Susan Stanton--what is she doing now?

I was thinking about Susan Stanton as all the Gay Pride is going on in our city over this weekend and wondering what happened to her.

She was a terrific city manager when she was in Lake Worth and hired on a 4/1 vote. I was there the day she was publicly interviewed and Rene Varela and I were sitting in the back row. We both agreed, her interview was the best of all the top candidates.

Her bargaining skills allowed the city to save millions by negotiating lower contracts with the county sheriff's office and county fire-rescue agency. She brought expenses in line with falling tax revenues while pushing through the city utility's first electric rate reduction. Under her watch, the city finally broke ground on renovations to Lake Worth's public beach. We were in the Black under her leadership.

But that was not enough for the commission in power at that time. A few treated her disrespectfully and eventually fired her.

What is she doing now? After a few significant jobs in California, on September 11, 2020, she was ordained to the Priesthood in the Episcopal Church by Bishop Lucinda Ashby in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. [Wikipedia] And being that this is Sunday, it is befitting to mention her new godly occupation.

Update on former City Manager, Susan Stanton

I wanted to give everyone an update on our former city manager, Susan Stanton, as someone had come over to this blog saying that she was the "best city manager ever." He was saying it sarcastically but I always stated it as fact. This is a city manager who turned red to black in this city...we actually received more money than we spent.

Chief Operating Officer
Santa Clara Valley Water District
January 2017 – Present (3 months)

The District is the primary water resources agency for Santa Clara County, California. It is the largest multi-purpose water supply, watershed stewardship, and flood management special district in California. It acts not only as the County's water wholesaler but also as its flood protection agency and is the steward for its streams and creeks, underground aquifers and district-built reservoirs. The District’s FY 2016 Budget is $528 million dollars and employs about 750 FTEs’

The District is the primary water resources agency for nearly two million residents of the County. It encompasses all of the county’s approximately 1,300 square miles and serves the area’s 15 cities (Campbell, Cupertino, Gilroy, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Los Gatos, Milpitas, Monte Sereno, Morgan Hill, Mountain View, Palo Alto, San Jose, Santa Clara, Saratoga, and Sunnyvale) and also serves the unincorporated areas of the County.

The District sells treated water to 12 water retail companies and cities that service communities within the County via their own distribution systems. The District operate and maintain three water treatment plants, an advanced water purification center, ten local reservoirs and dams, a state-of-the-art water quality laboratory, dozens of groundwater recharge basin, five pump stations and 144 miles of pipelines.

Milpitas

I used to live in Santa Clara County (Silicon Valley) in the town of Milpitas right at the foothills. Gorgeous place.

Milpitas

If you notice, Susan has come a long way since she was fired by this Trio in Lake Worth.  Things usually work out for the best and it did for her, going from an operating budget of $30mil in Lake Worth to now one of the people who oversees a budget of $528 mil and is the COO. A Chief Operating Officer is usually responsible for the daily operations of the company.

I spoke with Susan and she said, "We are dealing with some flooding issues in San Jose ...and all that goes with it but this place is great."

King City, California to be booted out of the Insurance Authority?

There are ten cities in California that are members of the Monterey Bay Area Self  Insurance Authority (MBASIA)  in order to stabilize risks costs.  All ten members have equal say in governance matters — that works with Alliant Insurance Services to provide liability insurance for southern Monterey County, among other communities.

In February 2014, six members of the King City police department were arrested plus a federal lawsuit was filed seeking class action status alleging King City officials targeted low-income Latinos in a for profit tow and vehicle impoundment scheme. Source: The Californian

The MBASIA put the matter on the agenda for discussion on the possible termination of King City as a member.  Susan Stanton, city manager of Greenfield made the right decision when she declined making a statement.

Member Agencies

• City of Capitola
• City of Del Rey Oaks
• City of Gonzales
• City of Greenfield
• City of Hollister
• King City
• City of Marina
• Sand City
• City of Scotts Valley
• City of Soledad

Susan Stanton, City Manager of Greenfield, California

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And what better opportunity, now that we talked about the constant crime in Lake Worth that seems to be escalating, than to mention our former city manager of Lake Worth, Susan Stanton.

