diligence for the interview it appears that the economic development,
community development and planning staff is just that. He furthered that
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he was struck that the entry ways into the City are overbearing. He said if
he had the good fortune to be appointed as the next City Manager he
would want to talk about that. He expounded as a visitor, as someone
coming into the City, he was not sure where Longwood starts and ends.
He said he was going at a fairly high rate of speed and there is no welcome
mat there and he thinks the entry ways into the City are very important. He
stated in terms of economic development, he was struck at the prominence
of the hospital facility. In terms of economic development, there isn't any
better economic development activity in a community than medical
services. He described that Longwood has a hospital, doctor's offices and
ancillary services that can become very prominent in a very positive way
in a community. He said he would speak very briefly about the three
communities he served in. His hometown, where he served for 12 years as
City Manager, they had the challenge of not only trying to redevelop the
downtown area but were trying to do it in the worst economic downturn in
our Country since the Great Depression. He said they were able to do it
successfully because they partnered with a group of developers who not
only wanted to do well, who not only wanted to make money, but who
cared about the community. He explained that the public private
partnerships they were able to join in with allowed them to receive
national recognition for smart growth activities in the downtown area. He
said in terms of economic development in many communities it's the
revitalization of the downtown that is the most difficult activity. He
continued, in a thriving community it isn't that challenging to get Taco
Bell to come if the population numbers and statistics are there because it
isn't as challenging an economic development task. He stated when you
talk about downtown revitalization though, it is a bit challenging with
mom and pop operations, not talking about chains. His observation about
Longwood was that it is doing fairly well, and he was impressed with Mr.
Kruger's evaluation of the types of potential activity that are forthcoming.
He said it isn't that it appears to be a dead community but seems to be
very active. He thought that it is blessed with a good staff and cited a
unique aspect of Longwood is the historic district, the downtown. He
expressed that it shouldn't be lost but rather fostered and grown because
it's what makes the area special. He observed that when he went out to
State Road 434 and closed his eyes in some sections, he could have been
in anywhere USA, and that's not what makes the community special. He
went into the neighborhoods and the historic district and feels that's what
makes the community special. He believes that more than anything else,
that's what needs to be preserved and fostered because that is in essence,
the City of Longwood.
Commissioner Morgan said here particularly in the historic district, there
are a lot of codes and a lot of things that certain business owners would
say hurts their opportunities to grow. He stated whether that's their own
business plan or not, is irrelevant. Commissioner Morgan asked Mr.
Klimm would you stick more with mom and pop type of businesses in the
local historic district or what else can you do to help? He explained we
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have the SunRail, an amazing train station, that drops people right off here
and we don't really have anything here. He expounded that we don't have
an economic magnet to hold people here versus going a little bit more
downtown and then before you know it, they are in Altamonte Springs and
they found something better to do. He asked directly in the historic district
is there anything else you would change or do as far as businesses go?
Mr. Klimm responded that it appears as though the City itself owns a
number of parcels and he found through research, he heard and watched
some of the replays of the sessions, and he understood the City was
thinking about the possibility of consolidation which he thought merits
strong consideration because it's valuable. He thought that it not only
consolidates the operation, which is better to have organizationally, but
it's also more convenient. He thought some citizens come down and they
want to go to Financial Services, and they are redirected, and Community
Services is somewhere else. He suggested especially for newer residents,
it's not that convenient if they aren't absolutely certain where they are
going. He surmised organizationally, for a City Manager it's better to have
everything under one roof. He felt the City had some interesting parcels
and had only visited twice. He was mindful that people listening at home
might say listen to this guy who has been here two minutes, so he did not
want to come across as that, but it appears that the City has some very
interesting parcels that could be developed in partnership with the private
sector. He believed that there needs to be consideration for additional
housing downtown because for a successful downtown there must be
people living downtown. There are people living downtown, but he
thought that is an aspect he would look very carefully at as well. He said
he was not a purist, and he has been involved in the downtown
revitalization for many years and active in the Main Street organization
nationally. He stated he is not one that believes there can't be a chain
downtown, that it ruins the downtown, but at the end of the day one must
understand that it is the uniqueness of the downtown that makes it special,
if it is turned into everywhere else, it isn't special anymore and vitality of
the downtown can be lost. He said after 35 years in this business, it comes
down to common sense. He said it isn't all one or the other, it's partnering
with the right members of the private sector, the business community that
are talented, qualified and more than anything else, care as much as you
do about the future of this community. He continued and said that it's
happening all over the country, and its odd, because communities are
doing things downtown in the worst economic times, and one may think
how are they doing that. He stated it was because of the relationships -
convincing investors and business people that it makes sense to go into
your downtown area. He said there is a good core here, from what he
could see, it's very special, but he thinks it could be much more. He
concluded the City because of its holdings could play a prominent role in
that future.
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Question 2. Please tell the Commission how you view the relationship
between the manager and governing body? How do you view your
relationship with city staff, local government, individual residents and
groups?
Mr. Klimm responded that in terms of his management style and his
relationship with staff, he is a public manager and have been one for over
35 years and truly as hokey as it sounds, he still believes in public service,
still believes in what they do. He believes that there cannot be successful
without staff out there on a day to day basis that is the face of the
community. He said the police officer, the firefighter, the planner, the
economic development person, they are out there, they are the face of the
community and he explained the role of the Manager and staff is as a
coach, trying to have a relationship to maximize the effectiveness of each
and every employee. He stated he knew Longwood had unions and
because of where he comes from, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, if
there are stronger unions anywhere in the country he doesn't know where
they are. He said his career has been spent, other than most recently,
working with employee unions and rather than seeing them as a problem, I
have enjoyed it. He continued that when all is said and done, his
relationship with staff has to be one that fosters their ability to achieve
beyond anyone's expectations, to be supportive, to be tough, to hold every
employee as accountable as the Commission would hold their City
Manager, and at the end of the day, to be supportive. He said he is a public
manager that believes in transparency and citizen involvement, and he was
struck watching some of the meetings that the Commission spends time
informing each other what they have done over some period of time, at
meetings, in committees and what comes across in that practice to him as
an outsider is that folks really value their relationship with the
neighborhoods and business community. He said the Commission does not
just attend a meeting every two weeks, but is out there every day with
folks and that's really impressive. He advised the role between the
Commission and the City manager is a very important one. He said it is
very clear in his mind that the Commission sets the policy for the City at
times to the professional staff and the City manager to give what needs to
be objective, advice and opinion but at the end of the day, it is the
Commission that decides. He stated it is the responsibility of the City
manager and staff to implement policies by drafting ordinances, by
adoption of the annual budget which is really a communications tool of
what is valued, where they want the resources to go and so it is the
relationship between the two. He said he did not believe they can be
effective if they don't have a relationship with the City Manager, and he
knows a manager cannot be effective in doing his or her job if there isn't
communication and a close understanding and working relationship with
the City Commission.
Commissioner Morgan asked what Mr. Klimm would say his style would
be? Commissioner Morgan stated in the past we have had City Managers
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that were very domineering and would hold court in these meetings and
others were very shy and reserved and people wouldn't maybe know they
were city managers at the time though they both have done things
effectively. He asked how Mr. Klimm would compare himself with those
two different ends of the spectrum personality -wise and how he would
handle himself in meetings and be the fearless quarterback.
Mr. Klimm replied that it starts with a lot of communication with the City
Commission. He said he believes they are the bosses. He said he may be
hired to drive the bus but it's their bus. He stated the Commission is
actually leasing it from the tax payers but it's their bus. He said if he was
honored to be appointed he would have many conversations with all
Commissioners to learn what their expectations are. He explained just as
there are domineering and strong City Managers and more passive City
Managers, there are very dominant and strong City Commissioners and
more quiet City Commissioners. He said there is not one necessarily right
or wrong way, it is what it is. He stated it isn't a matter of being one or the
other, but is a matter of understanding what the expectations are that are
set by the City Commission and then following through. He said if it is the
style of this Commission to have a behind the scenes manager then so be
it. He stated the Commission ran for office, holds the seat and gets to
decide what type of operation it will be. He said he was placed in
situations where there was an expectation that he be very aggressive, and
he has been in situations with a council where they chose to be in a more
dominant position. He explained that there is no right or wrong it is just a
matter of it only goes wrong when there is a misunderstanding.
Question 3. What techniques have you found to be most successful in
assisting local government officials establish and implement long and
short-range goals for the community?
Mr. Klimm stated in most of the communities he had the honor of working
with and for, the City Council would at least once every two years have a
strategic planning process where goals and objectives are set. He said that
those are more community goals, policy goals, the type of issues folks
want to make sure the organization is spending time on. He reported
additionally, every year he is used to being involved in an evaluation
process with the City Council, in this instance, the Commission, who gets
to set goals for the City Manager. He said he was involved in both
community goal setting, strategic planning and within the organization
strategic planning and goal setting annually and long term, and he wasn't
sure whether the City had a comprehensive land use and transportation
plan, but that is an important document. He said he was struck when with
Tom Krueger, that all of the activity that is taking place, he wondered how
it comes together and how it meets the community's objectives. He hoped
that we have a community comprehensive plan, and he certainly would be
in favor of updating it regularly because it is the Bible, the vision in terms
of the community together. He was involved in the development and
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redevelopment of comprehensive plans, strategic plans, working with the
councils he did on an annual basis goals and objectives setting for the
City.
