##VIDEO ID:-wL6PzdKkfU## and um today's meeting is a commission special meeting it's our city manager interview meeting the date is January 11th 2025 Melanie would you do a roll call for us please commer Deo pres commissioner pres commissioner Mo commissioner Burton here HR manager Sheila Walker here my name director Sten cin here CR assistant city manager Christina Marine here remers I here thank you thank you so we are called together and I'm going to ask commissioner Mo you please [Music] indication dear heavenly father we want to thank you once again for waking us up this morning to a brand new day we never we ask that you give us guidance and understanding that we be able to do that blessed will we ask that you look over everyone that's here today help us to stay in order and do those things that are pleasing in your sight we'll forever praise you and give you all the honor in Jesus name we pray anded Al IED Al of the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you everyone for coming out on this early hour uh this just shows that we can hold meetings at 8:30 in the morning and still have an audience we'll do a little bit of H housekeeping first um George and Jim first I just want to thank you for your guidance for um working us through this process I believe we have four um very qualified applicants um and um it's just been it's it thank you I just can't thank you enough on behalf of of myself and the commission and the city for helping us through this process and I know that you've got some um we've got some discussion that um Commissioners as we go forward uh this was George's recommendation I know there was some concern that we weren't going to have that kind of oneon-one with them possibly but then this was also going to allow allows everyone a little bit more ease so we did set the table up if the Commissioners um would like we can all go down there and sit with them more in a more personable setting um I'm going to leave that up to the commission I have a comment and suggestion um and also thank you very much to George and Jim you have really brought us to a great point and is my mic on okay I don't feel like I said last night or night before last I don't feel very close to it um I to me this seems a little small this is the one interview we have um I am set up to take notes since we have very compressed time schedule um I understand we want to make things comfortable for the applicant but we also want to be miked and everybody else could hear if the City attorney is not going to be present um could we not invite the applicant to sit on the end and then we would have a nice round table format um and we could all have our work space one concern I have is this is so close the applicant could see us taking notes and that's F and that's fine that was we set it up either way that was uh George's recommendation last night said we have it available if that's what they want so it's the pleasure of the commission quite honestly so it's what the commission um I'm f with having the applicant sit there um it probably makes it a little easier since we are live um and want it recorded So it would make it a little easier um it was just it was an option and I knew this morning that we would have some discussion over it and we could determine that this morning so we just wanted to be prepared and um not have to pull it all together L it so Commissioners how do you feel about this you fun with me and the mics are important so they can hear okay then we'll then if everybody then we'll decide that if we have anything else commissioner de before we turn it over to George and Jim um just wrote down a couple of notes and as you know just I've been here now for six years and we've done a couple of city manager interviews over the process um because we have such a short time frame I'm just throwing this out for us to consider um maybe when we we're we're going to rotate and get to each asked questions um it might be more fair and work better if we ask our question and get the answer and then we don't follow up until it's our turn again because that could eat up a lot of time okay you are very concerned about the time um we've made it very clear to the applicants that time um they that we're going to take as much time as we need and so commissioners I want you all you've said this multiple times now but I want everybody to know as the commissioner um that we'll take as much time as we feel we need some might just take 30 minutes some might take an hour it just depends as we go through my recommendation is that and um that we go through and just like we've done kind of in the past one person asked a question the next commissioner ask a question and and we keep it flowing that way so that um we don't engage them personally that way that was what I was really talking about that we just as you said keep it flowing yes um because certainly they're interesting people and there's a tendency to want to and I'm I'm the one who would do that so yes I'm want to talk um and then are we U before we get started are we going to have a report on the background checks um Sheila I was going to ask Sheila to um Sheila do you want to come forward and and um the police we submitted all of the we submitted the information to the sheriff department um they run the background check and what they do they just confirm if it's good or if they found something as far as a record they do not send us a report they do not share that with us um and how this background check said far how you've received all of them back correct yes ma'am we have okay we reive U all four of them back um three all four came back good um there was one that they kind of looked up and said that um if we wanted to do a f background check we can and you have requested that I did request that okay and um I we have not received that back the um the city that we request that from um to get a public record request we would have to have a release Su by that person that we want to do that background check and as well the uh the person that P those background check she was out of the office until the 14th and so we still would be delay on getting that report back okay okay um may we know who that person is who is was recommended to have the further background check um George J yes yeah we need to we need to we need to know and I um go ahead and I did a little further research also um and Andrew Wilson is that wison um seems as if there was at some point back in 22 there was um just a um an issue that that he had possibly with some um alcohol and um and but that was the only thing that was the only thing and it was not my understanding it was not driving it was just yes and so that that did come that hadn't come back but that was something that did that did arise um and we don't know the specifics until Sheila gets that back and of course they can't release that to corre to us correct so that's outstanding and that sign and we would make sure yeah make sure that um that if he is the one that's offered that that that um we have to make sure that yes it comes back and it's acceptable um I was told it was not something that somebody would probably put at hiring for might have one time [Music] but that's what that's what we have the other ones did come back clean yes ma'am they all came back clean thank you questions um no I do not I'm good okay um George and Jim are going to speak to us so I'm G to hold my question they may address what okay okay and again like I said I know that that you have you have shared your concern about the time frame it was just let's get it on a schedule um you know in this way we didn't have an hour block and then we're sitting there because you know twiddling our thumbs so but they they have been very um um they have been instructed that they might have to sit there for a while we have donuts and um coffee and orange juice for them in the Next Room I know just a moment ago we had all three so they were here to be able to see all the action out there um that was going on a little didn't check everyone's cup when they came through right now my SM is not my is not right anyway I'm gonna turn this over to um Georg and JY the George and JY show and kind of if you would just give us kind of a lay of the land what's your what's your um your direction for us and well just I just for everybody's got to copy the questions everybody's got to copy the qualifications which is what we're looking for so as you go as as you take a look at each candidate you might want to just check or write yourself little bullet points on you know whether whether you believe that they can leave this leave this city forward and everyone I understand also has a copy of the rumes my suggestion is if before you call somebody in you just take a couple minutes to review the resume and then uh they'll come in uh that'll answer your questions I think Mr there a good option to have him sit up there I think that's much better down here it's more like a senate hearing then process and so I think that has much more comfor for the candidate so thank you for that and um just key part of this rememberers at the very end you're going to give them 15 minutes to ask questions about the city you should be able to learn a lot about them from the questions they ask or don't ask about the city so that that that's really it Jim out here to maybe help if needed to keep the keep the candidates entertained or at least you know go out there through time time check if you don't mind I may sit at that table from time to time just so I can take better notes from there and um that's about it I I really don't have much I think we're ready to go let's hope we can find somebody who can who who enjoy the city want to stay here and and do a good job and I think that's the key that they want to stay here thank you yesterday um I will say those Commissioners and I do apologize it was very short notice um but I I ended up did with a tour um and it kind of I was planning on being here to to do the setup for the reception and then kind of at the last minute decided that I probably would go on it Christina Marie was on it and Michael brart was also on the tour um thanking um Pastor sha he took everybody um in the church bus did he drive oh that's cool yeah it was it was actually it was actually um a cool thing and something that we're probably going to start up um very quickly I feel that it could be a real money money earner for this city um and so all of us are going to take terms being tour guys we get us all our little jackets in our but it was but with that said um I feel like and and George and Jim were also on that tour um I feel like they got a very good overview of of the the city we took them to the Wastewater plants showed them that we took them to the water towers we took them to the cemetery um we took them out to where the new school is being built so I'm just letting you know that as you go through these questions with them that they um they saw the Miller Middle School um gave them a good understanding about that closing moving to the high school and um kind of the history we took bought um mly Morris's house the hover house showed them that showed them Lake Street showed them um you know our parks and it was a very um it was um oh show them the peacocks and they actually gave us a show just like our Sheriff's Department just gave us a show the peacock sto the sto the van and two of our really pretty ones just pranced across the um the street um as Pastor SCH said I'm glad they're on your side and not my side um they live on your side and not my side so it was I felt like it was a good they also had an opportunity to meet all of our directors yesterday afternoon and Captain us um and except for Keith uh Keith had to go home ill yesterday afternoon and so that kind of everything kind of put a wrench and so that's when I kind of jumped in but um but it was um they have they do have a pretty good overview of of of the city so just so everybody knows that but I just wanted to expose that that that kind of came up last minute um and with that I guess um are we ready yes ma'am I just want to mention um when we were triaging the resumes of the prior meeting I made a little grid okay and I didn't know if anybody wants one that would be that would be good I'll just we talked about that last night with um George a little bit and not doing the grading system but just kind of and I have I have more for one my copy or whatever is the day goes on I have so that was okay so I think if everybody's good with the um process we'll go through um we do have our HR Sheila is here and so Sheila um if you do and George and Jim um please keep us in check you know everyone please remember there are certain questions that um that we you we cannot ask everybody keep that keep that in check and I ask that you keep us in check as well with that are we ready to call in Mr Brown [Music] anybody else have anything else to say