Now the city manager of Greenfield, California,  Susan Stanton is conducting a national search for its very own police chief. As mentioned in a blog last year, Greenfield and Soledad California have been sharing one police chief since March 2012. She has held steadfast in her claim that Greenfield needed its own police chief.

According to Greenfield's police chief, "Burglaries in Greenfield are down 47 percent, armed robberies by 14 percent and neither city has had a homicide in 10 months, an accomplishment considering the violence flare-ups troubling much of the rest of the county. Assaults are down and we've saved some money, too."  click here.

At the time of her hire, the mayor of Greenfield, California said, "Stanton rose to the top of Greenfield’s applicant pool because of her skills in labor negotiations and her success in attracting new cultural centers to Largo. Communities across the nation are looking to raise revenues, and she did those things. Hiring her is a bold move, but it goes back to her experience and qualifications.”

Not only is crime down, but Stanton negotiated police salaries as she did when she was  city manager of Lake Worth. Stanton said her city's police department employees agreed to a contract with a 1 percent pay increase, compared to a nearly 12 percent increase under Soledad's new contracts. Please note that the PBSO got another raise this year. If any negotiations were taking place, we were not informed about them.

Susan Stanton was furious

"She has no heart, and he has no brains," Stanton said of her children.

Read more...

Did curiosity get the best of ya?

Susan Stanton, City Manager of Greenfield, California

We all know that our former city manager, Susan Stanton, took the city manager's job in Greenfield, California. Although California has beautiful weather similar to Florida's, its landscape is so different. Here are a few photos from Greenfield and areas leading into Greenfield:

Arroyo Seco River near Greenfield


Carmel Valley Road to Greenfield


El Camino Real Street in Greenfield--low rise!


Indian valley


MacKenzie Ranch


Round Valley Lake


Was the world's number one grower of Broccoli

Susan Stanton new City Manager of Greenfield, California

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Former city manager of Lake Worth, Susan Stanton, was just appointed city manager of Greenfield, California tonight. As you know, she was fired in Lake Worth on a political 3 to 2 vote.

Susan Stanton was identified as the most suitable candidate among more than 70 people who applied for the position, interim City Manager Brent Slama said. She will begin serving November 12. According to the city’s agenda, the salary for the position is $145,000 a year which is only $5,000 less than she was making here plus a three bedroom house. The vote was 5/0 unlike Lake Worth's which was 4/1 with Retha Lowe dissenting.

Greenfield is located in the heart of the Salinas Valley, approximately 135 miles south of San Francisco, 95 miles south of San Jose and 60 miles north of Paso Robles. It is located in one of the developing wine grape growing regions of California with over twenty vineyards and wineries within a thirty mile radius, several of which have tasting rooms and offer a wide selection of wines for sale.

Greenfield is the second most populous city in the Salinas Valley and is the fifth most populous city in Monterey County.

Susan Stanton lands Temporary Job

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Sun Sentinel

Fort Lauderdale has hired fired Lake Worth City Manager Susan Stanton as an accountant in its Housing and Community Development Division.

Stanton, formerly Steve Stanton, was previously city manager in Largo, but was fired in 2007 after announcing plans to change genders. Stanton was then hired in 2009 in Lake Worth, where she served for 2 1/2 years before being fired on a 3-2 vote in December.

Her position with Fort Lauderdale is considered “temporary full-time,” city spokesman Chaz Adams said. Her annual salary works out to $58,739.

“She’s going to provide some management assistance to the Housing and Community Development Division,” Adams said. Her first day on the job was Thursday.

City Manager Short List in Texas

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League City in Galveston County Texas has narrowed its search down to 8 candidates but one of them will not be Susan Stanton. If you read between the lines, she was culled simply because she is transgendered.

“Based on the résumés, there is only one that I’m completely comfortable with excluding and that is Stanton, who is also known as Steven B. Stanton and currently known as Susan A. Stanton,” Becker said.