Commissioner Sackett replied that they do have such a thing in place that
does need to be reviewed soon and it is looked at through Tom Krueger
and Community Development to see where things fit best and meet the
mission and vision of the City.
Question 4. As you may know the City of Longwood has three unions,
Teamsters, IAFF and IUOE. Please tell us about your experience with
unions?
Mr. Klimm said he was involved with organizations that were unionized
all but the last three years. He stated Massachusetts and Rhode Island are
probably the strongest pro -Union States in the Country. He said in his
community in Massachusetts there were 12 separate Unions and in Rhode
Island there were three. He expounded on his strategizes perfected through
learning and dealing with employee unions, and said his philosophy is that
the relationship with the unions can't happen ten minutes before
negotiations begin because the contract is up, but that it needs to be an
ongoing process. He reported that when he worked for the Commonwealth
of Massachusetts, he was actually part of a Union and was the Union
Steward, so he has been on both sides of the table. He believes he
understands labor law and has taught for many years at the undergraduate
and graduate level. He said it is all about a relationship. He previously
asked of the Union if they wanted management to walk a mile in their
shoes, he asked that they walk a mile in management's shoes. He stated it
is easy to say pay raises, etc. are needed, but the community has a lot of
needs. He said on many occasions especially in Rhode Island, a state with
binding arbitration, he challenged the union because they were in a
community with some real financial challenges to come up with cost
savings measures before asking us to agree to significant cost of living
increases. He was amazed at the results. He said his significant experience
shows a need for an ongoing, yearly relationship with the Unions and a
mutual respect.
Question 5. How would you go about building commission consensus on
a "split" commission?
Mr. Klimm replied that he was not sure it would be his responsibility as
City Manager to fight for a consensus on the part of the Commission if
they can't come to an agreement on an issue. He stated it doesn't make
them bad people, it just means there is a disagreement. He said the City
Manager can be helpful by making sure that the Commission has the best
information possible that is objective and independent so they can make
decisions. He believes it isn't the role of the City Manager. He hopes the
Mayor would not ask him to convince Commissioner Morgan because that
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compromises the City Manager. He said he is not a City Commissioner
they are, and that is not his role. He explained his role is to give them the
information possible. He stated he is not supposed to be an advocate but a
purveyor of objective information and they are the elected officials, not
him. He purported the best he can do is provide the best information. He
said if it is an issue that is not totally unique to Longwood, he would spend
a lot of time researching. He stated he is active in the International County
City Manager's Association and was on the board for the National Civic
League for six or seven years. He reported he has worked in three states
now and hopes he can bring some experience to the Commission on what
they tried in Delaware, Massachusetts, Georgia, and assist them in making
a decision. He said he does not want to be in a position to convince
someone to do something they don't want to do.
Commissioner Morgan asked what if Mr. Klimm saw a Commissioner
about to do something contrary to their goals -does he not feel that would
be the Manager's responsibility to curtail that Commissioner back to his
original goal.
Mr. Klimm responded if his intent was to stop someone from making what
clearly appeared to be a mistake, he would hope that he would have a one-
on-one relationship with them, not in front of the camera, to express a
concern. He reiterated he thinks at the end of the day it's all about
relationships and just because he has one or two degrees, who is he to tell
them what a mistake is when they are elected and know more about the
community than he does. He said if they were in a situation that for
whatever reason they were not seeing two or three steps and for some
reason he had been there before, at the end of the day the City Manager's
job is to make them and the community look good.
Question 6. Describe your experience in formulating and implementing a
budget or capital project. Are you familiar with funding sources for
municipal government other than General Fund? Describe some examples
of acquiring additional funding sources for economic development and
infrastructure projects?
Mr. Klimm said the one aspect that his experience brings to this job is his
experience in budget. He was previously a City Manager in three
communities for over 18 years and in two of the three communities,
Massachusetts and Rhode Island, when he left, their bond rating had risen
into AAA. He said when he left Portsmouth, Rhode Island, they were the
second community to ever achieve an AAA bond rating. He said when he
left his hometown in Massachusetts, the community was one of 37 out of
351 with an AAA bond rating. He stated that more than anything else he
has a passion about fiduciary responsibility in these positions. He
explained after 12 years of service when he went from Massachusetts to
Rhode Island, one of the reasons that it attracted him was because it was a
delightful seaside community, 15,000 people but it was much smaller than
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his original community which was 50,000 residents, with 130,000 in the
summer, a much larger community. He said it was a community that it
was clear that in a very short period of time that they would be able to go
in and make substantial change and improvement. He detailed one of those
areas was budget. He said Rhode Island was using the same budget format
since 1956 and in two years with a terrific Finance director, they totally
reformatted the budget and received the Government Finance Office
Association National Budget Award. He stated they did that in
Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and he is passionate about a community
having a real capital plan. He listened to some of the meeting and was
very impressed with their long list of priorities and he wanted to speak
about one -roads. He said it's unfortunately relatively rare to see a
community with a true roads program. He said a lot of times one will find
a community that does not have a roads program, they will just wait until a
road totally breaks down and they will steal money from the Fire
department for a year and they will do a full depth reclamation for the road
and build it and that's the roads program. He went on to say there are
communities that are a little more progressive than that, and they actually
put money aside, but that's just to figure out what road is going to break
down when and when the road breaks down, they will have some money
to fix it. He suggested that's better than the first scenario but it's not where
a community needs to be because communities need to have a pavement
management plan. He said one can extend the life of the road 10, 15 or 20
years and he was talking about New England; he was sure it's significantly
more here, by the preventive maintenance that takes place on a road. He
stated the question is, whether they are the community in the first category
with no roads program, or in the second where they only do work on the
roads when it's time to resurface, or are they a community that has a true
pavement management plan including eight or ten different methodologies
including crack sealing, there are almost a dozen, that extend the life of
the road. He reported that if you start maintaining a road that is three or
four years old, one can extend the life of the road by having preventative
maintenance done on a regular basis. He suggested if one took the
engineering analysis that is behind what he said and then couple it with the
financial analysis, it's amazing to see on a graph how much literally a
community can save over a period of ten years if they employ a
preventative maintenance program. He said a lot of times people,
including his wife, glaze over when he talks about this because he is
passionate about it but these are the things communities can do to really
make a difference to be able to build a ballpark for the kids with the
money saved or to lower taxes or not raise them as significantly. He stated
but in all of the locations he has worked significantly on long range and
capital planning and budgeting; it appears from his review that they are
blessed with a terrific Finance staff and he would be honored to work with
them. He reiterated that he takes his fiduciary responsibility more
importantly than anything else. He heard when speaking to some staff
today, there is kind of a capital plan but there is a bigger piece of
equipment that might be needed in the near future but there is not a fund
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set aside, so when that day comes it's like oh man where are we going to
get the $200,000 to do that. He said lastly, he has extensive experience
with enterprise funds, public -private partnerships and general fund
spending. He stated one of the advantages in having done this so long is he
got to do a lot of things.
Deputy Mayor Drummond stated that the one advantage in Florida is that
there is no freeze and thaw cycle that deteriorates the roads. He said one
will see most of them down here are blacktop so it does make it a little bit
easier than up north.
Question 7. What is your experience in dealing with the media? Do you
view the media as a positive or negative force? And, please explain your
perspective.
Mr. Klimm said as you might have experienced sometimes it's positive
and sometimes it's not. He said there are individuals in the media that
have made it very, very difficult but they are all public servants and that
comes with the commitment to do what we do. He stated that socially it
makes it even more challenging while it's both a blessing and a curse
where one resident in a city of 15,000 can blast away at a commission
member or city councilman in the most unfair way possible and one has
absolutely no ability to deal with that. He reported what he chose to do is
to be proactive utilizing TV, the internet, community surveys. He thought
one of the ways to combat a situation, especially in unfair coverage, is just
to go around it. He suggested to do what the folks appear to do all the time
anyways, go out to community meetings, go out to the neighborhoods, and
have an e-newsletter that goes out once a week. He stated an interesting
thing about community outreach, he has been hearing from his brother and
sister managers for 10 or 20 years, it's just a waste of time, people aren't
interested in area government anymore like they used to be. He said at
various times in my career he has done things like citizen leadership
academies where he found out that a lot of residents, newcomers, really
weren't aware of what goes on in the community. He said they started a
citizen leadership academy in Massachusetts, and he recalled some of the
councilmembers saying what a waste of time you aren't even going to be
able to fill the first class so they limited it to 30 with four sessions a year
and every single year they offered the citizen leadership academy (and
even to this day so he is told as he has been gone for many years) that
there is a waiting list to get in. He reported the e-newsletter took a
considerable amount of resources from staff, (our Department Heads and
Managers were already taxed) so to knock on their door and say he wanted
to put a newsletter out and they said oh man so now we have to work two
more hours before we go home on a Friday night. He tried something like
that and thousands of people signed up for it and so there are ways; will
people come to a commission, will there will be 200 people here, not?
