Evaluation of Susan Stanton

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Susan Stanton has been a city manager for 18 years now. We have never hired a manager who has been in the “business” for so many years. She is highly qualified. She came to Lake Worth, a unique city with unique problems. She came to fill the shoes of bad management and has tried to literally glue the broken pieces together. Change had to be made. Hard decisions as well as sometimes controversial ones were put in front of her. That is why we hired her…to glue this city back together as one whole piece with departments working as teams.

In the beginning, Susan had a learning curve as this City is one of a kind with its diverse population and political factions that are heavily involved in the future of Lake Worth. If Susan has had any fault, it was in not knowing who to trust. Those who wanted her to fail because of politics are the ones who have been communicating with her the most. Some of the e-mails and face “d tats” were not pleasant from the Dirty Dozen. Susan, sensitive to criticism, worried about these confrontations.

She allowed her upper management to do their jobs and trusted them to provide her with the correct information.. Even when she asked them to report to her, she was given grief about doing a written report and some revolted even going so far as to get some of the political faction behind their efforts. Critical information was kept from her at times. The Utility is still a mystery.

What she has done extremely well and what is the sign of a good manager, is to hire new highly qualified people. Mike Bergman and Michael Moskowitz are two that come to mind. She retained Mike McManaman someone who is extremely efficient and knowledgeable.. Although she re-organized the Code Department, she kept our code officers and they now are doing well in the new energy audit department. The citizens appreciate this service and are giving glowing reports on these employees such as Joel Rutsky. Her new administrative assistant, Mary, is tops and we all love Rachael with one of her duties being the Lake Worth Casino restoration.

I can see the necessity of performance reviews. Although reviewing someone at this level, the CEO of our City, is somewhat embarrassing. Personally I do not think it necessary for a City Manager to be reviewed in this manner as it should be an ongoing process throughout the entire year. Scott Maxwell presented his own performance review matrix that covers behavior traits. Why? The Performance Review Form is unfair in many areas with questions unbefitting for our city manager. If a Commissioner wants someone to improve or change a habit, why isn’t he asking the city manager all year long to do that very thing?

As an objective of performance reviews is to compare one person to another at the same job level--who do we compare her to? Bob Baldwin in Dania? Susan Stanton is paid $150,000 a year. Bob Baldwin was paid $170,000 when he was city manager in Lake Worth, a guy who never showed up for work and one of a few for whom I hold responsible for the state of our City today. Doesn’t Susan deserve better? I propose a two or three year contract with a raise. Not only is she underpaid in this job but Lake Worth has one extra component most cities do not have--a Utility department. For a city of this size, her pay is under the scale. She informs the Commission on everything she knows that is going on in this City working unbelievable hours to turn it all around.

It takes a strong person to get a team in shape. It is not done with the “pretty pleases.” It is achieved, however, by strong convictions and having the experience to know what to do to reach the goals. I feel that we are headed in the right direction with the plans in place. Let’s tell Susan we think so too.