Thank You City of Sarasota - A handful of people have asked me when I was going to post again here, and it seems like a good time to do just that, perhaps for the last time. As has been reported, I have accepted a position as the very first County Administrator for Blaine County, Idaho. Blaine County is very large in land area at more than 2600 square miles and contains six cities and towns, the largest of which is the county seat of Hailey (interestingly the birthplace of Ezra Pound) a thriving mountain town that I'm told is somewhere between 8 and 10,000 people, though the 2000 census calls it at 6200. Blaine County also includes something like a million acres of Sawtooth National Recreation Area with amazingly easy access to alpine trails, rivers and lakes, The Sun Valley/Ketchum resort area, and the towns of Bellevue, Carey, and Picabo amidst some beautiful agricultural lands in the southern half of the county. In many ways Blaine County is similar to Collier County, Florida, particularly as it was back in the early 80's when I first lived there, with a large concentration of wealth in one area, lots of agricultural lands, and a large percentage of federal or state wilderness area within it's 2000 square miles.

The people I've met in Blaine County are a very intelligent, involved and progressive group (sound familiar to anyone?) They are committed to protecting what is special about their precious Wood River Valley as it develops, and have taken many steps to do just that, including regulating development on their ridgelines, something that some other mountain areas have been unable to do. (The best comparison I can think of is that would be like a Florida community regulating waterfront development to keep the waterfront for everyone - do you think that would be easy?) They have a very active "Citizens for Smart Growth" organization that would be very interesting for folks in Sarasota to look at. Roger Drouin over at the Sarasota Observer tells me I have to brush up on my Hemingway, as Ketchum was one of his major haunts, and where he is buried. (Hemingway, not Roger.) There is also a local theater scene I'm told grew partly from actor Bruce Willis' investment in the community some years ago, and a very healthy arts community overall, one of the side benefits I'm sure of the Sun Valley resort economy.

The most important part of this post however is the "Thank You," which goes out most particularly to the employees of the City of Sarasota, but also to the City Commissioners who hired and supported me and to the residents of Sarasota. As I entered this phase of transition I knew that it was an opportunity to find just exactly the right thing to do with this next chapter of my life, which as exciting as that prospect is, it is equally intimidating. Imagine you're a ten-year-old in a candy store and you're told you can have any box of candy you want, but you can only have one - you can look and smell but you cannot taste before you choose. Imagine the pressure... what if that delicious looking chocolate-covered gooey delight turns out to have a LICORICE center - and there you are with the whole box. See, that's pressure!

But back to the thank-you. Thanks to the great work that was done by the employees of the City of Sarasota and many others over the past six years, and even prior to that, and the vision of the City Commission that adopted the Downtown Master Plan 2020, doors were open to me in places far removed from Sarasota, as well as elsewhere here in Florida. Because of the fruits of the labors of those people, and the recognition by others of the quality of what we had done together, I had the opportunity to decide for myself what I really wanted to do next in my career and in my life. Ultimately the life adventure won out over the competing career ambitions of more and bigger, and that adventure awaits (though I confess at this point the adventure seems alternatively like the start of a great alpine climb or stepping off a cliff.) So to you all, a sincere thank-you for providing me with that opportunity. And to anyone who skis, hikes, fly-fishes, bikes, or just likes to look out the window at a few mountains, rivers and valleys, remember that I owe you, and I won't be hard to find. There is an airport right in Hailey (Sun Valley), also one in Boise which is a spectacular two hour drive or Twin Falls which is an hour away.

I've also been asked if I will be keeping up the blog, and the answer to that is "yes and no". I can't very well keep writing as "Sarasota City Manager", but since it has been such a good tool for me I have started another, and in a stroke of creative genius am calling it "Blaine County Administrator," and it looks like this: http://www.bcadmin.blogspot.com There should be a post up there by the end of today.

My final thanks is to the loyal readers and supporters of this blog, which started as an experiment but became a very valuable tool for me in trying to do my job in the best way I could. All the best for you and the City of Sarasota, and I'll see you in cyberspace. Or in Idaho!

Balance Sheet - One of the fundamental obligations of public administrators is to do the very best we can to leave the organizations and the communities we serve in better condition than they were when we arrive. That is certainly not a knock on our predecessors; every day is an opportunity to do things better, and every improvement builds on the work that's already been done by others. As I move on to the next opportunity, I'm compelled to ask the question of whether I have met that obligation to the City of Sarasota. In the spirit of that question I make some observations:

The city itself is in excellent financial condition, and has in fact achieved the highest general obligation bond rating in its history. Thanks largely to exceptional growth in valuations the City Commission was able this year to improve some service levels without increasing millage rates, though the challenges to non-homestead property owners have also increased as their share of the overall tax burden continues to grow. Relations with our home county are extremely good.