before we do that everybody good and here we go oh I do want to say this um I want to thank Melanie and Karen they stepped in yesterday and they did a fabulous job thank you very much Melanie and thank you you've done an outstanding job and me kind of run into the fire and um and yesterday you really were and it was a beautiful spread last night and um and we've got plenty for lunch today anybody concerned we' got plenty for lunch today but it really was and so thank you yall did just a beautiful job last night made us proud [Music] [Music] yes good morning Mr Brown good morning I hope last night went you found your hotel and everything was I survived yes you survived I'm gonna ask you before we um before we begin with any of our questions um I know you did it last night um but I'm going to ask you again for your like three minute elevator speech again for anybody that was not there um and just kind of a little bit tell us a little about you um good morning everybody uh my name is Carl Brown uh grew up in uh fway area of DC went to high school there then cut out to LA for college ended up staying out there to push an acting career for uh till 2011 decided to um change horses at that point and when I got my masters in public administration in East Tennessee Johnson City Tennessee did an internship there for the city manager mainly using argis to identify um basically we're missing out property taxes and also work with the budget so that was my getting with my Public Finance indoctrination my Mindy was in urban planning so I thought I was going to be a planner um and instead I got hired by um state of New Mexico Department of Homeland Security to do grants and budget and finance for them and but really want to be in Florida so City of Tampa took me on as the police and fire department um budget grants CIP analysis so I helped them with all their money resolutions um they needed vehicles um a tracking it's um move the money around for them got real close with my police fire chief so that's kind of most uh part of my job that I really like doing was the customer service with my departments went on to Alexandri Virginia as a financial reporting analyst uh was dealing more with like um bonds and non- general fund where s was really just well that's not I was General a lot some C Alexandria I was um bonds CIP special Revenue grants all all sorts of non stuff really wanted to get back to Florida so Jacksonville Transportation Authority um gamble on me and I think it's worked out I work my way up to cap programing and grants manager and um have now been loading and dealing with um uh basically their grants so their super grants which is capital programming so we do any we going out to like 2029 so we're getting like right now me and the uh exas te are pulling in Sol Solutions um from the different project managers so we got a bunch of different department I don't know like eight so I need to work with all the directors on that to see what projects they can do it's like a software implementation it might going to write that into the gr for whatever 3 million for this year next year what is what's realistic um and that's another thing I think we're doing a better job of is bringing together because a lot of times people weren't talking so bringing the the directors and the project managers together to um coordinate better with us more communication to see what we can get them and what's realistic so it's not sitting out there or we have to go back to FTA and say we're not to use this year we got to push it back so not to get sorry into the nitty Whitty but um that's literally like what I'm doing right now okay thank you thank you and Commissioners I just want to remind you that any notes you take and anything that you write down is subject to public um it is public record so just be aware of that as you're taking your notes um I'm going to go ahead if it's okay we're going to start our questions I'll start down on this with commissioner great good morning brown um have you had the opportunity um to review our city ch Charter and ordinances at all the charter and ordinances no I took obviously look at what was sent to me the budget the um board chart and the um strategic plan going forward with the next few phases okay um that that's fine we can go on to the next yeah um good morning how are you doing well thanks for thanks for being here um why why are you interested in becoming a city manager city manager city um I think it began in 2013 with uh 6 months I was working with the city manager assistant city manager bu director and um planning director at the city of Johnson City during the internship and that's where I realized I I don't know if I really want to be a planner it's great but City management really like when I'm sitting with the budget meetings with all the Departments with the city manager and you just see all the B for like this really seems more like where you can make a difference and um I don't want to say more exciting but more respons responsibility more challenges um so that kind of started and so ever since then that's really where the end goal was to be so no I don't have any previous city manager experience but the goal was always to get that position and then I found this and it was in Florida because I'm not Le Florida so anytime the city manager decision pops up in Florida like I interviewed for the city manager I think city of madira beach three years ago so I my hat in the ring [Music] and um how do you do I'm going to go with this because this is important as you know because you have five in this community you have five sometimes you have more sometimes you have less but um how do you view the relationship between the city manager and your city commission I'm as the city manager role as I receive it is very much a public servant that's accountable to all the council members when I dealt with council members or sometimes often times very different objectives visions and goals um and so that would be um the responsibility of the city manager to balance those goals communicate effectively by Guidance and experience where the city manager would have it or uh his point of view going forward um and that's where I think a lot of creativity and foresight comes in um as to what can or can't be done with obviously the commission can overrule and be like well we thank you for your guidance but this is where we're going to go you implement the plan uh efficiently and productively and that's where the city manager would have to take charge [Music] followers okay good morning once again um my question to you today is from your tour of the city and riew of the city documents what do you view as the most important needs of our city we can be honest no I I enjoyed the tour um yesterday and I think and a lot of concern was expressed to me in dealing with um the constituents last night about the need and the importance of Okay so we've annexed this land but now it's like and it's kind of like back to my planning studies whatever 10 years ago especially the European stuff it's like the INF development so we're putting in we're bringing new businesses on mixed use development then that's all cool but again kind of kind of like you doing through CRA with the buildings around here it's like maximizing the current infrastructure I understand the point was made that sometimes we have these buildings that are owned and it's am landlords and we can't so that's for that's problem but it would be maximizing the amount of space and kind of building in to out um what was one of the planning things I read a long time ago Broken Window I'm sure probably everybody's right big planning thing it's like once you get one Broken Window you're going to get more minimize that as we try to build a stronger safer Community going out um I know some people want more growth like I mean I see see these lakes and I'm like wow that could really make for great ecotourism I was talking with the gentleman last night and it's like how do you do that sustainable how do you because that's I mean I mean do need wi materials what type of infrastructure do we put in to handle all these new tourists coming in what's the objective there is it just to get more Fe money for those folks to make it just more enjoyable for the community because then you run into the community members are like well you just you're just using our city to gain money and then our quality of life goes down and then the tourists come from wherever Dayton because even my brothers working up but his Hardware his manager was like oh that that Preston city is really really cool and he gorgeous and we got these great legs and I was like what and but they know about it so the tourists know about it so infrastructure there is expanded and would be a discussion um people would come but have what cost to the community so a balancing out there thank you thank you B the city and um I believe that you probably saw the diversity of the city throughout the city okay different neighborhoods different people um and I think that that diversity is reflected within our commission if you look across who we are as a commission and uh one thing I noticed is you seem to have um less management experience you have management experience but but when it when it comes to uh managing people that need to get along and and it's been said that to manage a commission is like hurting cats and and so um I just want you to give us uh a time in your management experience uh how you kind of negotiated a group of people uh to come together and bring them to where they need to be if you understand bring them to what you consider as you would be city manager the correct uh direction to to going all of us together by the way sure um on one note my team I I currently supervis four and that's um they're all very diverse and then we have a one team because fortunately they came on after me so I got to mold and build them regardless of their race sexual orientation we all function as a very efficient unit and care for each other put our trust in each other we have difference opinions how it needs to be done we always very coord respectful because I think I said that boundary there um to begin with in terms of needing to work together uh specific example of of what one recent problem and still ongo problem back to um build Bay streets so Jacksonville um we've got this build Bay streets autonomous vehicle system um it's been going I believe since 000 is when Miss before the CEO wanted it to start going so we already have some of these vehicles and they're totally autonomous they hold about eight and so I'm the grants person for this so what the JTA is trying to do is they're trying to put in this Corridor that runs at way down to the football stadium and back and it has these autonomous vehicles which literally run by themselves stop um sense cars they have all these crazy sensors on millions of dollars um but in the in the so how do we fund that well not to get too boring but we got 12 million from the FED 6 million and 7 million two state grants I $12 million match almost 5050 or something I should top my head and then we got like 25 million pure local okay so and back to what we were talking about it's never as easy as you think it is so so now they're like well how do we build because this thing was set up in properly 5 years ago so they're like well Carl how are we going to because what we need to do is build the state properly the correct percentages we also have to build a Fed prop percentage because you only can build but the way it set up was messed up so we had to pull in um I had to get with the controller um special projects manager the actual Angie the actual director of this um Bill Bay corridor to figure out because the needs have changed over four year or 5 years because it's taken so long so now she needs all these millions of dollars moved around so guess who gets to go move those Millions Dollars around now doing that you you were going to have to ask for a budget amendment to FTA so now we're going to have to coordinate with FDA I got to coordinate with that the director of it the Special coordinance manager to figure out the road map the comer to make sure it's all legal um f to see if we have the correct percentages so the it to make sure it is getting everything they need so that's the director it's a r the director of Transit office to make sure he's still getting everything he needs so it's pulling in all these stakeholders which I I'm not sure how many I deal with at this point um eight to get everybody on the same page um in order to bill out to the vendors properly the proper percentages to be in compliance with f FTA rules but also to get each department what they need as part of this bigger project because everybody's involved in this project so it's not just like I go to hand you or something and and and what we've had not a problem with but is kind of siloing or it's like I'm just