Another Councilman, Mick Phalen, said he was willing to throw Stanton out of the running along with applicants Larry Deetjen, Tom Steele, Isaac Turner and Melissa Byrne Vossmer. Those he was willing to discard either changed jobs too frequently or didn’t have the right background, Phalen said.

Susan Stanton - another one

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Susan Stanton's been hired in Canton, Ga.. It got me excited for a minute.

Gay Victories on Tuesday's Elections

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"LGBT activists are calling Michael Smith’s defeat of Largo, Fla., incumbent city commissioner Mary Gray Black a double sweet victory. Black led an effort to fire transgender former city manager Susan Stanton, who had been city manager for more than 14 years until her 2007 termination after announcing she was transitioning."

Read more about Gays sweeping the elections.

Maxwell gets stomped on by majority commission

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At the end of the last meeting on Tuesday, Commissioner Maxwell asked, "Where is the city manager?" She was not present for the entire meeting. He was told by Commissioner McVoy, that Stanton was participating in a church rectory ceremony, whatever that is. Maxwell then stated that the city manager needs to advise the Commission when she leaves the city and wants to know how does the Commission formally discipline the city manager?

The City Attorney, Elaine Humphreys, replied that she works for the Commission, not one commissioner, and will take direction from the Commission. The rest of the commission informed her that she did not have their permission to even review the process. Next comes some back and forth between Maxwell, McVoy and Margoles, the assistant city manager, regarding the Census Committee and why it was not on the agenda as Maxwell had asked.

Maxwell then asks the question at around 2:37 into the meeting, "Can I ask for a termination (of the city manager) straight up?" Waterman moves quickly to shut him up and takes a vote to adjourn the meeting.

PBSO - It IS about the Money

Guess who paid for these signs

This sign was on the wall at Lake Worth Towers. I have never seen an issue become so political. Lake Worth Towers won't even allow you to campaign in the building but this was special I guess. There is a family connection there with the PBSO. Afflicted with auto thefts over the last several years, The Towers feels safer.

Yesterday, Sheriff Ric Bradshaw was in front of the County Commission that is insisting that he cut his budget even further. Originally he submitted a budget of $482.6 million, up from $469, the same amount of money that he could have lost if Lake Worth had pulled out. It is now down to $464 mil and he says he can't cut any more without taking boots off the street.

Ric Bradshaw needed Lake Worth to remain in his system. It was a "must." Any loss of multi-millions to his budget would have been crippling and would have made his dilemma greater as he negotiates with Palm Beach County. So, for two more years, Lake Worth gets a breather from increases in costs from the Sheriff. Thank you City Manager Stanton for fighting for Lake Worth.

As the Sheriff's budget takes more than one-half of the entire County's budget as public safety does in Lake Worth, look to see more cuts made by Bradshaw otherwise every activist group around will be protesting when the County has to raise taxes.

Today's Lake Worth High Alumni Breakfast

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City Manager, Susan Stanton and Dennis Dorsey

Today's breakfast was really special for me. There were a few people for whom I have not seen in a million years sitting at an adjacent table. I kept seeing this one woman smiling at me and thought she was just being friendly. After the meeting I stopped at the table and the gal was Christine Jorgensen Blumenfeld who now lives in Vero Beach. Back in 7th or perhaps 8th grade she beat me at a baseball throw. I was dead set on winning that tournament but she beat me out by inches. It is still a memorable experience and a learning one at that. No matter how good you think you are, there is always someone better. It was great seeing her again.

Also at that table were Nancy Tuttle Edwards who lives in Boynton Beach and Lois Kramer Richman who is an author and living in College Park. Sue Kunkel Drawdy was there too. Randy Hall, our star at Lake Worth High back in those days, was seated with them. I had a big crush on him in 7th grade.

Tomorrow night is the awards ceremony, 7pm at Lake Worth High School, for Dollars for Scholars. They are awarding $75,000.

