City Manager Susan Stanton Accomplishments - Repairing the Potholes and Beyond

Tonight at 6pm, our city manager's job performance will be reviewed by the City Commission.

This is the first time, as far as I am aware, that we have had a formal review such as this of a city manager. Personally, I think it ridiculous to have such a review of someone at this level of employment and I have stated the reasons previously. Primarily I can't understand how a Commission (The Board of Directors) does not understand what our City Manager (the CEO) has done for the past 11+ months. What should be about substance and not style will be nothing more than a complaint fest for some Commissioners provoked by some of their backers in a Public Forum. It is my prediction that when the process is completed tonight, Ms. Stanton will be offered a Contract.

There are always mistakes along the way when you are incorporating change--trusting staff too much that was not accustomed to taking direction or reporting back the facts; listening to certain vocal citizens too much or others not enough; believing the political hype. Hinting for a major change to our beach (aquatic park) after a plan has already been approved by the County and the Commission, is one that comes to mind. The scope of this "dream" has not been explained. There are a few others. Perhaps these are nothing more than ideas for revenue or projects for future consideration in a city with NO money. Pushing personal agendas is not the role of a city manager.

Let's fix the potholes in our streets and maintain our assets already in place before we take on any new capital projects or play Powerball.

Ms. Stanton arrived one week early for her job. She was hired to stop the bleeding: find solutions, implement a plan and correct the problem-- not simply putting on a Band-Aid as we had done in the past. She immediately settled into the community. Ms. Stanton said to me, "I love my job and I love Lake Worth." Have we ever had a city manager who ever declared this? Have we ever had a city manager that worked 12 to 14 hour days? She came into the biggest mess ever and has achieved plenty with plenty more to do.

These are the accomplishments of Ms. Stanton--what she has done and what she continues to do. She, as far as I know, has always performed her job and has fulfilled all requests of the Commission and continues to bring others to conclusions. She is a "perfect fit" for Lake Worth and Lake Worth for her.

Being strategic when spending money – thus saving money. She’s very cognizant, creative and strategic in spending and saving money

• Hired Taurinski to get a structural engineering report of the casino building for 6K BEFORE we went forward with spending 450K for shoring up the building.
  

• Hired a grants writer so we wouldn’t lose grants that we already received and to generate additional dollars for the city in difficult budget times. Didn’t rehire the outsourced grants firm that had no accountability.

• Recommended hiring a new auditing firm – thus saving the money more than 100K in the cost differential with the previous auditing firm. The Audit still begins was too late. We should have an Audit in March or April, not the last day by law.
  

• Hired someone who reviewed our insurance policies – found a duplicate policy – savings to city 60K annually.
  

• Had website redesigned without spending the 50K that was budgeted.
  

• Hired an auditor due to conflicts with the Bryant Park seawall project.

Restructured operations to build a more efficient city government

• Deleted positions early on that were no longer needed or that could not be funded.
  

• Let go of a number of top level employees to build a more effective level of upper management. (Laura, Rachel, John Farinelli, for example).
  

• Restructured the code department and moved valuable employees into a new department.
  

• Brought on top professionals and new employees with a fair and equitable salary.
  

• Let contracts end that were not in the best interest of the city. (Farinelli was making nearly twice the salary of a building official and was able to be paid in this way because he was under a contract)
  

• Creating a more accountable staff and changing the philosophy of “we do it this way, because that’s the way it’s always been done.” i.e. decisions being made in the field that should be brought to the Commission. Bryant Park fell through the cracks as did the lack of maintenance of the Pump House at our Pool. This was totally hidden by those in charge.
  

Creating openness and transparency in government and more citizen involvement

• Weekly manager’s reports.
  

• Recommended the financial advisory board.

• Demanding more workshops and more commission meetings

Brought her expertise in helping to resolve discrepancies of previous commissions/promises and cleaning up our past of poor management

• Compass building issues.
  

• Fire department MOU that was not approved by the Commission.
  

• Facilitated rescinding the ordinance for the Sunset property.
  

• Helped facilitate disputes in the city’s contract with the Chamber of Commerce.
  

• Saving the casino building – discrepancy over whether the building can be saved or not is resolved.
  

• Revolved the uncertainty about the city being able to get the $5 million from the County – project is preparing to move forward.
  

• Created a consistent 10% retirement benefit rather than differing benefit packages for different management personnel and costing the city more than necessary.
  

• Resolved conflict of staff preferences in this regard.

• Implemented a Customer Service seminar that resulted in friendly and more helpful staff.

Leverages the city’s assets and position to resolve conflict and bring a good solution to the city

• Mediation of the water contract and working through this to create the solution the city wanted (building the RO plant) without the extreme penalty that the County was going to demand.
  

• Got the money for the billboards with strong follow through after two years of being jerked around.
  

• Working through the sewer issues of cities that have not paid us (in process).
  

• Working through the dispute over who is to pay the 60K/month for the gas line since FMPA stopped paying.