Unless it's something really controversial, in the 70s and 80s maybe there
would be a big crowd, but that doesn't mean that people don't care about
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their community, they just have to use every tool that's available to get the
word out. He noted one of the beauties of a community this size compared
to his hometown is that it's small enough that it's still possible to have a
finger on the pulse of the community. He said of the things that attracts
him to Longwood is it's a good size community, big enough to have staff
to be able to get things done and small enough to still feel that there's a
community.
Question 8. We are going to present a scenario and ask you to tell us what
you would do as the City Manager.
It is Friday at 2:10 p.m. and you are contacted by the Police Chief
informing you of storm damage that resulted in power lines going down
on the SunRail crossing. This blocks our State Road 434 and Ronald
Reagan intersection. Per the Power Company, the City may lose power
for multiple days. Lyman High School is set to release at 2:20 p.m. and
traffic is expected to build for rush hour. Please tell us what you would do
as the City Manager.
Mr. Klimm started by saying that one of the few things he could think of
that's attractive in living in New England is that one learns very quickly to
deal with emergencies, storms, hurricanes, snowstorms, nor'easters. He
learned very quickly a reputation in the business can be won or lost with
one storm and sometimes it's learned the hard way. He continued the
answer to the question is that before that ever happened he would make
sure there was an emergency preparedness plan. He wasn't saying there
isn't, he didn't know if there is or isn't, that there is one entity, whether
it's the City Manager or the Chief of Police, whoever is designated to be
the civil defense director or the director of emergency preparedness and
that he is not sure whether the community has code red where citizens are
notified or not, if we don't, he would be one very early on in my tenure to
try to convince them to implement something like that if they don't have
it. He stated it all goes back to preparedness, what's the relationship like
with the transportation people? The superintendent of schools? What's the
relationship with department heads? With the County? He said if they
haven't figured that out prior to that event happening, you're in deep
trouble. He said all I can say is in his career he has always had to put
emergency preparedness first and foremost and I wouldn't do anything
differently here.
Commissioner Sackett said I know what he is talking about I was principle
of a school in Vermont and we'd take field trips to Cape Cod and things
like that, I just got back from a nor'easter up there. You have to be
prepared, our biggest challenge is there is going to be that not so bright
person or that action that happens because of our Sunrail crossings and
that is where the danger happens when we have so many in our
intersections in the City.
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Question 9. Describe an ethical dilemma you have faced in the workplace.
How was it resolved? What was your role in the resolution? What, if
anything, would you do differently if you were faced with the same issue
again?
Mr. Klimm said I won't even identify the location. I was a City Manager
and had a great relationship with the management team and in particularly
a close relationship, friendship with one the department heads. One
Saturday morning I was working in City Hall and I got a phone call from
the Chief of Police who said the State Police Lieutenant need to come talk
to you, so I said okay. They came in and they said this department head
has been using the city computer for purposes of child pornography. I had
to come in, immediately fire him and have him arrested or whatever.
Absolutely no regrets, it was the absolutely the right thing to do, it was
handled well, I got a citation from the State Police on how it was handled
by the city, but there are people in your life, hopefully not many that just
fundamentally betray you, betray your trust and it hurts.
Question 10: Describe your first steps upon assuming responsibility for
the position. What do you hope to accomplish within your first year, and
Why Longwood. Do you have any questions for the Commission?
Mr. Klimm said I haven't mentioned my wife, my family but my wife's
family is from Florida. My wife and I grew up in the same area and the
one thing that we agree on most is we hate cold and we hate snow. So
about ten years ago my wife asked me whether or not we could relocate to
Florida, the place where her family is from. We agreed to do it, it has
taken a lot longer than either of us had hoped, I was offered an opportunity
in Rhode Island that was so fascinating and interesting but I committed to
three years to do it and my wife to this day jokes that when she meant
south, she didn't mean from Massachusetts to Rhode Island. She meant
south of the Mason-Dixon Line. For some time it has been clear that we
were going to relocate to the great state of Florida. The truth is I am not
going to say that I knew a lot about Longwood, I didn't. But I am
applying and I go through a process of evaluating the community. If it
didn't look like a community that was of interest to me I would not have
bothered even applying. I must say in our visits here and all that I have
seen so far I am as interested as I was intrigued as I was to begin with. So,
I think that you have a Council that is committed, that believes in
community involvement, that wants to push the envelope and be better. I
am not seeing anything here that would suggest that Longwood a
community in trouble. It is delightful. But it is a community that I think
can improve and I just sense from watching Commission meetings that
this is a Commission that is committed to working together to try and push
the envelope and to be in a better place for this community. And that to
me is interesting. It's an interesting Florida community, that's what we
have been looking for and that is what this is. It would be no different
than in other communities that I have been appointed to. The challenge is
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as soon as there is a new City Manager people want to know, what do you
think, what are you going to do. The first thing you have to do is shut up
and listen. You really have to come to know the community and that's
painful because there is a desire to move, move, and move. The fact is
that I barely know how to spell Longwood and I am not kidding you, I
have been here twice, I am not going to come to this community and
pretend to know what it is and what its needs are. I spend a considerable
amount of time learning, listening, reaching out to community groups and
so that is on the outside. I am a person that likes to join the Rotary Club
and be active in our church, I believe as strongly as you do that you cannot
be an effective City Manager if you don't know where the neighborhoods
are and you haven't been there lately. I would be one that would want to
be out there listening to the concerns of citizens because I can't do what I
want to do without that. I also have to establish a relationship with the
employees. I have, I am accustomed to weekly staff meeting, department
head, senior staff meetings and at least quarterly with all of the employees,
listening to their concerns. I do something that I am told that 80 — 90% of
City Managers won't do and that is I employ an employee survey where
they can tell me anonymously what they like, what they dislike, what I am
doing wrong, what they would like to see me do with no possibility of
retribution, with no interest on my part knowing who saying what. Most
City Managers don't do that because it is a document, especially in Florida
it becomes a public document and before you know it, it's on the front
page of the paper that this employee is saying that about the City Manager.
But I am one of the relatively few number of City Managers that think that
it is worth the risk of having it used against you is worth the value of
knowing truly coming to know what is in the hearts and minds of the City
workers. I can't begin to be effective if I don't have a management team
and a group of employees that are rowing in the same direction as I am.
Lastly, probably most importantly there has to be a relationship between
the City Manager and the Commission. I have said from day one in every
job that I have had that there is going to be a beginning and there is going
to be an end and I don't know whether it is going to be one year or two
years or three years or eight years or ten years or fifteen years or twenty
years, I don't know but know what it is going to be, you probably don't
know as well, because we could have a great relationship but guess what
in two years half the Commission might be gone with some very different
ideas. And that happens all the time and that doesn't make the City
Manager a bad guy and that doesn't make the Commission bad people it's
just the way it is. But for time being the relationship between the
Commission and the City Manager has to be very very close. I have to
become able to almost read your mind one thing I have learned the hard
way at times is the one mortal sin that a City Manager can make is not
informing the City Council or Commission of an event. What I have
found that the thing that you hate the most is not knowing something big
that is going on and going out to the grocery store and having Mable come
up to you and say is it true about the fire chief, blah blah. When you are
sitting there like ah man, there has to be on going communication. That
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means necessarily that we talk could be email, could be text, phone could
be visits however works best for you. That relationship has to be strong
and real and close.
Ms. Ricci asked if he had any questions or any final statements.
Mr. Klimm said I would find it informative to know about staff turnover
whether you think it is a problem or not and whether you foresee stability
of the management team or whether you believe or think that is going to
be an issue. For a new City Manager that is a very important issue. I
don't want to generally have to spend the first year hiring a police chief
and hiring a fire chief or hiring a planner, it takes so much time. What is
your sense of the stability of the management team?
Mayor Paris said I think that after the recent elections here in Longwood
we had a bit of a transition in November and you can see there are three
new Commissioners up here and myself being a new Mayor. There was
definitely some movement in upper management but I think that has pretty
much settled out. So I feel that the staff we have in place is the long term
solutions to the City of Longwood.
Commissioner Shoemaker said I concur.
Mr. Klimm said in terms of a final statement I just want to really want to
thank you very much for this opportunity. I think it goes almost without
saying that this is going to be the most important decision that you make
as your tenure as a member of the Commission. We are interested in a
community in Florida that supports their staff and I was taken by the
comments that I have heard over the last three or four Commission
Meetings by Commission members that make it very clear that are
supporting the management team and employees in this City and that is
important. I am struck by the fact that you really have a passion for
community outreach, your relationship with community which is really
impressive. I am a manager that believes no matter how good you think a
department is it can always get better. We push ourselves for continuous
improvement. Your mission, your goal is to find the best manager, mine
is to find a community that knows what it wants, that's willing to work
together to get things done and a Commission that not only wants to meet
expectations but wants to far out exceed those expectations. My sense is
that is where we are in this City. At the end of the day I think all of us do
what we do for the same reason, we believe in Public Service we want to
put in our time, wherever that may be and that at the end of the day we
made things a little better for this community that we call home. Thank
you very much.