responsible for my bit I'm like that's can't that can't be how we look at it so it's been a little slow it's been a challenge again they outrank me they are directors but they definitely work with me because we know we need to get it done unless the CEO is like this is prior number one the meeting then makes my job a little B easier um getting traction with the nitty-gritty that I need to get them what they need so that's currently what I've okay thank you sure um on the tour yesterday um you observed I think you were taken to the water plant you know we the city has um water sewer and Gas Utilities um do you have any experience with an organization that runs its own utilities and um how would you feel about being responsible for managing the people in charge as UTI there would be a learning curve I mean I love figuring out new things and made with that that would be I mean Tampa obviously did um Alexandria did like massive massive but I was not um involved in any of those bonds or um grants that in order to get those bonds or grants I was not involved on that as for managing the infrastructure Alexandria had to replace a lot because their sewer and their so such inate system emerg but I was not involved with those departments but so I've been with those cities I've not been directly involved with managing everything you talked about so just you know um You probably read the news When Storms Come it's to keep the sewer system operating there are a lot of nitty-gritty challenges do you feel prepared to undertake that kind of challenge I mean I'm gaing from your question there's an infrastructure problem and a lot of problem problem what she was just saying is during the storms it's most important that we keep our water that the water does not shut off and that the sewer system continues to work more importantly the water doesn't so so that we can continue to provide safe drinking water for the community is that correct well actually I was more thinking of the sewer system because um actually in some of the past storms in the southwest bordera in the Tampa area people's houses were not destroyed by flooding they were destroyed by sewer backup um the systems failed and we have never had anything like that here we did a lot better um but I'm just saying those are are very significant respones possibilities of the city and I just want to make sure that you would be comfortable um having that under your area of responsibility so we we've done well yeah we have lift stations so we have multiple lift stations around town power grid goes down like it happened in this last storm and so some of them are on they have to keep on pumped and so we have the crew that has to be other keeping those pum um and making sure that the generators um that if it does have generator that doesn't they have to go to them individually and keep them pumped um as they can so not to get into it now but do we need more um backup generators like other strategic because that's kind of what we had to do in Tamp and what we're doing right now as back some said take a minute to get because I know Co blew us back for like a year my is taking a year supply chain so but not to get now but yes I'd be comfortable learning how to handle right thank you yeah okay um I just pick one first off the list do you have a any experience with cras or managing Main Street or dealing with a Main Street group not not managing it um I was looking at what we're doing with the build and um also our Mr Ford CEO's plan for kind of the surrounding area because right now he just put in this massive building we're at this new onia but all around it's going to be mixed use development so maybe on a bigger scale not as clim or pretty as from what I was seeing with your um strategic plan but it looks like the CRA is directly involved in helping facilitate this plan so yes I know about it I know what it does I know excuse how I Implement ASC yeah looks like you have a resident expert over here so maybe and and you do have really nice new digs I was able to walk around those um last month what yeah I walked around those and say yes they are very nice your your new office is um it's pretty it's it's it is it is so so knowing that um how do you feel about coming to Crescent City I mean what is your first um what's you to he would mainly be the the position and the challenges um be very very different than what I currently do um and it would it would basically get me to the the goal I have being a city manager I love Capital programming Grant don't get me wrong um create relationships with my team and all the directors and abps and svps um that being said so it's time to like Branch out like just like the weaknesses that been point out I haven't run se you know I haven't done certain things so those would be new learning curves and challenges I think I can hand ick up pretty quick but it would be that that type of transition to something okay so ultimately your goal is to go is to become city a city can you um tell me just a little bit about um your most successful experience in um recruting new businesses recruiting new businesses yes um yeah just like Economic Development I know that would be very uh exciting thing so no I in none of my positions have I um recruited um have [Music] I you continue you want to revise it um no I guess not um yeah okay I'll take what you gave me so I know that um you're new at this so I was thinking that maybe you we had a way of looking for but that's that's okay with your answer but can I ask you another question sure so what are you looking for your next job um a lot of the things we so far stated here the challenges that I haven't taken on as P yet such as the sewer but then also the things that I could handle um which I think would be would be beneficial okay um I questions questions more questions commissioner um I I do and just to clarify you said you have a a planning degree or uh well actually yeah uh ma Masters in public administration urban conson urban planning concentration okay urban planning concentration I thought I plan there somewh and my question actually is um if we offered you the position um how soon could you see yourself being able to come on board uh assuming that background checks and all that feel okay do you have the timeline in your mind I would um I've been with my boss for over four years so definitely had two weeks notice and and and that and then probably another week to relocate I'm only an hour and half [Music] but again I'm not even after the tour I'm not totally familiar with this area where where would I live down so take me Prett foun [Music] okay that's helpful thank you very much I'm good you're good um the only thing the only question I I I probably have is that um this is one of those unknowns but um through your experience when we were talking when we were talking about moving to coming to prent city and of course you toward the you took toward this building toward the anx um I I've I've been in situations we've probably all been in situations where we had really stay water work environment and and then we've come to an area where I we've moved into a building to the promotion moved into a building that it wasn't such um probably my my um my question would be um we would you know we would hope that as we go through this hiring process we we could find somebody that would be here and would um would plan to be here for a little while um do you have any thoughts on that I mean is that I know with your with your goals um this is also a great opportunity here in Cant City because in a small community as a city manager you wear many hats um so you learn a lot um but I guess my question would be in looking at us today I mean long range goal where do you see you where would you see yourself should you be offered this job as far as how would you be comfortable in a small community knowing that you're coming from a large community I Lac when I was younger I'm 48 now going on 49 ready to to take step back um in terms of I I don't I don't really need a bigger Community put it that way um so coming here uh the objective would really be to and as I'm seeing from the Strategic goals and the the issues or the obstacles facing it really more the objective would be working with everybody to get those things accomplished I think that's where that's what brings me joy and my job is when there's a problem can't find any money whatever okay find you this or we can do this I can work here so kind of accomplishing those things um is what you kind leave that I know it might start over again the next day but like that that kind of is the the thing that brings me joy so helping out the community so how long as long as it takes are there always going to be new challenges sure so am I looking to move like I know the last city manager moved on for a bigger Community am I at that point am I looking to that but like and he did make it too I mean and typically I think that's part of your with the um with the city manager um they they do ask is that correct a two more of a two-year commitment something that is part of train it's considered the icma under ethic standards a minimum time yeah to be effective so um any manager that jumps jobs more than every two years uh might be considered for um action but I come from from cities um Kingsport City manager was there 25 30 years Pete Johnson City 30 years previously the assistant city manager so kind of used to city managers get in there maybe it takes some year or two years to learn and then you can really start even my current position am I can I punch a lot harder now than I did at you yeah I'm just much more like you're saying you wear a lot of hats you learn by failing but then if you if you're fast enough to learn and and Improv you have any questions commissioner one more question and it just has to do with um this would be your first Dent as a city manager although you in government as you know um Fort had very particular laws about open government um lot of very particular laws that deal with City Administration um how comfortable are you becoming um pretty much um an expert on those because we our attorney is not on staff or attorney is on contract I feel that um as you probably know with a lot of the federal and state grants there's a lot of the lawyer jargon the resolutions the ptg that you have to read through and if you don't comprehend it you better learn how to comprehend it so I feel very comfortable in picking that up quickly as need than you question so um Mr Brown this is your opportunity to um interview us so do you have is there any questions you have us just the that actually that one um thing which was interesting to me because I know what it's like to be without power and you were saying um the town or a lot of the towns without power with the last H came [Music] like four and I just know especially even me I don't want to be without AC but then I think about kids and elderly and it's like how would we need is there any way around that I guess or or is the city looking is that more backup generators or how is that even is mitigating such a Act of nature even possible so not really the city now the city has a a generator so the city was on we so we were powered here um I believe um some of those necessary like the nursing home um you know those that needed the school the elementary school we went by yesterday and the new elementary school um so that was a shelter for those people that didn't have it um that hit that's you know that's with anybody any Community um FPL was on here immediately we had um covered up with FPL some people got it back I think you got yours back within the next day the first day you got it I didn't get I was one of the last ones I didn't get until Sunday evening umid you were in the middle and so you know and I remember it was a that came in on a Wednesday Friday Friday Friday morning we were all down because they had to take everything down yeah all lines were down and um Friday afternoon I was driving my golf cart down here towards three bananas and um Liz I think you were down you were down there and everybody was dark it wasn't dark yet but everybody was out and all of a sudden the light started coming on and I saw the lights coming on and everybody was outside cheering and so it's just you know the act of nature it's just an act of Nature and so but I do believe that some of those areas that needed it Commissioners do you agree that they were adequate adequately um supplied I know the Sheriff's Office and the school district brought down um large generators also I mean that's to answer his question fully that is a for a problem um you know there's just a couple of things I mean it's a it's a Ford problem the only thing you can really do is to try to bury your power lines and that is extremely expensive even um I lived in Tampa in a much wealthier community and they did not have the capacity even to bury the power lines and then