Vice Mayor speaks on Susan Stanton's Job Performance

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Tomorrow there will be the Annual Review of our City Manager, Susan Stanton. What the Vice Mayor has to say:

When we interviewed city managers it was obvious that Susan understood our challenges and was uniquely qualified to tackle decades of mis-management.

In my opinion, Susan Stanton has demonstrated her leadership abilities over and over again. Below are some examples:

Susan Stanton's leadership is guiding the city through some of the most financially challenging budgets we've had in decades.

Her reputation as an extremely experienced and competent city manager attracts high quality professionals to our staff positions.

She created a financing and redevelopment plan for the beach property that: 1) no other city manager or commission has been able to move forward 2) did not require a bond issue, tax increase or taxpayer dollars, it will pay for itself.

Susan helped us save the city's $15 million investment in the Reverse Osmosis Plant by resolving the contract dispute with Palm Beach County.

She is the only city manager who has had the courage to stand up for us on the regional sewer issue for which we are owed millions and millions of dollars. Apparently no other city manager had the expertise or motivation to address this huge problem. (It amounts to over $10 million that is owed to Lake Worth)

She has restructured our finance operations to provide us with vital analysis and budget updates that the commission needs in order to make informed decisions. Incredibly, we have never had these tools before Susan Stanton became our city manager.

Suzanne Mulvehill
Vice Mayor

Local Pension Plan revealed by Government Operations Subcommittee

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Because of past local governments failure to collective bargain, they are directly responsible for the economic mess we are in when it comes to union benefits. Here in Lake Worth, city Manager Susan Stanton stands strong in her goal to reduce benefits that would be more in line with our ability to pay. She has 4 other commissioners standing beside her: McVoy, Golden, Mulvehill and Mayor Varela. They have the common sense to understand that we can not continue to head in the same direction that all past spineless commissions have gone--failure to bargain thus giving away the farm.

Pension Boards usually consist of the Mayor, a couple of people in the union and one resident volunteer. They are totally responsible for the Funds and the financial health of those funds but know that any loss will be guaranteed by the local government, unlike a corporate 401k plan where you are totally responsible for choosing where you invest your money and bear the loss and enjoy the gain.

The House Government Operations Subcommitee unveiled its "local pension plan" which simply states that under the new proposal (GVOPS 11-17), local governments would be able to use additional proceeds from insurance premium taxes to pay for unfunded liabilities within their pension plans. They came up with the plan in order to replenish pension plans that have been hammered because of the economy.

Lake Worth has $50 million plus in unfunded benefits that it must pay, somehow, someway. The Unions are scared that with this new plan, local governments might have more control. Let's hope so.

Even the dreaded Florida League of Cities is For GVOPS 11-17.

Cracking down on the Unions

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Union Meeting
All over the country you are reading how state and local governments are in a financial crisis and are cracking down on exorbitant Union pay and pensions. Florida's new governor has proposed that state employees contribute 5% towards their pension plans. Jeff Clemens is calling this a "tax." It was the Unions that gave Jeff a lot of money when he ran for office and some politicians always muddle the facts when money is in the mix.

While the rest of the private sector were not getting any raises over the last several years and have always had to pay towards their family medical and their own retirement with 401(k) programs (when their employer even offers one), government employees have been getting pay raises and everything has been given to them at no cost. It used to be they made less than those in the private sector--not anymore--not even close.

Here in Lake Worth, employees are demonstrating before every city commission meeting chanting that our city manager, Susan Stanton, must go. It seems that they and their union loving friends did not like what Stanton proposed. The link (an article from 2007 for fun) is to show that nothing has changed in 4 years and those hollering are just getting louder. Now we have to incorporate a Code of Conduct with them in mind as we all find it a little offensive that they are demonstrating at all. (Speaking of Code of Conduct, it should have been used at Tuesday's CRA issue at City Hall). You even have to wonder if employee performance is up to snuff. Attitude on the job means a lot towards the finished product. In a non-union setting, these people would have been gone eons ago.