The Commission took a break at 3:51 p.m. and reconvened at 4:11 p.m.
3. Patrick Comiskey (4:15 p.m.)
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Ms. Ricci explained that she was the Moderator and would be asking the
questions. If the Commission wants further explanation, then they will
make that request. She said they would open to each candidate the
opportunity to make a summary statement and chance to ask questions.
Question 1. Longwood is predominantly built -out and while the City has
seen a significant increase in residential development, commercial
redevelopment along the City's aging main corridors has lagged behind.
The City also has a Historic District on the National Register that, along
with the SunRail commuter rail station, anchors the City's downtown but
has struggled to attract restaurants and retail. Given the challenges of
aging commercial infrastructure, what do you see as the keys to promote
redevelopment in these crucial areas of the City, and what success have
you had in implementing those ideas?
Mr. Comiskey said first I just want to thank everybody for the invitation to
come here today and I appreciate the fine accommodations that we were
given and warm welcome from the staff. I think the key is, it was touched
on a little bit is for structure, keeping up with your infrastructure doing
those things to make sure when somebody comes to you you're able to
handle what they are going to bring you, the planning which it sounds like
a lot of your staff has already putting plans together and trying to make
sure that we take steps on the infrastructure to make sure we can
accommodate when they come. I think what it sounded like, what I heard
this morning was there has been a lot of communication with the existing
industry that is going on and there is communication with developers,
putting information together on parcels so that when there is potential
candidate that might want to invest that we have that information readily
available to do it. Sounds like a lot of that is happening right now. Those
are similar things that we have tried where I worked in Thomaston was to
do the same thing was to have information available on each parcel that is
available and then to also try to work continuously on your infrastructure
to make sure that you're keeping up with it because as you know the key
to any kind of development is to have the infrastructure already there able
to handle what you have and hopefully those changes you make will be
changes that help the facilitate future growth.
Commissioner Sackett said you went through the village, right our historic
village.
Mr. Comiskey answered I did.
Commissioner Sackett said how did you see its value with economic
development compared to, the historic district is my donut hole and the
rest is the good part of the donut. Donut holes always taste the best and
that historic district. So how do you see that contributing or what do we
CC 03-27-18/23
need to do with that as far as infrastructure or developing, things like that.
Keep it, preserve it, move forward with it, how do you do it.
Mr. Comiskey said I like the idea that were being presented today when
you try to enhance what you currently have and try to hopefully as interest
is there you will be able to have property to try and go into and do a bigger
investment as to an existing footprint and try and take advantage of your
modern requirements, building codes, fagade and those sorts of things.
Question 2. Please tell the Commission how you view the relationship
between the manager and governing body? How do you view your
relationship with city staff, local government, individual residents and
groups?
Mr. Comiskey I see the City Manager's role is to facilitate the ideas that
the Mayor and the Council have to try to make sure the Mayor and
Council are successful in the projects they want to see done and I have
always pretty much relied on the Mayor to take the point on engaging in
the community and engaging in the state level with the legislators. If it's
state departments staff then I will usually take the lead on that because that
is more behind closed doors, phone calls, follow up and those kinds of
things. I try to make sure, what I would want to do is here is to have an
idea of what each Councilman and the Mayor objectives are so I know
what direction I need to take and to try to do the best I can to make the
Mayor and Council successful in the programs ideas and policies and try
to help to get those implemented. With the staff I have always told my
staff from the first day, I never have a problem if the Department head
wants to talk to the Mayor or Council member those are things that I
expect are going to happen but what I do ask Department heads to do is if
there is some issue that is important they communicate with me and let me
know too, as well as anyone else they communicate with. So I am aware
of what is going on and I am in the loop. I like to try and meet with
Department heads periodically during the month to go over where our
annual goals are and what the projects they are working on and how things
are going. And also try to have an open door if a Department head has
any kind of issue, of course the police chief is usually the one that has late
hour, weekend issues and I have always tried to have an open door where
any of the Department heads can feel good about contacting me anytime
during the day or night. Or stopping by my house to go over any sensitive
issues or things that might be coming up.
Mayor Paris said just to give you, just so you don't think that we are not
asking questions back we are trying to take more time with questions,
write down notes, so when the follow up one-on-one interviews, we can
ask one-on-one questions. So please don't take our silences as that were
not interested, we are just taking individual notes so we can each ask you
questions about these answers tomorrow.
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Commissioner Sackett asked beyond that are group are the local citizens,
me as a citizen and other people as a citizen so the individual residents and
the groups how do you engage, from where you came from how did you
engage with those.
Mr. Comiskey said naturally, being in a small community when you are
traveling around in your daily course of things you are doing or weekends,
evenings, you are going to run into people, people are going to approach
you at events, civic functions and that allows for a lot of engagement. I
have historically always had my phone number in the phone book and that
surprises people, but if somebody needs to and there is an issue in the
middle of the evening and they cannot get anyone they can contact me and
that has happened many times over the years.
Question 3. What techniques have you found to be most successful in
assisting local government officials establish and implement long and
short-range goals for the community?
Mr. Comiskey said I think probably the first thing is finding out as the
Manager what each of the Mayor and Councilmen are wanting to see
happen in a long range situation, 40 to 50 years down the line, what they
would like to see the community, what they would like to leave the
community as their legacy being a City official, and to map those out.
Infrastructure is always one that people want to see focused on. Try to take
and look at a 50 year, where do we want to be in 50 years, so what do we
need to do each year to get towards that goal and then as a manager trying
to advise the Mayor and Council what we would need to do, what steps to
be able to get ourselves where we are starting to deal with those
infrastructures used on annually. I like to try and put a couple year project
together so you get more bids in and get a better price per unit and then
make sure you have everything mapped out with the other utilities; gas
company, power company, be it the state, and any of those other people
that are involved with a project you are working on. He said hopefully get
our plans to mirror with their plans and maybe have that's as far as the
infrastructure. On other issues that you are putting together and whatever
our other plans are, whatever the comprehensive plan is that we are
interested focusing on or updating and then trying to put those into maybe
five year goals and trying to focus on those five year goals and then update
those every couple of years and try and break the pie down into smaller
pieces so we can focus on tackling them over a shorter period.
Question 4. As you may know the City of Longwood has three unions,
Teamsters, IAFF and IUOE. Please tell us about your experience with
unions?
Mr. Comiskey said in Georgia we did not have employee unions,
collective bargaining groups in Thomaston but when I worked in
Clarksburg we had the ASPI union which we did three year contracts with
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them. The manager was the point person and at that time I was a member
of the three person management team, I tended to do leg work, I wrote up
a policy for instances on drug use, drug testing and educated membership
in the union as well as other staff on that and the manager was the point
person on the actual hard negotiation, I basically was a transcriber or a
somebody who put the document together, made changes and presented
drafts when we had our meeting on the subject.
Question 5. How would you go about building commission consensus on
a "split" commission?
Mr. Comiskey said I think probably of course the best thing to do is
probably have several meetings on whatever specific goal or item that we
have on the agenda. He said if it's a certain policy or if it's a specific
project, we basically have meetings to discuss it and go over those
differences. Myself as a manager I would see is making sure that I get the
information out to everybody and at the same time as soon as possible.
Make sure to try and do whatever I can to facilitate cooperation and
communication to make sure that everyone is part of the process. Also,
that everyone feels they are part of the process and when they have a
question or concern that I try to get that answer back to them and
hopefully that will facilitate that communication. He said we can have a
good respectable consensus and the end of the day everybody knows what
they are deciding on when they actually have a vote on the final outcome.
Question 6. Describe your experience in formulating and implementing a
budget or capital project. Are you familiar with funding sources for
municipal government other than General Fund? Describe some examples
of acquiring additional funding sources for economic development and
infrastructure projects?