if there's water intrusion it can be worse that's what happened to Puerto Rico just now so um I think it's more as the mayor described how to cope and um because all of our power companies you know are getting more and more used to this um I mean as the storms become more apparently more frequent um but yeah coping is a good thing to put too in we have large trees here so we had a lot of branches we had a lot of debris down um and that's the first thing and the biggest question there is getting that debris off the road and without for the safety of people knowing that there's no lines in there live lines um but like commissioner D said all of our infrastru all of our wiring is you know in the air I was in a Beach Community and a panhandle it was all bued and seldom ever during storms did we ever I think I lost power one time um so it does make a huge difference you have any other questions just one more if we have time yeah um and that's two in the weeks but with your kind of downtown reinvestment act the C's trying to rebuild the community finally I was looking over the budget I know the general fund can't handle all of that all the different faces going forward um who and I know we might have rushed on this the other day just about what grants are available to help small towns like this I know we got the two contracted out grants people I I obviously hav't met them um like what what what's available from f fhwa f in terms of infrastructure grants because we do some INF some of Grants I get handle infrastructure like roadway um construction intersection construction um what type of Grants would would um would that be something to be going after and also I don't know if the city is Bond rated is is that a CFO question I'm just but I did you know saw how much the bonds helped city of Alexandria because they were using Straight Cash I like you guys have these old bonds and you can save all this cash let's use these bonds and they just didn't know because all the turnover so you just read the ordinance and you're like it here's a mill here's a mill for you guys it's just nobody knew but I maybe that I just don't know how that works with with the town of size I don't maybe have talk out question um I have a response to that so we have a very small staff and there are grants that we have traditionally applied for with a one uh Grant writer who works with us in particular who uh mainly goes out for Grants where he can be paid from the administration funds sure um we have had many discussions over the past several years and I have a hat in my bag I almost got out to give to you um that would be something that would fall under to me um traditionally the city managers hat to help us with um from my perspective the short answer is um we have the grants that traditionally go out for uh it's very narrow because the grant writer can be paid and it's infrastructure things we need there probably are other grants out there not a lot nobody pays for your operations it's you know infrastructure um but that that is something um to be researched and to be determined that we are just now starting to um delve into further and other Commissioners may have other thoughts that Commission you have anything else that you want to add um one of the things one of the hiccups that we have had and I don't know if you saw this in but that we do like unlike a lot of smaller communities we have in our Reserve budget um we have a million dollars that we keep in a reserve and that has been um we've been criticized not criticized but um from like um yeah we've been criticized from some of our federal agencies and that you know he's got that money why not using that money um for you know because we're going after more dollars and so that kind of is something that that we we've been working around a little bit just to kind of you answer that but grants are you know and that's why andely you know commissioner has been after us you know to do something with grants do something with grants again it's the city manager he only has so much time so we just um hired an additional Grant um by company to assist us um to help try to find some more grants um and so that's a very new thing and hopefully we can focus on that more as we go forward so do we actually we are technically paying that no we're not and I and we covered that you know yesterday we're not paying them you know it's it's on as as I just don't want to think I think that was a question too that came up yesterday yeah do you have any other is there any other questions well thank you thank you very much we appreciate it you thank you it's nice to meet a lot of you thank you for coming city city I let and just for everybody to know okay he's going to pres city is going to be on um pres city is going going to be on the radar because you know we were on the Today show I don't know if any of yall know that we were on the Today Show yeah I was there and they said and I and I said and from Cent City Florida Christina saw that didn'ts from back home in South Florida were sending pictures of T I was right up there in creson City Florida so just be ready that was my bu yes thank you do we not get to ask questions today of the candidates that was last night I'm gonna get a warm up of a coffee we'll take a just a a slight um recess that's get ready for your next applicant e e e e e e e e e e e e e [Music] Mr thank you for joining us in ccent city I knew you you got in here Thursday evening we're glad we could bring a little warmer weather for you very grateful what is it like where you are now I have eight in of snow earlier this week so oh wow supposed to warm up a little bit tomorrow hopefully give well we asked you last evening I'm GNA ask you um again if that's okay just kind of give us your three minute elevator speech about yourself tell us a little bit about yourself okay I um again my name is Drew Willis I was born and raised in Columbus Ohio um and then moved around with my mom and stepfather after that to Columbia Missouri Fort Rucker Alabama uh westart IC then we settled in uh Southern Virginia right in a city right off of Interstate 95 calleda so if you go up every fast food restaurant no demands in our hometown and know notorious speed track but um so to 5,000 people uh completely suff surrounding County um unlike you all they didn't have any shared services but uh you know to get right into why why I'm interested in being your city manager is uh my French teacher was married to our city manager in my hometown and uh got to know him better than I got to know her uh but loved everything about his job uh he knew every everybody everything that was going on always had an idea and always was prepared to make good recommendations to the councilman and and play their will and it just seemed like a fantastic profession so I went off to college at williiam and Mar went to graduate school at iio SCH public administration and promptly landed at the office space flight at Nasa which is about as far away from this as you can get accepted into the old presidential Management insur program and started at Nasa spent some years at the Environmental Protection Agency working on one of the market based solution programs use the market to try and drive environmental outcome don't hear much about acid rain anymore so I think we probably did an okay job but then took a fellowship on the capital Bill uh ended up where my agency paid me to to work for a period of time on Capital fills usually beneficial relationship between the legislative branch and the executive branch and ended up going to work for a guy i' barely heard of in a state had only been once's Harry Reed so his his career went a lot of places and pass in mind so I worked on infrastructure and environmental issues the first couple years I worked for him then he moved me to the Appropriations Committee where I um wrote the funding bill or drafted a funding bill bu for the uh Department of energy the Bureau of Reclamation of the Army Corps of Engineers and a bunch of smaller ones for seven years um back when the Appropriations Committee was fully got parties in place and we produce legislation every year uh which we're all proud of it doesn't work that way anymore so we'll get into a little bit of that reasoning I'm sure as we go along but um when Senator Reed became the majority leader he appointed me the deputy Sergeant at Arms which I did for a number of years and then became sergeant-at-arms sergeant-at-arms office is the entire non-legislative back of the house operation in the senate in addition to safeguarding security members and staff it's everything you need to keep a big large organization like that going including services that are completely comparable to the ons that are offered in a municipality that went from Human Resources to it to Public Safety to buildings grounds to we were the members gym and the and the staff gym all the way down to enforcement um and then when Senator Reed retired I um went to a law firm that a named partner and've done that ever since took over as managing partner in recent years when my pre when the other named partner passed away a lot of sort of what you would think of as DC a lot of regulatory work a lot of communications work some lobbying uh and Grant making and uh trying to seek Federal resources for for non some local governments and then had a series of clients that both were great clients to have and some that were sort of like being an actor you take one for the one for the money one for the love so a lot of conservation related clients so um lived in Silver Spring for better part of a decade now I think I told most us I'm getting married next month can't say I have three dogs three cats um I picked up a lot of great somewhere along the way um trying to think what I'm missing we'll get to it I'm sure I'm sure we'll get to it thank you that was that was a great overview and and we appreciate that I'm going to start this time I'm going to start on this end so commissioner Burton um start morning we're just kind of gon to get right to it um you know you're coming from such a high level of the federal govern down to um and I'm going to say City high too I it is but but it's definitely a lot less U I think than what you're you're coming from so my question really to you is um how do you what do you view as the opportunities and disadvantages in joining us what's this going to do for you um the main thing it's going to do for me rather talk about what we're going to do for you but I understand I understand the question um is I've always been someone who does better and works better when I'm able to see the results of what I'm doing and for a long time you know within the federal agencies and certainly on that Hill certainly was able to do that um but you know it's my it's my now fiance and I talked about it last it's become untenable I um I was basically centor Reed's designated deal making guy I me I started out in his organization we had one and a half press people and we had probably 30 by the time by the time you retired part of that was because he was in leadership but all the yelling and screaming has to stop at some point particularly when you're in leadership because you do have a handful of things you need to get done every year in terms of the spending bills tax bills and other things so my role in all that was generally to go keep good relationships with everyone and then try to go work out the best representing representing the cence treating it more like a more like a business than sort of an opportunity to just yelling scream carrying on um which I took great pride in but it's it gotten more and more difficult so as we've talked about where we want to go in our life next um I in recent years we l a couple times for for local government jobs closer far closer to home uh just because it is an opportunity to be an integral part of a community to help solve problems make recommendations Implement and actually be able to see the results of all that and it's it's a it's important to me uh this is sort of my first love um and I got away from it for a long time even though I had compfortable experiences but I I grew up in a town not much bigger than Southern Virginia and uh honored to be able to do it I don't I don't have a lot of ego in all of this um so you know running a big organization and providing the best possible customer service to community of 5,000 people plus visitors and all the rest as the feels the same to me as as being able to do it on a slightly smaller scale here I mean it's more high visibility jobs that I've had in the past but again I don't I don't put a lot of eager a lot of ego into these things I just want to do a good job and make sure that everybody's hurt and everybody uh has an opportunity to to be able Envision and communicate what kind of community that good morning good morning okay my question to you this morning will be um from the tour that you took