We have adopted a citywide Continuity of Operations Plan that takes a big step beyond our traditional pre-disaster planning to guarantee the governments ability to function in the post disaster phase. Things like Neighborhood Points of Distribution (NPODS) are now a part of the vocabulary. Also on the public safety side, in the last five years we have seen a significant decrease (12%) in felony index crime rates in the city.

Downtown, Urban Planner and New Urbanist guru Andres Duany reported to us last week that our redevelopment work in the five years since the Downtown Master Plan was adopted has been "exceptionally well administered", and that we had achieved a rare combination of speed and quality with many of our downtown improvements. The adoption of those codes and zoning districts alone was a monumental step forward for the city. And although it's been said many times, it bears repeating - the long-sought downtown grocery finally materialized in the form of the Whole Foods Market.

Uptown, I also heard last week from the President of the local chapter of the NAACP, who indicated he was pleased with the progress that has been made in improving the city's interface with the Newtown Community with the opening of the Newtown Redevelopment Office and a lot of work by members of the SPD force.

On a broader scale the whole concept of Asset Based Community Development has been introduced and is at this point only very narrowly understood, but offers great promise for mining the resources of out citizens to address the issues of our neighborhoods.

Oranizationally, thanks to a lot of very high quality work by our Human Resources Department we have for our first fully developed Career Path Program for city employees, an updated and competitive salary administration system and somewhat stabilized health care benefit, a structured "Tool Kit" training series for city supervisors, and an in-house wellness nurse. We are well on the way to implementing a comprehensive building permit and review system that will serve as the platform fo much broader standardization and automation opportunities. In our Public Works Department we are also well underway with the process of seeking accreditation from the American Public Works Association, and in other departments across the city improvements in certification and training have been achieved.

We have also made a concerted effort internally to study and define what really makes a team like ours work, and have made great progresss against the dreaded "silo" way of thinking.

There have surely been adventures along the way - I doubt it's possible to move an organization and a city through as much change as we've seen in a short time without significant inconvenience. As they say, one can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs. There have been many lessons learned, and in every case better systems developed for the future. I will also be the first to say that not every citizen of Sarasota is happy with every decision or occurence. It is a very difficult exercise to measure the success of something like a city based on the level of one person's individual happiness on a given day, or in a given year, as the life and evolution of a city take a long, slow path. I know there have been days downtown when nobody was happy in certain areas, and that means construction workers, neighbors, business owners, city staff and anyone else in the area. On balance however the input I have received tells me that Sarasota has improved considerably. Is that a unanimous opinion? Of course it will never be, but just yesterday I gave a downtown tour to 25 people from the City of Largo and I can fairly report that they were amazed by our improvement.

The answer to the original question is of course quite subjective. For me, I can look at Sarasota 2007 versus Sarasota 2001, both citywide and organizationally and say yes, we have come a long way on both fronts.

Finally, on a personal note I've had some great experiences sitting in the City Manager's office. I've had the honor of representing to the public some incredibly talented and dedicated people, the employees of the City of Sarasota, have met and enjoyed relationships with dozens more great people who regularly do business with city government, and have enjoyed visiting nearly all of our diverse neighborhoods.

As for that book I have in mind writing in my retirement, in the last year alone I've also been screamed at, kicked in the shins, lied to, and have met a number of characters even Carl Hiassen would appreciate. I'll not say more at this point lest the City of Sarasota come after me some day for royalties!

Annual Citizen's Survey - One of the weeklies filed a story this week regarding the City Commission's discussion of our annual citzen's survey. I would say the story was biased to make the city look bad, but that would be an insult to bias. I encourage anyone that's interested to go to the city's website and view the actual discussion for yourself using the video streaming feature - the link is right there on the home page, sarasotagov.com. What actually happened was a fairly long discussion of the survey results, what one can and cannot conclude from them, what value they have, and how sometimes the results on certain items can be skewed by events that may or may not be city related. At no point did anyone belittle the citizens of Sarasota as the Pelican reported. The discussion was about how to get the most meaning from the results possible. In some cases, it was theorized that certain results (that didn't square with what we intuitively believed what people might say) could mean that we hadn't informed our citizenry well enough. If that were true, that is something we can fix, but it's a far cry from trying to "PR" our way out of a negative response, as was also stated. Frankly I found the report of the discussion more than a little slanted, probably to the point of irresponsible. But don't take my word for it, watch for yourself and draw your own conclusion.