Mr. Comiskey said in my role as a manager for the two cities that I
worked for as a manager I put together the budget. I put all the line items
together, I would send a notice out to department heads probably six
months before we adopted the budget and ask them to put their request
together. He said I would usually send a narrative with each line item that
was part of the operating budget, what we had traditionally been putting in
those items when we posted bills to the City's system. I would ask
department heads if there were any changes to this so we could make
those changes in the narrative so when the Council gets the draft they will
know what is in each line items and what kinds of things we are buying in
each line item. I try to be as detailed as I can, if it is something that is a
recurring thing make sure that is specifically spelled out, if it's an item
that we periodically do try to spell out. He said I know the history and try
to make sure the history is included so Council Members and the Mayor
can look over each line items and things we have posted there over
multiple years. He said where I worked we had a water, sewer and electric
utility and so those project budgets, we had a lot of high dollar projects in
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those budgets, and we would periodically get loans from the state
financing arm. He said we would also put monies into Community
Development Block Grant (CDBG) block grants and a lot of times we
would try to tie those projects together especially with water because as
with many place in Georgia, water was a big issue. He said those were
projects that were primarily going to get attention when it came to
distributing free money. We would put in for water line replacement, you
probably saw from my resume, we would replace a lot of our water lines
and a lot of those projects, we would do about every other year. He said
we would try to get half a million from one pot, half a million from
another and we would put the two projects together so when the agency
got it they already saw we were putting in "X" from this project. He said
when they got our project they saw we were already looking at a two and
half to three million dollar project as opposed to a City that was putting in
the minimum of their commitment to get the maximum of the state
funding. He said, naturally we were more favored because we were
putting more money into a project so each agency was able to look at a
bigger project. Once we got the system going, we got a project done and
it usually took about two years, then we would go back with another
application. He said people who were going to be involved with that
decision are going to remember this is a town that got their project done
and now they have another, and have already done three of them and they
got them done in two years. They are going to be more likely to give us
the money because they have a stack of projects that they have to get
people to finish them. He said once you start a system going, I think that
system will help you with the people on the state level who are making
those decisions. He said once they know you are somebody who's going
to bring a project that meets the requirements that are going to give you
the money, get it done and get the information back to them that need to
close it out. He said a lot of those were competitive and I am sure Florida
has a similar thing, where they might give you lower interest rate if you
qualify. When I was in Thomaston we had a high loss rate in our water
lines so we would use that to our advantage. Sometimes if the
Environmental Protection Department (EPD) wants to give you a write up
on something the sometimes that write up can help you get funding. He
said you need to know what to put in that write up, it will give you a lot of
leverage. He said when you commit to something, you want to commit to
something that you want to try to go to this agency over here, or maybe
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) or whoever that would
be able to give you funding. If you have a letter from the EPD or
Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) they will use that as one
of the criteria for putting you to the top of the list for a grant, as an
example, or low interest rate. He said learning those kinds of mechanisms
is a big plus for when you are looking for money for infrastructure. He
said for economic development, we had an International Development
Association (IDA) that was a countywide agency and our Mayor served on
that board with the County Commission Chairman and a couple of other
appointed people and they had a director. He said usually my role was to
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support them whenever they were doing a project because they always
needed infrastructure and the City provided the water and sewer. He said
those grants were handled by the IDA Director not by myself. They were
usually dependent on how big of project, how many jobs, and those were
competitive as well but typically they also took some time because people
had to evaluate whether to give them money. I would try to facilitate
whatever part we need to do to get that infrastructure in place so that when
they were ready to move in we were ahead of them in getting them on
board to be able to start their operation.
Question 7. What is your experience in dealing with the media? Do you
view the media as a positive or negative force? And, please explain your
perspective.
Mr. Comiskey said of course the media can help you and if you don't have
a their help they can inhibit something you are trying to work on. He said,
usually where I have worked, the Mayor has been a point person in talking
with the media. What I would do is if there was something positive, I
would try to make sure that he had the information whenever he met with
the media or he saw them he could talk about a positive project. He said
we used to put together a one page bulleted report every other month on
something positive about the City and we would include that in the utility
bill and shoot that off and out to the media. The town I currently live, we
had a very active radio station and it would not be uncommon for him to
call me at the end of the day and want something to add to his new release
if he had a slow news day. He knew that he could call me, it would be
after five and he would have something for the 6:00 a.m. report. He said
trying to keep bullet points of positive things, keep them in a folder so if
they contact you about something you have some things to pull out and
give them so they can put it into their news cycle. He said when I worked
in Clarksburg we had two TV stations in that town, ABC and NBC they
were always hovering around city hall trying to get a story for the news. If
you have any report information try and keep a file of positive things send
them out in the utility bills, to your citizens and then handing those to your
officials. He said if they are ever at a function and they get approached,
the official can have something that will be enough to cover in their news
cycle. Those kind of things can help, now if we ever had a problem,
normally I would step forward on the problem and talk to the media. He
said, fortunately we did not have too many problems but when you did
have a problem then usually from a storm or outages, if you had a tropical
storm come through, those were things that usually I would talk to the
media. He said the elected officials weren't having to handle that task. If
there was something involving a big thing, like a law enforcement case,
the police chief would usually be the point person on that one.
Question 8. We are going to present a scenario and ask you to tell us what
you would do as the City Manager.
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It is Friday at 2:10 p.m. and you are contacted by the Police Chief
informing you of storm damage that resulted in power lines going
down on the SunRail crossing. This blocks our State Road 434
and Ronald Reagan intersection. Per the Power Company, the City
may lose power for multiple days. Lyman High School is set to
release at 2:20 p.m. and traffic is expected to build for rush hour.
Please tell us what you would do as the City Manager.
Mr. Comiskey said I image the first thing is to contact the Police Chief,
the Public Works Director and the Fire Chief. He said I am assuming we
have had a scenario similar to this before and they already have an action
plan that would be almost ready to roll out. They probably by the time
I've got the word are already starting to implement that action plan. He
said if it is something involving the Department of Transpiration (DOT) I
would contact the area engineer or area superintendent to find out how we
can support their response, since it was their road they would likely take
the lead on directing traffic and implementing a detour plan. He said we
would be contacting the school bus superintendent to notify them there is
going to need to be a re-route on this section of roadway or intersection.
He said I am going to presume has had other communications with us, on
other issues in the past and they will probably be contacting us too. He
said but we will want to contact them as soon as we can to tell them where
they need consider their re-routes.
Question 9. Describe an ethical dilemma you have faced in the workplace.
How was it resolved? What was your role in the resolution? What, if
anything, would you do differently if you were faced with the same issue
again?
Mr. Comiskey said probably the biggest challenge is involving termination
of employees. He said in my last two roles I was involved directly in
being the final determinant on any termination. One issue that happened
when I was working as a City Manager, we had a separate Water and
Sewer Board and on that Board were appointees that the City Council
appointed. He said we had a report of one of the board members had
taken their water meter, and in that community it was common to have
water meters in the basement of peoples house, I guess back when the
utilities started. He said this individual was on the board switching the
mechanical meter around. Basically you could turn your meter back by
switching it around and evidently he had been calling in his meter readings
to the City desk who collected the readings. He said one of the guys who
had read the meters went in when he was not there, his wife let him in to
read the meter and that's what trigger the problem, there was a negative
number. He said I sat down and met with the individual and told him I was
going to have to bring the matter to the next Water and Sewer Board
meeting. At the next Water and Sewer Board meeting he resigned and the
Board decided not to take any action and made him pay what his average
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bill should have been. He said if I had gone through that again I probably
would have had the City Attorney or Mayor, probably the City Attorney
with me to sit in on that meeting. He said it was just him and myself. I
tried to treat him like I would want to be treated if someone had something
on me. I presented it to him and gave him a chance to respond but next
time I would have the City Attorney with me so I had a witness.
Question 10: Describe your first steps upon assuming responsibility for
the position. What do you hope to accomplish within your first year, and
Why Longwood. Do you have any questions for the Commission?
Mr. Comiskey said well I would say the first thing I would want to do is
get with each of the Department heads, from our finance department get
our fixed assets inventory, get a listing of all property and equipment and
go with each Department head and have them show me everything we
have. Check it off against our list, see what matched up, what kind
condition and learn where each piece of property, water towers, and
pumps all those things are. Take a look if there is any kind of sites that we
have so I have an idea of what all we own. He said I can start formulating
what that is in my own memory so when those issues come up, I have an
idea of what we have to take care of. He said if there is a pump station that
I see we need to be addressing and if there is any other physical structure
so I can help the Council by accessing that. Also I want to meet each of
the staff and look at their files and get to know as many of the key
supervisors as I can early on. He said I also want to try and meet with each
of agencies we will interact with, the County Manager, the adjoining City
Managers, probably have the Mayor introduce me to some of the Mayors
and County Commissioners, and any other key players that the City is
working with or about to work with. I would want to meet with the DOT
leadership and supervisors that work in this area. He said I would meet
with the EPD Inspectors and any of those people and their supervisors,
and other agencies in the state, and others that we are working with. I
could meet these people early on because inevitably when we have a
problem, I don't want the first meeting to be when we are adversarial. He
stated, also learn what they are thinking about our community and issues
they have that we might be able to help them with. Why Longwood, my
wife is a native Floridian, as you know I went to school in Gainesville, I
have a lot of friends in the area. He said my brother lives in Fort
Lauderdale, I have cousins in Tampa and Sarasota, lots a friends around
this area and Orlando is a nice city and Longwood is a nice suburban
community. He said to me just seems like an ideal opportunity for me to
live in a nice area and a place where my wife and I already have a lot of
friends.