around City the what do you with you as a city um [Music] what do you view as the most important needs of our city as you took the tour on yesterday I think Economic Development probably comes to the comes to the top which is it's a bit of a cheap because it's certain encompasses everything so I apologize for a little bit of a che but it s it drives everything else and and it but it also makes you think very comprehensively about what it is that that you all and and and your constituents who want the community to be this change is difficult some people like their Community exactly as it is other people want to see have more restaurants more shops more other things but it forces you to think sort of comprehensively about how all of that comes together and fits together you all have some great oute planning documents that i' I've read through but between economic development probably a slightly more robust housing stock and things like that I mean ever but everybody I've talked to all agrees that it's a community that's got great potential it's just a matter of finding finding the time staff time finding resources in terms of Grants or things from the state or even feds and trying to expand the tax base in in a way that makes sense to all all of you not makes sense to me but to to sort of be able to create the kind of community that you want um okay well do you have any experience in t I don't have experience in I was in charge of and the finance director was direct report during my years in the Sergeant at Arms office and we we work very collaborativ putting together that budget uh and budgets obviously have to scale depending on on the resources you have in size of the community but I mean one thing I would say is that if you were over over to Overlay my order chart on Capitol Hill uh your work chart here and your and your responsibilities here there would be an awful lot of over I mean when I was appointed Sergeant gns the the local Hill newspaper that's sort of In-House not in-house might as well be industry newspaper actually the headline for it was a Sergeant at Arms with the city manager's touch because I treated the job very much like the customer service job that it is you know as a as a legislative body and as as implementing body on the management side a lot of what you have to do is say no but there are ways to go about it and there are ways to to to work with somebody that you have to say no to in terms of making them maybe not quite as upset with the with the outcome I assume you can't build a seven car garage in city limits you may be able to find a way to help someone get to three and then maybe a car for I'm completely making it up but I I treat it as a customer service job and it was actually tremendously fulfilling thing and in a time when partisanship was getting worse and worse was an opportunity to do something truly nonpartisan which great for me more on the problem solving end of it so um yeah so great um thank you so much for being here sure good morning so um if you were offered this job and came on board what would you see as your first step STS and assuming the city manager position um what do you uh see that you would want to accomplish say in the first um three months that you would be on board I am my first steps would probably be listen listen and listen um again I I don't really want you go to something like this I'm I'm humble enough to understand that on my first day in this building I would know less about what's going on in the community less about the functions of everything going on in anybody in the building I tend to trust relatively I provide I have a lot of trust going into a situation and you got to work pretty hard to lose my trust in terms of the staff once you do it's proba it's an issue but you know I think it's incumbent upon me to get out into the community as best I can with the stakeholder groups and be able to introduce myself as the person to to call but you got to you anything I'm a problem to flight Bas or anything else we're a resource we're here to help so try to do as much of that spend as much time with all of you all individually as as we can or as we're allowed under under open meetings rules [Music] which those are those are what they are do within the limits of those rules get to know all do as best you can try to understand where you're coming from try to understand how everybody likes to be communicated with uh one of the one of the things about job like this as well maybe all all of us know what's going on at all times the ability to push push information out in the community uh in as many different methods as you can not everybody's got the internet not everybody likes most people don't like phone calls uh you know local media is tricky in this day and age just because there so newspapers left but really would want to spend a lot of time getting to know sort where everyone's coming from where they want to go uh also spend a lot lot of time with the finance director uh it all s deres from men you need to understand where the resources are coming and going from as we get get into the cycle of of needing to put together a fiscal document for for the coming for the coming cycle but um I I don't think I would come in with a lot of preconceived notions about what's right what's wrong or how how I don't have I don't have one standard way that I come into a job that that I'm going to do these 15 things first but I always start W to to listen and understand more the more I'm talking as I am right now L the less I'm learning all sort of the critical things I need in the job okay thank you very much thank you I'm my question um you you talking about doing your you know federal spending bills and stuff like that we're on the opposite end of it of course do you have what do you think um your experience as far as like getting grants and Appropriations and helping us on that we're obviously completely different level than the federal government yeah of course um in my private practice I've done a fair bit of grant grant making work in terms of identifying opportunities for clients uh I I typically employ DC of grant writers 20 bucks an hour so I I'll come up with the concept pitch it to pitch it to the client and the client will bring something to me and we'll figure it out sort of the same thing with a lot of the regulatories that you know I I go as far as I can I can get with it and then then go from there but in terms of seeking state level grants federal grants and other things I do have I've got more Federal grant making but it's just a matter figuring out who the players are who the local THS the state legislature are in terms of I think you all are going through this process right now and the legisl is coming and probably have a laundry list of items but it's it's it's absolutely critical stuff to be doing because there's even even if it's just a grant for a few years for something very specific it takes pressure off of other parts of the budget so being able to bring in those sort of outside resources is critical so I also during my time on the hill this is completely different probably largely to what we're talking about also created a lot of Grant programs under Highway bills the energy bill just to try to find ways to get the Federal government itself is not very good at doing grants and they take forever there're a lot of lot compliation so we try I don't know why I'm telling you all this is an opportunity so don't apologize for talking that's what we want this is this is your time but they're not great Grant makers so you got to stay on top that helps it helps have people who sort of know how to how to work that system a little bit but you know you can you got to treat it like Seed corn rather than feed corn you can use it to sort of supplement and and sort of take pressure off of other parts of the budget which makes it great but it's also an opportunity to do very discreet things so it's always been a to the extent I've got clients who really enjoy you know one aspect of it they they definitely enjoy the cramp part of it more than me I've got a big regulatory problem can you help me because that's there's nothing fun about that and for me the ROI on I'm securing a you know $500,000 Federal grant while I'm making 6,000 bucks trying to chase it down it's it's good for me and for the client so and we do have two grant writers grant writing firms on on contract we just need to have some help giving them Direction and telling them what we want to go after so yeah it's the sort of thing i' want to be pretty aggressive about just because it you want you want your community to grow the way you want to but the avail ility of resources just makes it tricky so you you may want to do you may want to redo the Town Square but resources are available for pick something just you know bro improvements uh with its own can of worms uh it's an opportunity to move two things forward once thank you good okay um Mr will so you've had an opportunity to uh look around prity it's a little different from where you're coming we don't have eight in of snow our de we had a little bit of M last night um how do you see yourself fitting into the community my my goal is to be an integral part of the community and my my fiance who was not able to make it down this week I apologize for that um feel the same way so it's it's being first of all it's living in the city um and joining s Social Clubs and community groups and community service organizations but mainly it's being visible in town eating eating in town having some drve but you know also be visible I I mentioned my dogs and cats and I'll walk the cats and cats will be standing indoors in Florida um the you know out walking my dog making sure people have my phone number have know that they can contact me you know either set up office hours where anybody can come in and and talk about whatever they want addition people don't want to just make an appointment but being it's important I think particularly in a relatively small place to find as many different ways to to interact with as many people as I can the people that providing service to um but just being available down three bananas which I like uh walking my dog um I I just think it's critical the idea that that I would live you gainville or someplace and Community here just doesn't doesn't work for me that's not I think you all require the manager to live here yeah unless we just absolutely can't find anything by the way we're C Li I me we want in doing this know my my fiance has completely different career goals and aspirations than I did she comes ocean conservation world uh you know this will this will home she'll you know nonprofits have flexible work schedules and things like the work should have done but I need to be here so okay thank you commissioner [Music] Barton no you just [Music] question so let me just take a minute here and go down time here um because after listening to you you you've actually answered a lot of these questions that that uh that that are on this sheet paper um but I will say this uh because you've not been a city manager and you know now I'm just kind of freefor all but sure um a lot of a lot of the issues that we have here in the city uh really stem from being kind of an old city so like right now we're putting new new bar lines um you know but we but we also need U you know we need a new water uh system out there uh you know we need a new water um we need a lot of things okay is what I just to bring things up to date and and um so I guess I don't know where I'm kind of going with this question question but I don't think you've ever dealt with a CRA with the Redevelopment of of bided homes um we also have um you know our Public Works which really isn't in dire need of some help our parks are in need of help um and I guess where would you start where would you start okay with I mean how how would you how would you line things up you know for where you would get started to help put your thumb on the scale as to where we the first place to start is is with with five of you all because you're likeed officials you you do something that I couldn't do just actually put myself out there it's not not not my nature you guys not easy it's not easy no it's not no it's not you guys have the hard job here but I mean you all represent you know 100% of it the community here but between listening to you all about about some of your priorities it helps me set some of mine and I certainly can bring recommendations to you and and Community input and stakeholder Outreach and things like that ultimately you make those decisions and those become the priorities through the Strategic plan through the through the budget budgeting process um to answer I think part of the question that you were sort of you were asking is I I don't have an engineering background and I don't I've not done Direct done Economic Development however we do have people on the