Tech Advice Requested! Given some of the limitations of the blog format, I'd like to make this a better tool for communication. For example, I would like for readers to be able to start a thread or ask me a question without having to go off-topic or wait for me to write about it first. So to those of you who are more net-savvy than I am (probably nearly everyone) what are your suggestions for migrating the format?

Property Tax/Save Our Homes Issue - I am curious about the general perception people have about something. In the recent elction there was a lot of conversation about expanding "Save Our Homes" protections, and/or increasing the Homestead Exemption. There is also a great deal of concern over rising taxes on rental and commercial properties, particularly small businesses, but in reality all business. There is a direct link between increasing homestead protections and shifting more and more tax burden onto rentals, commercial property, and second homeowners, who are also an important part of this economy. I suppose my question is this - do you think people in general see these relationships, or do they compartmentalize them and see only the one that helps their immediate financial circumstance?

John Wilkes Termination - Rather write an original post, I am going to post here the statement I read to the press yesterday afternoon, November 2, as follows:

City Manager’s Statement Regarding the Employment of Mr. John Wilkes

November 2, 2006


Effective at the end of business tomorrow, November 3, the employment contract between the City of Sarasota and John Wilkes, Executive Director of the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, will be terminated. As you are no doubt aware, recent internal audits, conducted independently from the operation of the City Manager’s Agency, detailed a number of discrepancies in reporting and misuses of resources by Mr. Wilkes on such things as vehicle mileage records, outside employment, and travel and entertainment expense reimbursements. While some have argued that each of these things should be considered “minor”, in their sum total they represent a consistent pattern of disregard for the most fundamental responsibility of a public official, which is the proper stewardship of the public assets with which we are entrusted.

Mr. Wilkes’ contribution to the Van Wezel and its successes is noted and much appreciated by the Sarasota community. The many supporters who have spoken out in support of Mr. Wilkes in recent weeks have given clear voice to that appreciation. Personally, I wish Mr. Wilkes well as he moves on to the next chapter in his career. There is no level of past success, however, that relieves the individual from the simple standards of accountability that come with the role of public servant.

Beginning Monday November 6 Mr. John Wesley White, former Sarasota County Administrator, will assume the role of Acting Executive Director of the Van Wezel, to serve until a search process is completed for a permanent Executive Director. Mr. White, who is present today for this conference, is a nationally known and respected public administrator, and also a Senior Fellow of the International City/County Management Association. His presence will bring stability and leadership to the transition process.

In closing, I want to emphasize one point in particular. Much has been both written and said recently that the issues that have led to today’s action are a function of the inappropriate application of artificially strict bureaucratic rules and regulations to an entity that requires a different type of oversight to operate. Let me be perfectly clear on this point: The poor judgements and inattentive follow-up that ultimately led to today’s action were in no instance born of some special necessity of the Hall as a creative organization, and the record is clear in that regard.

End of statement.

I will only add for the benefit of those who have chosen to personalize these issues that there is no credible motive for anyone in my administration or at City Hall in general to seek to damage the Van Wezel, or to treat Mr. Wilkes unfairly. Such a suggestion is understandable in the heat of the moment, but patently untrue, and further completely unsupported by any evidence whatsoever.

Livable Wages - Something that has received disappointingly little coverage in the local press is a conversation that the City Commission had over the course of the summer on the question of what constitutes a living wage in the City of Sarasota. That issue ties directly to the larger discussions taking place regarding affordable housing, but is much less often being talked about. In addition to all of the questions raised about how to bring housing prices down, there is little discussion about bringing wages up. I have heard reference made more than once lately to "people who earn $10 an hour" and how difficult it is for them to live - something that is hard to dispute.

Without getting into the genisis of the number (though that information is available), I wanted to report here that the City Commission took a stand on the subject with the adoption of their fiscal year 2006-2007 budget, which took effect on October 1. What they said was that $10 an hour is not enough - for anyone. They have said that no full-time city employee will be asked to work for less than $26,750 a year, or approximately $12.86 an hour. Of course nobody is suggesting that anyone can live comfortably at that salary within the city limits, particularly a one-earner family. But it is a starting point, and is a philosophical statement by the commission that speaks volumes.

Some will say it's easier for the city, which operates as a monopoly, apart from the competitive pressures of the private sector. But what about places like Whole Foods or Starbucks, where somewhat higher prices are willingly paid, which then channels into better benefits for those employees.

I don't have the answers, and realize that I've only made simplistic points. That's where you come in - where do you believe the employers fit into this conversation about housing, living wages, and benefits like health insurance? If you're an employer, please weigh in with your perspective.

(Note: Thank you to the folks at "Creative Loafing" for recognizing this blog and the people who use it!)