Mr. Comiskey said one of the things that I thought was real positive, I was
able to get a lot of information as you can image from the internet of
projects and things the City if looking at. The Fire Chief and Economic
Development Director basically told me about some of the things I had
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read about and heard. One of the positive things I thought from what I
have seen is if it's not there the impression is that you have a Mayor and
Council that are cohesive and working together which is a big plus for
somebody anyone who wants to work for the City which I commend the
Council on.
The Commission took a break at 4:43 p.m. and reconvened at 4:56 p.m.
4. JD Cox (5:15 p.m.)
Ms. Ricci explained that she was the Moderator and would be asking the
questions. If the Commission wants further explanation, then they will
make that request. She said they would open to each candidate the
opportunity to make a summary statement and chance to ask questions.
Question 1. Longwood is predominantly built -out and while the City has
seen a significant increase in residential development, commercial
redevelopment along the City's aging main corridors has lagged behind.
The City also has a Historic District on the National Register that, along
with the SunRail commuter rail station, anchors the City's downtown but
has struggled to attract restaurants and retail. Given the challenges of
aging commercial infrastructure, what do you see as the keys to promote
redevelopment in these crucial areas of the City, and what success have
you had in implementing those ideas?
Mr. Cox said I took two questions out of that, what do I see that we need
to do to promote it, and what successes have I been experienced with. He
said I really appreciated the tour today that I was given you have a
beautiful community. I think that this community is at an exciting time
and being able to be there to assist with the promotion of it is something
that I would truly enjoy doing. He said I think that it is precisely at this
point, promotion of the community. I think that we have a lot of things
that are in place now, that are setting themselves up for that further
development. I had the opportunity before coming here to reach out to a
couple of developers that are here in the community. He said I had a nice
conversation with both of them, you have done a great job, anytime you
have developers that are excited about our community you have reached
the hurdle that needed to be reached. He said now it is up to a joint effort
to be able to assist them with what they are willing to invest monies in and
to set up plans. I also had the opportunity to review your retail strategies
study and I think that is great. I think it was 2015 when that was done, I
think that is a strategy that needed to be taken to get yourself ready. He
said with that in hand and developers ready to invest, some have already
made investments and that is great, both in retail and in housing. I think
the stage is set now for the next level. He said I would throw out the idea
that it would behoove the community to consider having a group set up
perhaps an Economic Development Council that is beyond the City of and
beyond just the private investor. He said, a group that could be at arm
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length from the City but could look for those areas of investments and
could help us to obtain those properties necessary. To be able to assist us
with being able to acquire those properties that are necessary for growth.
You know it is one thing to wait for happenstance and hoping that the
right store will come along and open at this particular corner versus, the
proactive approach and actually acquiring those properties. He said the
second part of the question was what I have done in the past. In both the
city of Alliance, Nebraska, I have been in three communities, Alliance,
Nebraska; Neodesha, Kansas; and most recently Bethany, Oklahoma. In
both Alliance and Bethany we set up just the type of thing that I am
suggesting, an economic development authority or council call it what you
will. In the first community, it was actually a redevelopment authority, in
the second it was an economic development authority. The idea and
purpose is similar where the group identifies those areas, work on such
ideas as this and they promulgate it, and promote it. He said they promote
the community and working together with both City Administration and
City Council as well as, the developers in providing that impedance
behind development. Once the word gets out and you are probably seeing
some of this already, Longwood is the place to go now and people tend to
gravitate toward that, and if we can set ourselves up and have that group
that is there to be an interface for us, I think that we are going to be ahead
of the game.
Commissioner Morgan said I think it is a very interesting idea with his
committee. He asked, would you lean towards more mom and pops shops,
as far as bringing in businesses. SunRail runs right here, this is where it
drops off, and how would you, make people want to stay here versus
moving on to Altamonte Springs.
Mr. Cox said I also reached out to Mike Brockman he is with the Chamber
on the Longwood Council, and I think working together with a group like
that, or perhaps, we even just have a Longwood group that just promotes
our community. He said I think that working together with a group rather
than just me saying we ought to go do XYZ. I think anytime you put a
City Manager in that position it tends to backfire what is better is a
collaborative effort. With that being said, I want to try and answer your
questions as best I can, I believe you are kind of wondering what my ideas
are on how to best improve that. He said I think that having, it's beautiful
by the way I love this donut hole. I think this area and I think that there is
a lot of traffic going on right next to it and I had the opportunity, I did a
reconnaissance over to the community yesterday. He said, during rush
hours and unbeknownst to me when rush hour truly was, it is heavy traffic.
I think us being able to take advantage of that traffic and having those
types of stores along the way is going to peel those people off. He said I
think that the last chapter still to be written on how this area might be set
up, I think there is opportunity for some business and you want to have
some foot traffic however, you have residential all around it so I think
perhaps there is some room for commercial growth. I think you want to
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control that. But I think that some commercial businesses, kind of like you
have already will lend themselves well for development and the foot
traffic and being able to get people across the street too. He said like we
were talking about a little early today, I think that is key too. So we
develop that side as well as this side you have commuters getting off the
train, it's really a great, the community is really set up well for
blossoming.
Commissioner Sackett asked within your tour you saw SunRail right down
the street and you saw this Park being build and a hospital, but also a lot of
mom and pop stores that don't have parking lots that fit anymore. He said,
I don't think we want to copy the town north of us or south of us or east
and west. As Commissioner Morgan was saying, yes we admire the mom
and pops stores but we want to grow and we keep the same charm, would
be your job.
Mr. Cox said it needs to be something special, going on the same as it
currently is.
Question 2. Please tell the Commission how you view the relationship
between the manager and governing body? How do you view your
relationship with city staff, local government, individual residents and
groups?
Mr. Cox said I am by my very nature set up to be a collaborative type
person, that is the way I am cut out and so I utilize that and I wouldn't
change it. So being collaborative with the governing body if you are so
willing I would love to set up one -on -ones, where we would meet on a
regular basis maybe more so in the beginning and then we could go from
there as to how often you would like to meet. He said if you do not have
the time for that then I will communicate with you the best way I can, via
email if it is routine things, text message if everyone uses text technology
and then also telephone calls. He said texting works really well if we have
an emergency and need to let everyone know something right away. But I
view the relationship as being very special and I would love to have a
relationship with each one of you, as I would do the same with our City
Department Directors. He said I like to do performance evaluation systems
but also to have one-on-one with Department Directors maybe twice a
month initially, and then we will see how it goes at least once a month. He
said we talk about the various projects that are going on in the department,
we set goals, and measure up to see how we are coming along on those
projects. He went on to say, for years I was a coach, my daughters played
softball and my son played baseball so that coaching part of me has
continued. Another part of that question is the relationship, what is my
management style. He said I am not the autocratic type of leader I am
more of, I look at myself as a coach, so I am there to support the
department directors, their various departments, help them to be
successful, and then I will support them however I can. He said that is why
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it is important to have the one -on -one's so I understand what might be
going on or what interest each of you might have in various areas of
success for the community. One step further, beyond the department
directors although I will strive to never step on their toes, I do like to do
occasional visits to their departments. He said I do like get to know
everybody in the organization at 156 that's a very doable number and
there is no reason I can't get to know everybody in the organization, and I
will strive to do that.
Commissioner Sackett asked, you use the words set staff up for success
and power the staff on how do you achieve it.
Mr. Cox said we work through the Department Directors to set up those
goals that are necessary, so the Department Directors are their
representing their department. He said I like to see the Department
Directors elevated to where they think not first of their department but first
of the City in their organization and community. From that springs this
idea that the whole organization can rise up and accomplish the goals that
we wish to do to further the vision. I think that setting, working with the
Department Directors going through the goals, me helping them achieve
the goals and from the Department Directors the same then holds true for
their direct staff, that they also be success. He said, let me give you an
example of the gas department; we don't have one here, but in cities I
have been in we have. There might be an employee of the gas department
that is not performing very well, we still want them to be successful we
have put a lot of money into their training to get them to the level that they
are. He said, we don't want to just close the door and say you need to
leave tomorrow. First of all, we are doing performance evaluations so we
have a basis for a comparative for that particular person and from that we
can also set out goals for them and the Department Director would work
with me. They may say John Smith is having issues with ABC, we are
having to expedite, it might just be a phone call that they let me know
something is going on or during the one-on-one they let me know there is
an issue. He continued and said, then we set up those goals for that person
to meet so they can be successful. The opposite would be setting them up
for failure, where you are setting potholes and reasons to fire them. The
way I look at it is the other way around. We look at ways for them to be
successful in the organization. He said nothing is worse than the Director
of the gas department coming to me and saying John Smith needs to be
fired and there all fives on the last performance review. He said those kind
of things just backfire on everybody and so we want to do it the other way
around is my recommendation.
Question 3. What techniques have you found to be most successful in
assisting local government officials establish and implement long and
short-range goals for the community?