team uh and I'm not afraid that ask questions or admit that I don't understand something so in terms of prioritizing things I have plenty of experience overseeing big Capital construction projects we built a brand new offsite the El liery facility U Deputy Sergeant at- arms removed the entire tury graphics and Direct Mail operation off site so a lot of those same principles apply in terms of putting together requests for proposals and and putting together all the the specs and then in making selections but what very much on as I should on on people on the team that have those those bits of expertise particularly early on infrastructure is always is always critical uh communities Nationwide Road issues sewer and water issues is everyone has aging infrastructure so the ability to but all of that requires quite a bit of long l so have have long-term projects of going at the same time as as I get sort of a laundry list of of of smaller things at the same time of things that are are are issues that need to be addressed so someone yesterday was talking about plate spinning which I think was a beautiful apt example for for a city manager or or for commission is that you got to be able to do lots of things at once and I need to I need to be able to oversee it in such a way that I know exactly what's going on so I can report to you but I don't necessarily need to have I don't necessarily need to be micr managing last Last Detail of the work but set set reasonable goals for people expecting to meet them give them constant feedback of if I'm getting what I need from them if you all are getting what they need from them or not other than just relying on an annual performance evaluation so just sort of a constant level of communication make sure that we're meeting the deadlines that we set okay thank you you don't have any question pleas I'm going to steal yours from last time um so what do you see as far as like if you were to come here a future you can have stick around for five years or 10 years or it's our it's our goal if if we're happy and you all are happy to this is this is where we're going to be I I figure I've got a couple of big jobs left in me but it can be just one or it can be a couple but I'm not I'm not planning to go every two years going pulled off 2,000 I wonder if I can pull out 5,000 can I pull out 10,000 no we're we're looking for a place to settle and and and and wiggle into a community and be part of it and um I've never been much of a job hoer most of the jobs that you see where I've switched jobs is could have move right into something something else um and then more recent years I've come in house and a couple of clients for a year just help them out but no our our our goal is to be a part of the community and a helpful involved part of the community um and be there for a while thank you yes thank you very much um so this is a a little bit of a followup on the earlier question that I asked um sure about your first three months and you said you would do a lot of listening um you just referen the need to keep a lot PL spin if you understand this part of the job um one concern I would have is just because we are such a small staff um would you be comfortable in the first three months in addition to listening that being one plate um knowing that you are responsible for keeping the work of the commission moving forward because for example um in the in the main office we have you notice probably from the organization card we have the city manager and the clerk our clerk is brand new um and traditionally the city manager um we've had a city manager before who was an attorney and a planner um and he really was closely involved in every aspect of setting the agenda um knowing um even though we have an attorney on contract knowing what the laws are um this the city has to operate um on a on a daily basis and that includes um keeping our agenda of action items moving every month um Can can you see yourself both you know acclimating and listening and also moving being the key Central person responsible for moving these necessary absolutely I didn't I didn't mean to deemphasize the actual nuts and bolts of the job it's just the one thing I felt I feel like I need to do is be more of a listener up front yeah the community still needs to move it's still this is an operational job so and that's the reason I mentioned that because larger municipalities um the city manager were um directs but has people to move those operations here the city manager will really as you say it's it is an operational job right I mean it's it's a relatively small staff Community is going to have different needs at different times they going to be emergencies you're going to be problems I I'm someone who I don't sit in my office I'm I'm not great at just sitting still in an office I uh probably have more of a management by walking around style anyway it's better sometimes meet people where they are um both physically and other ways but um no I I'm also roll on my S kind of guy I mean they're just sometimes you just everybody's got to be on deck and I completely understand that I mean it's spent a good bit of my career in the in the I need this and I need this right now kind of business people's expectations of me and I I tend to do tend to do well under that that that sort of pressure but I I also understand that I'm not going to have a huge sta of people doing everything for me but there we all have to pitch in from time to time and and I certainly I don't even consider pitching in it just needs to get done and if I need to be directed part of it then that's that's the way it is and it's fine okay um I see that you're admitted to the Virginia bar are you still in good standing with the Virginia bar yeah okay so the one concern of course you know we have't and we've had an issue before in the past is that if offered the job there'll be a thorough background check I mean we've already done an initial background check there'll be more thorough on anything any B flags that we're going to have no I can say this with great confidence because I I recently underr one for for another position and it came back exactly as I expected which is nothing nothing that's going to embarrass you or me too bad depending on depending depending on where your level of embarrassing is clean record um one one thing that um that did um I guess with you talking about in the private in the private sector um sector that you um had some clients that you represented and there was one I guess that that did throw up a red flag that um possibly I can think of I had two clients that i i two clients one of which I didn't like the the client because I didn't really like the product but I liked the the thing they asked me to do which was on on the one case it was it was for juwel The Vaping company they hired me specifically to work as part of a team to get the age for all tobacco products raised to 21 I don't I'm not Bic guy I don't quite get it but you know they they were credibly accused of of trying to market the kids for at least for a brief period of time um so it it behooved down even though it's a little bit counterintuitive to want the tobacco it go to 21 so that I I was able to get behind that I had one foreign client I really didn't like because they I told them and it's part of my contract and I'm not going to lie to anybody about it they they constantly they constantly push the envelope and made me uncomfortable just because I'm not not only it's terrible business to to tell somebody something that's untrue and then expect to be able to work with them again so just you know not for a client I big retainer so but I mean it's it's you know I think it's sort of part of the business that you're occasion come across some yeah okay thank you sure commission Burton I'm good you good commiss good commissioner commission um yes so um if you were offered the position and you accept it um and I'm talking about very realistic um timelines here um what would be your uh projected timeline to come on board if if you were offered the job and I know you're getting married a great day actually know it's George Washington it's actually his birth great married get married and have a mattress same awesome um I um we're we're taking a very short trip after the 22nd February so I I I'd actually be available you know a week or two before um getting closing down my practice is in particular part my the previous managing Department passed away we redid our financial model to give all of us the flexibility to go out and do things gave the opportunity a couple years ago to go in house with a really good client so wrapping that up isn't isn't all that difficult there's some paperwork assignments that I need to build out firmm I can I can be here a I can be here before before my wedding I would just need to be away again for until probably Thursday or so the following we so at least by March the first of March I can I can beat that date for sure so so um would we also have to make sure that we coordinate with our current inter manager sure who's been very um helpful and and very flexible with us um would March be too late for you in other words do you have us can you if he wants to stay until the end of February could you start in March yeah I mean and I I understand this situation completely even I mean the only thing I I really have to do is I I've got to get married on the I don't need to keep bringing this up relatively recently we decided not to let it fill an entire year because they do um if if it's helpful there's no reason in the next few weeks if you offer and I accept for me to come down and spend a couple of weeks with the city manager now and then just come back on fulltime later if the sitting man if the interim manager is eager for whatever reason to leave Cresent City quickly um can't imagine why and and and one one lesson that we will share with you um as going into this um if you keep the feet on Save life happy then life a lot a lot easier saying neither neither of us are all that young happy so Commissioners do we are we good with that um I'm going to first I'm going to ask you and then I'm going let you um asked us some questions so how how did the football game go last night I know it was on at my house I was not watching it how did it go last night softball thank you um it was actually a great football game I uh I I will admit I didn't stay up the very end um I had an appointment today um I did wake up in the middle of night and watch highlights though um I 2814 in a game that's probably in some ways not as close as that but I mean Texas was driving the ti game at the very end are best defensive player strips at the opposing quarterback and for a guy who weighs probably 50 pounds more than me ran it back all the way to the end zone other end zone Mighty fast okay so you were pleased so you were pleased with the outcome yes okay got a lot of Texans in the room if so sorry I have learned I have learned just recently and this is very beneficial for those of us that watch sports that they do have those highlights and you can watch the highlights and that gives you pretty much the whole game very short period of time and so now you have a conversation opportunity so at this time um if you have any questions of us I mean this is a great opportunity to ask us some questions I mean just a handful and and I got a flavor this last night talking to all of you individually I mean my my biggest having done most of the talking myself which is normal in an interview I mean I guess I'm interested in what some of your biggest priorities are um just if I'm just so I can start thinking about it if you all offer and me the job but um you know I think that's probably my biggest interest I've done a lot OB I've read the budget I understand Bond ratings and things like that but some of your priorities would be useful in my thinking as well that's not asking too much of you all okay commission you any to i' like to tell you one of the things that I've been working on for six months is um trying to get the the Middle School under our ownership from school district so I'm working with committee to work that out and try and effectuate that transfer for as little money as possible so been a long slug but we're getting very close to having something together but that's my that's what I've been working on for six months and continue to work on commission do you have commission sure um so I'm third generation here although the last 10 years so the um the time that I've been a permanent resident um this was my second home for my whole life my life home right so um creson city like many small towns um had an incredible golden age of architecture and business we were kind of the Central Business area for The Wider area um we have a historic district we have any beautiful homes um my husband and I came here because it was a beautiful place to live and one of my goals which or my hopes would