Recommendations have been made to suspend the general employees Defined Benefit Pension Plan and adopting a Defined Contribution Plan with the City of Lake Worth contribution rate at 5%. Pensions, special pay and health-care benefits are the concern for the City. Unions are fighting all changes and recommendations. Layoffs will be inevitable if employees don't share the pain and it is apparent they they have no intention in accepting any cuts. The lay-offs are coming. Stanton mentioned Tuesday night that at least 45 positions will be eliminated. The demonstrations will intensify. Be prepared. Here is one in Wisconsin.

A Union Jerk

The fault in Lake Worth lies with past elected officials who counted on unions to get out the vote and then gave them their perks on the backs of taxpayers. You remember the Firefighters getting out there for Mayor Varela. A former candidate is STILL their favorite mouthpiece, bull horn and all, who wants to be on the Firefighter's Pension Board. Past administrations failed the taxpayer of Lake Worth when they forgot what "negotiations" meant and gave the Unions everything they asked. This blame is put squarely on past city managers and city attorneys.

The present Commission and City Manager, Susan Stanton, are now dealing with the reality of the situation and the mistakes of the past. With a 12 percent unemployment rate in Palm Beach County along with a foreclosure list with no end in sight and a budget shortfall estimated at $4.5 million this year, it will be interesting to see which commissioners will play politics with the taxpayers money. Follow the campaign money for a hint.

Read more: The Miami Herald

Financial Urgency Solutions in Lake Worth

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The city could begin laying off employees and cutting hours as early as March to cut spending, City Manager Susan Stanton said this week .

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Reform is Coming

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The voters spoke in November. What did they say? Cut the spending and cut taxes. And just like our City Manager who says it is imperative that we make changes to Union benefits and how we do business, Governor Rick Scott intends to do the very same thing with State employees' benefits.

"Scott believes Florida's free retirement program is 'unfair to taxpayers' working in the private sector. Florida is the last State not to require employees to contribute to their own pension, while some States offer free retirement to only a limited class of workers."

As in Lake Worth, the majority of cities across the State are strained because of Union pension costs. Many are spending more on retirement benefits than on payroll such as Pensacola, Pembroke Pines, Jacksonville and St. Petersburg.

Lake Worth's Pension contribution in 2010:

General Employees: 29.4%
Police: 20.92%
Firefighters: 152.13%

As our City Manager Susan Stanton says, "the current pension benefits promised by the City are unsustainable given the City's current and projected FY 2011 revenue resources." Defined benefit plans must end and employees must contribute to their expensive health plan.

At the State level "Reform is coming," said Sen. Jeremy Ring, D-Margate, chairman of the Senate Governmental Oversight and Accountability Committee. On a local level, we need to support our City Manager's goal to implement a Defined Contribution Plan, a plan supported by Bill Thrasher of the Finance Advisory Board, and reduce Union benefits.

The Union's response?--a contract is a contract.

New assistant to Susan Stanton

I have been seeing this name occasionally: Kathleen S. Margoles. The PB Post announced her employment in December. It used to be that we had an Assistant City Manager. Not so now. Ms. Margoles has the title of Assistant to the City Manager which is more like an executive assistant than someone who actually can lead the city when the City Manager is incapacitated or unavailable. An executive assistant forms the epicenter of the various managerial works that are under the direction of the City Manager.

The City is paying Ms. Margoles $18.5 thousand more a year than it paid Rachel Smithson as Assistant to the City Manager. The Post in a previous article said that Smithson was paid $50 K a year.

Now that Diane Clark is gone as Human Resource Director, Ms. Margoles is requesting that applicants for that job send her their requirements.

The starting salary is expected to be in the range of $74,250-116,970. Fringe benefits are competitive with the local market.

Mr. DeWoody, former Chair of the Chamber of Commerce Palm Beaches, was sitting next to Ms. Margoles at the last city commission meeting, and is the broker from Compass Realty who will be the exclusive broker at our Casino and who said that "I don't have to cooperate with other brokers." We have to wonder if he was introduced to the CM by Ms. Margoles as no one knew of him.