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Mr. Cox said I just think it is key that the community be involved in those
types of discussions with a community of 13,000, 14,000, 15,000 there are
so many ideas that are out there. He said I think it is hard to just have a
table of a dozen people trying to figure out what all those things are. The
basis for my response is community involvement, and getting folks in the
community engaged in the community and having those ideas of
brainstorming going on and perhaps even the vetting of them. He
explained having a community meeting where we throw all the items up
on the board, and list all the pros and cons. He mentioned that he has even
been a part of areas where they give people dots and they can go walk the
dots. It is very powerful because the people that attend and the
stakeholders of the City, if they are part of the process they will be part of
the solution. He said, so if we have some engagement activity they will be
more apt in my opinion in helping to create that solution. Even it was not
the solution that they had purposed initially.
Question 4. As you may know the City of Longwood has three unions,
Teamsters, IAFF and WOE. Please tell us about your experience with
unions?
Mr. Cox said we had unions in both Alliance as well as Bethany. I think
most communities across the country have to have unions of at least public
safety and some of the other departments. He said what has worked well
with me in the past, and talking to the Chief today, something similar was
done here where the City Manager is kind of a step removed from the
process. He said what we had was another individual that actually sat
down on the negotiations and then brought those proposals back to me.
Then I could say that's good or we may need to sharpen the pencil on this
particular area, let's go back and visit this particular item. So that has
served well, relationships that have come out of those have been very
good and I would suggest that process be continued.
Question 5. How would you go about building commission consensus on
a "split" commission?
Mr. Cox said I think it comes down to what we are talking about, if we are
talking about some small routine thing which is probably more times than
not, I am not sure that a consensus is necessary for me to go around and do
that. He explained when we are talking about the big decisions, like
development of the donut hole, I think my relationships with each of you
will be key. He said having our one -on -ones and discussing through the
issues well in advanced actually coming on the agenda, if at all possible,
sometimes we have to deal with things on a timely basis. He went one to
say, if we do have the time to kick them around I think that works better.
He said he can be the keeper of the pros and the cons and get feedback
from each of you and help each of you with what the concerns might be or
some of the pros for the particular idea might be.
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Question 6. Describe your experience in formulating and implementing a
budget or capital project. Are you familiar with funding sources for
municipal government other than General Fund? Describe some examples
of acquiring additional funding sources for economic development and
infrastructure projects?
Mr. Cox said budgeting is part of City managing, that's what we do, when
we talk about plans, development, none of those are not going to happen if
you don't have budget. He went on to say, it enables plans to go through,
a budget is key to us implementing the vision that you all wish to do. If we
say we want to accomplish goals ABC but we don't fund ABC we fund
DEF, then we are out of sync. He said it is key that we are funding those
things that are in the vision. What I was accustomed to having occur, is the
initial stages of the budget preparation where the Department Directors
would prepare their list of proposed capital items. He said what I like to
see is not only current year but future years, go out 2, 3, 4, 5 and at least 6
years maybe even through ten. Then we have a good idea that tomorrow
we are not going to have to buy a new truck for the gas department
because it wasn't on the next year's budget. He explained I like to have a
long term picture of what the capital needs are going to be and those
capital items I like to see broken down by prioritization so they are urgent,
high need, or routine need, so that is helpful to me and working with the
Department Directors. He mentioned, I will be as flexible as if there is
another way you would like to do it I am game for that. If the Directors
have some suggestions I am open to that as well. What I am accustom to is
sitting down with the Directors as well as the Commission, the governing
body, and talking through the items that are included in the proposed
capital items. Step two, once we have that and we are on the same page
with the things we are looking to, that we need to get for this coming year.
Then we shift gears and go into the operational side of the budget. He said
I have typically worked closely with the Chief Financial Officer (CFO),
typically they crunch the numbers and bring those to me. The Department
Directors are looking at their various line items if they need more gas this
year or fewer pencils or whatever it might be. Then I rely on the CFO or
finance department to put all those numbers together, I look at the overall
budget then circle back with the Department Directors and we go through
this is how it is looking right now. He said it is the same story every single
year in my experience, it is always red in the first, then you have to go
back and typically there will be a lot asked for in the first round and then
we will go back and we will get to where I am comfortable. The other
thing that will have to happen as well, is we have to set targets, as the
Commission, but setting targets as to how much money do we wish to end
the year with. He said what we are going to set as a goal for our
unrestricted cash reserve. He gave an example, your general fund cash
reserve, unrestricted is very good. Perhaps we might wish to revisit the
targeting on the water side, the enterprise funds. He stated we set those
goals and then I have a number which we can work with the Department
Directors. Then we come back and have a big meeting again with Council
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and Department Directors to massage it into a format that you are
comfortable with and that we feel that we tax to deliver services, not just
to put money in the bank. He said we want to make sure that the goals of
the services we wish to deliver are being met with the budget that is how
all that circles back and that I have experience with.
Ms. Ricci read the question again.
Mr. Cox stated he wanted to compliment this staff and you all on the
grants that you have sought and obtained it is really quite incredible. He
went on to say as staff drove him around it was explained all the grants
that they City received. He said that is one source that most cities go for is
grant funding. Not only is there the public sector grant funding available
through the State and the Federal government, the Economic Development
Administration also has some funds that are available for certain types of
economic development activity. He mentioned there are other ways that
perhaps a city can set itself up for further revenues and that might be
through a potential utility. He mentioned in some places it makes sense to
at least have the conversation and it doesn't make sense for us to consider
having an electric utility instead of just franchising that and obtaining the
funds from that franchising agreement. I have been in cities where we had
an electric utility where we had a gas utility and it's a cash cow for the
community. I think at the very least it is something we can do, if the
franchise agreement is coming up we ought to at least kick it around and
see if it makes sense for us or not. He said that is the thing that stands out
the most for additional funding. The other one is so small in comparison
with the electric utilities, we are talking about millions of dollars that
would come into the community annually and gas as well. He said grants
I think are great and obtaining those and continuing to be on the look -out.
He stated if we are working on the economic development side and we not
only work with the state economic development folks but also the federal.
He ended with I think there are a number of sources like that we can
follow.
Question 7. What is your experience in dealing with the media? Do you
view the media as a positive or negative force? And, please explain your
perspective.
Mr. Cox said I think they are absolutely a positive force and I have had a
great experience of having an outstanding relationships with the media. He
explained in the first community I was in, we had a newspaper that was
sometimes critical of our city and for good reason, we were not doing our
best and we were not communicating with them. He said I shared with the
governing body that I thought we needed to double our efforts to reach out
to them and that whole relationship turned around very quickly and we
gained a mutual respect. He stated they have job to do and their job is to
let the community know what is going on in our area. He said I think the
more responsive that we can be and I try to be as responsive as I possibly
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can, that it is very productive and healthy for the city. He explained in
Alliance, Nebraska population about 9,000, we had not only a newspaper
but in that particular area because it was a bit remote a lot of folks listened
to the radio and there was one local station. I would go on the radio and
after council meetings talk about things that were going on. He said I
would always defer to the governing body if they wished to be there. In
one particular case they wanted me to do it and I would go to the radio
stations and we would talk about things going on, things on the agenda,
things coming up, and then any other questions they had. So that really
worked well there. He shared a story from Bethany, Oklahoma. He said it
is a metro of Oklahoma City I went there to get metro experience, and
when I got there the community was completely disengaged from the city.
Completely disengaged and one of the first things that stood out was the
people and how are they getting their information, they weren't. He said
there was a local newspaper that used to be a Bethany newspaper but had
expanded to be more of an Oklahoma City type of newspaper. I called a
reporter who was also the publisher for the local version, and asked if he
would like to get together and maybe talk about things that are going on.
He said we developed a very healthy relationship and long story short, that
was very healthy for the city. They wound up renaming their newspaper
back to the "Bethany Tribune". He said people in the community attached
an identity with the newspaper so people would look to the paper to get
their information. He stated we ramped up our social media and hired a
public information officer, we really hit that hard but we relied upon the
press to share the story of what was going on in a fair way. He commented
it was not just what I was saying or my take on.
Question 8. We are going to present a scenario and ask you to tell us what
you would do as the City Manager.
It is Friday at 2:10 p.m. and you are contacted by the Police Chief
informing you of storm damage that resulted in power lines going
down on the SunRail crossing. This blocks our State Road 434
and Ronald Reagan intersection. Per the Power Company, the City
may lose power for multiple days. Lyman High School is set to
release at 2:20 p.m. and traffic is expected to build for rush hour.
Please tell us what you would do as the City Manager.
Mr. Cox said I think the first thing is I would have a staff member give the
schools a call and give them a heads up that this is happening outside and
the very next step would be to get our key staff together. He said probably
text you all since this is a happening sort of thing. He mentioned he has
had this happen not with the train station, but power going out. He said he
would let everybody knew quickly as I could so then I can send regular
updates in the hour. If it is a developing story or something more drawn
out, I will let them know I will try to get back to you no later than 4
o'clock that kind of a thing. He went on to say we would assemble the
staff team that needed to be part of that; public works, police, fire. He said
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he would probably get in contact with the County Emergency Manager
and have a conversation with them, perhaps that person might like to come
over and join us for our staff deployment meeting. We would get into
discussing those things that would need to be done to be able to protect
our community. We would also hopefully have some way of having a
public information officer, someone to serve in that capacity if we don't
have the formal position. We would do our very best to get the word out
and quick side note, that I would like to compliment the website, very well
laid out. I think utilizing social media by using Facebook or Twitter
perhaps Instagram, letting as many as the folks in the community as
possible know what is going on and what our what are anticipation is. We
probably bring in the electric company to work with us, so we knew what
was going on and the Police Chief since he knows that this is going down.