be that Cresent City can be restored not um necessarily replaced um there are just we are a classic small town walkable community that many other small towns and I mean many other developments in Florida were modeled after um the developer DP Davis who built Davis Islands in Tampa and Davis schores in St Augustine actually was from Paca and it's pretty clear um my husband and I lived in Tampa on Davis Island for 20 years and we selected it because it had this wonderful small town feel um it's pretty clear that DP Davis the 1920s developer um he modeled his developments on these turn of the century small towns in Northeast Florida that he was so familiar with so um again hope is that we could be restores and our best qualities um rejuvenated thank really helpful thank you commissioner B you have some of your priorities or I'm a little more nuts and um I think that we we really have to start maintaining our city we we really have a a maintenance type structure um we have a lot of trees that fall down during hurricanes that probably should have been cut down and maintain beforehand so we really don't have a schedule to do any of that we have small public works department so so it's a tough thing to to do um the other thing is economically you know we're working very very hard especially along Central Avenue and different places and one big thing that that has kind of held back on that to kind of get that moving a little better pace is a lot of people have moved in C City and bought homes and and using those areas for storage um which is not helping us at all okay and of course we want this to be a nice blable city um so my next kind of thing that justes me not is I think Crescent City if you go through it there's uh um it's all over Crescent City you know we uh people don't maintain their lawns people don't maintain uh our Parks um it's just all over the city it it doesn't even go to any section of the city and and see this and um our parks are right now I think in in Cham a couple of them are very much Champs that we need to look at so so mine is a nuts and bolts kind of thing that that kind of needs needs to happen I like to say I'm new at this so new elected so but I would like to also say that I am born and raised city um and it's good um to be on this Commission because I'm learning things that I didn't even know about my city okay and um also there are things I'm probably to you all that you didn't know about so but um I'm in the mid of learning and um I'm really into um I'm an educator retired educator and I'm really into um get my thoughts and ideas together about what we can do uh for our young people in the city so um I've always wanted to reach out I have reached out when I was um teaching here in the city actually all my teaching was done here in C City started um GE middle school as an assistant so while I was working as an assistant I um was going to school fulltime uh with a family and a husband and a child it was very hard and many times I wanted to give up but I didn't so here I am I never thought I'd be up here but you all it's it's just not opportunity that was presented to me and I'm very grateful and I know I'm going to learn much more and you um I would have to say that probably one of the things that um that is important to me is is some economic Vitality here um as you know um we do have businesses that that come that come try to start and just seeing how we can help them be successful um you know a new restaurant has to have a certain um amount of business in order to stay in business um and so that's one thing is how do we bring people into the community to utilize those businesses how do we bring more businesses because those businesses aren't going to come if the people aren't here to support them you got to have you have to have a little bit of BU and so that's something right now that I know is is before all of us um you know it used to be this was a very um this was a bustling City there's a lot going on here um and so it's it's we've had a lot of influx of new people coming to the community um and and how do we how do we work with that and bringing those right businesses here that can be successful you know it's it's because it hurts all of this when one opens up and they're only here for six months right and and having own businesses and being those sides of that you know I know how hard that is and and to be able to make an investment because it's a huge investment here and so how do we attract those those businesses so they will come so that's just kind of one of the things that I see right now as an issue for all of usate that's super helpful now I probably get give someone else a chance to that's fine and I know flying out this afternoon I am I I've booked a late flight um I I may move it up a little bit so we're not driving around snow in the dark but okay okay well thank you and thank you for your time and for coming to pres City we greatly appreciate it and has been great I'm I'm super grateful uh for the for you all taking the time to talk and uh all of you have clearly have a lot of passion for the city as you I see a lot of faces that were here last night so it's want people involv people it's it's important I have a lot of respect for the job that you help do the sergeant of arms and commissioner Deo you we know that from tahy um with our sergeant of arms you you juggle many hats there you jugle many hats there don't get to carry the scepter or anything like that did away with that aspect but but it is it is a tough job it is aough and I could see when you said that how it relates to city government I could I see that too so we appreciate what you've done thank you thank you very much really appreciate with that I'm gonna take a Rec e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e flowers thank you very much for being here uh we greatly appreciate that and I I we had an opportunity to meet you and Miss Ashley last night um so thank you for being here today well thank you for the invitation I appreciate it it's been been great so far good um I'm going to ask who we asked last night but I'm going to ask you today if you can just kind of give that overview three minute elevator on on who you are and and and what you bring great so I'm Dwayne flowers and I'm from a little town called H Georgia about 4,000 people now but when I grew up it wasn't that big but uh we outside of austa grew up on a farm hard work on my life dad was a was a industrial worker at a paper mill and my mom was a school teacher for over 30 years and and we have us we had a farm and 300 Hogs and about 20 black cows and the drive tractor growing up so that's a lot of fun the hard work is not faring to me and um so that's kind of in My DNA um we U so after high school I decided to um join the police force because when I was younger I either want to be a policeman or a fireman or football coach so so a couple of my other friends went to the law enforcement world so I decided I was going to go on the law enforcement world and I spent uh 30 years in law enforcement and U started with the Augusta Police Department which is a a large city um you know a mediumsized city probably 500,000 in the metropolitan area and uh we uh had opportun have a little golf tournament there you may have heard of because they Masters so handling events and things of that nature we had a river there uh we had a lot of events on so that was a lot lot of the security details there so experienc with that um also I uh so I've always always had opportuni to work my way up and been remoted so times throughout the the law enforcement ranks and then uh so in 2008 excuse me 2004 went back to my hometown to police force and with anticipation that one day I would be the chief and I was in 2012 we made a lot of great progress there um modernizing the police department and also reducing crime so in 2020 a midst of all the uh Co and other things that were going on in the police world started looking outside of that ended up uh in W Georgia um actually with their Police Department do some Consulting work and their City administrator decided to go back into the private world and I was asked to fill in and so six months later I became the permanent City administrator and been there little over four years now but we made some great progress U re building some infrastructure that had been badly neglected and um and we're actually moving to see forward right now really well thank you very much so we're g to go ahead and get started with the um supp to start you start M start on the end keeps it easier and that way I can keep up with it you otherwise otherwise I'm going to go ahead and start with well I don't want her to miss out that's that's important apologize coffee maker only brw so fast well that is something that we do need to to look into is and I've asked that multiple times as far as a new coffee maker here I have one too but I brought one in here for in here sometimes she is okay commissioner you're on start at the other we did not know I'm trying to keep it I'm trying to keep it that way and we didn't want to miss out anything that's fine copy um welcome good morning thank you for being here um actually I'm going to deviate just a a little bit um you mentioned that um you modernized the police department and reduce crime um do you want to share with us um um what some of the key measures were that you took um in reducing crime and um the kinds of issues primate issues that you were dealing with yeah great so uh so far as mod modernization went we were um we a lot of old equipment so you know made a picture to the C commission commission and a picture to them about upgrading our radios for safety and then also for putting computers in our car to do reports and things of that nature um we took on uh approach and we called it total policing which is kind of like community policeing and code enforcement together where um we went into areas like so I did a study of all our most our calls where the most of our calls were going to took some statistics like that and put it together we went and focus it on a particular area uh where uh there's a lot of uh just neglect in the neighborhood a lot of violations of people parking uh the wrong way on the street which seems like simple things but uh but they're parking on the street uh and so we we asked ask all the uh we started out with with a with a upgrade that so we went in there and we worked I say toal police and we work with our fire department and our public works together we all work together we went in there and we cleaned up the streets and we started by asking people you know parking the driveways and we went through and we clean all the curves and gutters uh they them spruce up gave them a little spruce up we painted U numbers on the sidewalk on the curve for the houses and and U while we were doing that we were inspecting little things like uh water meter covers that were broken or missing because you know policemen are finally walking the night to somebody's house and step there and you know break an ankal tear up a knee those kind of things those little things like that where little you would think but what it did it started generating pride in the community it built relationships in the community it allowed people to know who we were and and and feel free about talking to us and you would find out things that were going on that you didn't know what was going on so then we address those issues directly uh that's some of the things we did uh we relied on our sheriff's office at the time which was is a huge Sheriff's Office and um to do a lot of our investigating work and we just took we took that back over um so because from the smaller things like petty theft and things of that nature so uh we took a lot of that over other than Major Crimes we still off handle it then during all this we found out we had you know there's drugs usually in every Community a fact that where we at today in society but we found we had a couple other bigger drug problems and we addressed those directly so all that's reciprical and um My My My Philosophy and I'll be glad to tell you this and I stood on was that our job as the police force was to make the criminals the criminal element uncomfortable in our town so either they going to get in line or they going to leave or they w't to visit me anymore so that's just kind of it's kind of a very proactive approach but that's that's what we needed at the time great thank you very much that's I I appreciate that very informative okay commissioner sure um we you're a city manager now City administrator so how do you really view the relationship between the city manager and the commission well it's a working relationship right so [Music] uh you are the governing body elected by 50 50% plus one right so you're the governing body so somebody put you there so the citizens expect you are entrusted you to to make good policies and so forth for the for