He said the Police Chief has been in contact with someone from them that
will serve as that key point. In every community I have been in, there is
always a key point person with the electric company, so if we had our own
electric utility the people that are supplying the electric to us would always
have a key contact person as well. He went on to say we would need to be
in continued contact with them as far as what is happening right now on
the ground, but also what they have in the works and anticipated. He said
you just mentioned two or three days it is going to be it, so let me circle
back one more time to FEMA. They will be key in case we need to bring
generators in to power at least some of the areas of the community. He
said if we had our own electric utility we could set that up ourselves, kind
of a side note. But I think working with them to generate as much of the
community as possible so we would have some power at some point so
people could live would be handy as well.
Question 9. Describe an ethical dilemma you have faced in the workplace.
How was it resolved? What was your role in the resolution? What, if
anything, would you do differently if you were faced with the same issue
again?
Mr. Cox said one that stands out is most recent one in Bethany. You all
know that I resigned from Bethany on January 4I'. He said I was put into
a situation where I was getting direction from not the whole Council, but
from individuals which created a huge ethical problem for me. He said in
my role it is my duty, we have this form of government here too, where I
need to let everyone know what is asked for and these aren't small things
that were being asked, just routine matters these were major things. One of
the things that we implemented shortly after I arrived in Bethany, was a
creed that we are going to follow the same roles as our citizens are going
to follow. He said we put into place measures where if the City's going to
be doing certain work then we have to have our building permits pulled
and engineering needs to approve those things that we are doing. It sets a
wonderful example for the community. He explained what happened was
the gas department got a donation of awnings, big ones. They began
putting it up and pouring concrete and doing all this work and the Gas
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Department Director came into see me and he said I think I just caused a
problem. He stated the Director explained he got a phone call about it and
was asked where your building permit is. He went on to explain that he
said to get the permits in place, was told it's going to cost money because
we have to have it surveyed, and said let's have it surveyed if it's worth
doing let's do it the right way. The particular person that I was
mentioning on Council did not like that, and apparently one of the
members of the gas department talked to that member and the member
wished for me to waive the rules and just go ahead and let them put it up.
He said we should be making it easier not harder for City staff. I told him
I can't do that unless Council changes the rules or gives me direction
otherwise. He said I emailed the whole Council and let them know and of
course that made that person very angry. What did I do about it, I wound
up before it was all over I ended up having three conversations with
ICMA to get their guidance on the situation. He said that particular person
was very angry and wound up asking me to resign and at first I declined
and I talked to ICMA and my family again, we just had this negative
atmosphere so I wound up resigning on January the 4 h after considering
all that. He stated I wouldn't change any of it, I think we handle
everything appropriately, we were above board, I was always polite about
everything but sometimes there are just certain circumstances that happen
that are unfortunate and that was one of them.
Question 10: Describe your first steps upon assuming responsibility for
the position. What do you hope to accomplish within your first year, and
Why Longwood. Do you have any questions for the Commission?
Mr. Cox said I just love this community, thank you for inviting me here I
feel that I am a good fit for Longwood. I think that my economic
development background serves well for this community right now and
then my other general management experience and hopefully leadership.
He said it makes me a little uncomfortable, hopefully I will be coming on
board and you will see this on a day to day basis, I strive to be as humble
as I can I never talk about myself but the nature of interviewing you have
to do that. I think that the way I am cut out, where my strengths are being
a collaborative type of person. The first thing I think that is vital for the
new manager to do is reach out to each of you and see how quickly we can
get together and have our first meeting and dialogue. So that would
probably be phone call number one during the day. Phone call number
two would be to whomever on our staff and administration office to
organize a Department Director meeting. He went on to say hopefully that
same day, the first day I am there, perhaps I have even organized some of
that in advance of coming here. I probably will be on the phone or via
email a lot before arriving on the scene. At any rate I would hope to meet
with Department Directors perhaps even do some touring around the
organization of the various departments, saying hello to everyone. He said
hopefully putting their mind at ease that there's no a harsh person coming
into the position that I will be good to work with and I look forward to
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working with them. Hopefully, by the end of a full year of course we will
have gone through a full budget session so we will have had significant
conversations about the direction, where we are going, what are goals are,
what vision we are trying to carry out. We will have had conversation in
setting the budget up for us to succeed in those visions and then I will set
out goals for me, measurable goals say we want to do XYZ before 12
months are up. He continued, that would be in my mind, hopefully I am
set up for success as well, that is not a surprise thing we are working on
that and I am reporting on it during the manager reports. He stated, I don't
know if you would prefer me to give them verbally or in writing, I can do
either way. But hopefully I am keeping you up to date on where we stand
and hopefully we will have had significant conversation with our
developers, and stakeholders in the community. He said I guess that is
another thing that I would do fairly quickly is again, I would defer to you
all but hopefully you would wish for me to make contact and be visible
with the stakeholders in the community, with our industries that we have
here and the business in the downtown area. I think that would be a key
thing for me to do is reach out to the community. Hopefully we will have
also begun to have some of those early discussions about how is this
development going to go on, what's that donut hole going to look like in
the next two years and how is that going to progress.
Ms. Ricci asked if he had any questions or any final statements.
Mr. Cox said from what I have read it appears that economic development,
infrastructure, human resources are key items there has been quite a bit of
turnover in the last year. He asked is that the case, is that your top three?
Commissioner Morgan asked top three concerns? He said we have three
new Commissioners as well with a recent election with a new Mayor as
well so, changes are going to be made obviously, but I would also put
public safety on top of that as well.
Mayor Paris said when we get a chance to one-on-one speak with us you
are going to get a more firm idea of what are priorities are. He stated, yes
there has been turnover as far some positions, the longevity hasn't been
what it used to be in the City of Longwood and those are definite concerns
and we will go over them a little bit more thoroughly.
Mr. Cox said one of the things that really worked well in Alliance, it takes
time but we were starting to work on it in Bethany was building an
organization where people are engaged in the success. He said I was
talking about this a little bit at the very beginning, where the staff not just
directors, but the whole staff is engaged in helping us achieve our vision
and the way to do that is to communicate with them. I am accustomed to
all sorts of different ways, for example monthly all staff meetings, not
everybody can attend but as many people that can attend. We can do
various reports from various departments' things that are going on in the
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organization and the community. He said that engages them and give
them the opportunity to ask questions, often times a staff member will feel
disengaged and will say that's administration and I heard administration
called the ivory tower, I hear you can't talk to them and all sorts of things.
So I try and dismiss all of the right up front and me going around having
informal, just meetings again I don't step on Department Directors toes
but I give the staff an opportunity to get to know me a little bit and vice
versa. He said the other thing I like to do is form inter -departmental tasks
forces to do specific things that are for the betterment of the organization.
He mentioned they might look at some of the things that I provided, it's
been very positive and very creative we developed an award type system
through one of those inter -departmental groups. He said they award on
things like caught doing good or going the extra mile to help a citizen. He
said on an annual basis those awards were given out and an event. He
said there was hesitation at first, that's kind of touchy feely, but it's real
and people appreciate being appreciated and it's important and I would
like to talk to you more about that. He went on to say the final thing that I
would like to share with you, and I thought somebody might ask me, well
you are not from Florida, what do you know about Florida in coming here.
I would like to share a thought with you on that, I love it here. I have been
in three different states no doubt we will be in a fourth state before it is all
over and each time, again I don't like to talk about myself but I am a quick
study, and I have found it to be very enjoyable to get to know a different
set of laws but what typically overrides the state laws are the local laws.
He said that is where it really counts. You have some state things out there
and you operate within certain perimeters, the rubber meets the road at the
local level and that is where it is important. I think each town even if you
are in Florida each town, each community, will be a different set of rules.
So I think that is a doable thing to be able to ramp up very quickly and I
have been successful and very much enjoyed doing that. The last thing is
on economic development, I have read a lot about the community. I have
enjoyed visiting with the developers, as I said before, you have the support
from the developers and wishing to move the community forward. He
said I like to share there is a lot of risk in local government and like to
think we are risk adverse but typically, most of us are and we tend to be
conservative. I would like to share with you a thought there is more risk in
what we don't do then what we do. So I think being able to avail
ourselves at every opportunity possible really would be helpful to the
community otherwise you would I want to be part of that with you.
Ms. Ricci reminded everybody they will start promptly at 8:30 a.m.
tomorrow. She reviewed the process and stated her and Maggie Ridore
would be moving each person from location to location. She answered
questions from the Commissioner on where they would be located.
3. ADJOURN. Mayor Paris adjourned the meeting at 5:53 p.m.
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