the city the best interest um it's my job to carry out those policies but also to bring you good information good ideas uh more than one way to solve it there's always more than one way and this come up with the best the best way to solve a problem or move the city forward create and uh you know business or whatever it may be but it's it's a communicated it's a communica and honesty and um have to BU have to earn your trust I most confident your trust um okay I have one question um why are you interested in becoming this city man Christmas City okay so um number one location location location so so it's a similar size what I'm I'm working in now um uh got some good things going on it is a great location um my wife does a lot of business in the Orlando area uh so she's down here a lot um and you know I'm 55 so I figure you look at my resum I don't jump around job a lot I usually stay somewhere 10 12 years so I'm looking for a place that you know okay we're moving in the right direction you know this that are falling back got some positive momentum so that's good there's challenges there I like to be challenged and get things done so that's going to be also good and so those are the reasons is I think it's a good fit okay thank you Mr I kind of have a a similar question I mean you've been very successful in Georgia and so I was curious as to why why you leaving I mean why leave something that's good um but um you know we have a 5year strategic plan down here and um have you Tak a look at that I budget and um is that something you think you can help us implement sure so all all cic plans are great great plans um but you know it's like it's like eating elephant right you got this fiveyear plan so one bu at a time and it cannot interrupt the other aspects of the city so we can you tell me what your number one priority is let's go to work on it all all plans are plans like you go to a football game and you have a plan a game plan but the defense thrs you something different you going have to change that plan like so um so prioritizing what's number one let knock it out and as we're PL for number two the back of the lines and What's happen as we go that way okay I have one other question just kind of follow up U um you say that you have a police department we we did oh now we yes okay and and you I was just looking through all your references I didn't see uh I saw you had general fund about $2 million that's right it's G up this year but okay uh well my question is is um you know how did you fund your how many people do you have on your police department and how did you fund that yeah so uh they eat up a lot of avord taxes that's their reward it's uh uh So currently um we have uh eight full toown employees over the police department uh excuse yeah eight full-time employment and a part-time employee U and well two part-time one in office and another parttime officer so they eat up a lot of the AUM taxes they really do it's a u it's a it's a budget drink and um uh my my Council they're very partial to the to the police um that's one of my frustrating things is because I used to be a poli and I think they can do more with less you know but over there but it does take a lot of money well it it takes a lot of money and that's why I question because uh you know at one point we had a place Department here right and just to BR a police department of I think it was five or six took us almost about $800,000 at the time and then it was uh told that we needed more than five or six police officers to actually be legitimate s to speak which is you know so I'm thinking in myself I saw a $2 million budget that you have here I was thinking oh my gosh you know that you proba most of that give example you are using second question commissioner don't think I'm not noticing so so uh we uh over got $2.3 million in taxes last year and uh and we spent uh over budget $850,000 Poli part last year last year so uh lot over time but u a lot that's one of my heartbreaks a lot of unnecessary over time but so a lot maybe they say you have enough there's a study there's been some studies about how many police you need based on call volume and so that's very subjective you know you know it just depends where you're at you gonna need you know the same you have let's say 2 m square area in New York City you going to need a lot more police officers than you need a 2 m square area in pres City Florida so just to put a number out there saying you need one you need 1.75 officers per per ship that's very subjective I don't necessarily agre you know I like the idea that you're you're very positive about that but we not sh and I and I hope that you look at that aspect I I re if it was up to me for the city of wle to get some things done that we need to get done we would do the same thing for County to me but government board right so okay let's not let's we're getting into the yeah it's called nitty greedy yeah so um Mr flowers first off I want to say um you I know that you've made some additional requests um of information just trying to get a a really good feel of the city um very appreciative of that you obviously have done your homework um and and so yesterday you had an opportunity to tour the city and see it through multiple eyes um tell me tell me what your your thoughts are and whether you feel like um we we could your skills could could help us improve in some of our areas that you've seen sure so first you know first thing I think that it's a lot prettier than it is online thank you I think that U um you would uh we would I would obviously want to and I know I rebranding so I go to the next step and and be very U proactive with the U with the digital branding right to get it out there um to promote the beauty of the city um maybe uh that would generate interest right for businesses for even give Pride more Pride to your residents they obviously do a great turnout this day and a great turnout last night so people are engaged so those some some things I would do out the back is just say spe up you know we need to Cle City Hall a little bit I'm you know big on that making it look great and uh so we do things like that make sure our buildings are Tip Top before we go out and and and uh you know we're asking I know we're asking some of the business to do it through the CRA which is great but we need to take care and I [Music] would we hit the ground running doing that and I've done that I remod my police station I remodel our community center ATA and we remod headed up remodeling our community center there in Wy so we make some great improvements I got pictures I'm glad to share all those with you um but that's what I would do first of all right so then when you do that then we're going to start we'd have to Pro we got to take advantage of of these natural resources you have around here the lake we got to promote that and to get some things going and you get that traffic and I know you want it controlled you don't want to just go wild you don't want um um you know 500,000 people showing up here are you know but you got to control these things and make plans as far as uh you know setting up strategically traffic flows and things of that nature you really promote uh the uh what you have here which is a great natural resources and beauty and get people off that inter start with um sure and by the way I I asked um how you reduce crime not that I was suggesting you would run a police department here but just your approach to practical problems sure which um it seems like you have a lot of experience with solving practical problems um where is this so um can you tell us about um your a little bit about your um management style and um how you would uh see yourself going about managing a a new group of people here in creson City great so um I'll tell you my first 30 days will be buil building relationships um you know first couple people I want to meet I do want to meet the captain that was here yesterday called to him probably go meet the sheriff I want to find out y have Emergency Management director right got meet him right and then of course all our firem and our public safety stuff is important but as I meet the staff you just to learn them but uh I'm a I'm a common sense uh practical kind of guy if it if it's not broke I'm not going to break it uh so you have to learn you have to learn your employees and see what they do best and everybody's different I'm a very happy gol lucky guy coming every morning positive speaking to everybody seeing how their day is but some people don't react to that well people I work with now the way about five people in City Hall and you know three hey how you doing I want hey Mr flowers she like whatever scared to death I me but she's like best employee got and so I that's with her you know I try to I try to make her smile but she told her happiness with yes so uh so that's that's my management style and I and I do self checks right so speaking to my employes I gave them all an assessment I gave them a questionnaire last year hey tell me what you think about me basically it was you know it's about 10 questions and I asked them to go through it and ask compared to today we wor three years years ago at the time when I first started you give me the pros and give me the cons and so I take a few back from them as well but I try to encourage them to be the best they can be I want to build them up that they leave and go work for another city or that they want to stay here that you know when I retire 10 12 years from now they can take my place you don't have to do this again so I build them up train them up into to session plan right so uh those are the things that we want to do and um how that's how I manag and um and I encourage them uh to think for they come to me with a problem I'm say hey give me three give me three suggestions you went and then when they can find it well they'll probably figure out what's the best Avenue to take so that's how that's how that's how I do it thank you thank you very much yes um I know of your iPad there technology how experienced are you with computers technology it's something that we definitely need a little bit of help around here with yeah so City that's in my personal SWAT analysis uh that was a pro andon right that was a lot of things I did more digital but we have a older much older U population in our city and I got some push back from from that because a lot of them still they still wanted me to go to the Post Office to hang up notices and so uh which we have accommodated I did FR doing a newsletter so they actually a piece of paper going but uh uh I think I've advanced technology greatly I know the city of Wy um know I have a wife that's that's kind of H it she's 's a travel agent she owns a u she call it it's called socially awkward and she does social media um branding and marketing so I get a lot of training at home did that wrong that doesn't look good so but uh for as technology i u i everything's that way and so very adapt to it but I'm a Android gu I am I am we all that's right matter of fact I had City phone for a long time I had to I tell you I had a my mar Apple guy but anyway uh so I had an Android obviously and then so I got my city phone I give me an iPhone so I can FaceTime the mar when he's out of the country whatever and we got in the hurricane you know hurricane clean is really really hard mer phase I'm trying to get all these government numbers off my iPhone so I went to the morning the fireman had the C switch the SIM cards out so I can actually function under stress I think I the phone that we have the city manager so there's a new kind of diversity Android versus iPhone the whole community I'm I'm an Android and my entire family is an iPhone and they constantly tell me for Christmas I'm getting an iPhone I can't Face Time okay sure it's just a quick question we have some Enterprises here with our gas company and water um have you ever managed a gas company or any type of Enterprise have you ever done so we have water sewer and sanitation we do that don't have gas in the city but I'll will tell you that I'm a quick learner I have resources to tap into if I have questions that I trust the neighboring cities both have gas um and matter of fact when I became a city manager the most thing I ever knew about a water L break was standing out there directly traffic around I can fix some now you know you know just I grew up on a farm you know so just the size of the magnitude right I pip stff like that so that doesn't scare me but managing the the water the water insur and this in sanitation I'm sure it's going to be similar as far as the Enterprise part of it the finances and of that nature okay yeah because we we definitely need someone that has an understanding especially of our gas I'm [Music] learn I do know yesterday he was asking questions like um how much water does our water tank you know how many gallons and I'm like that's not a May question come back are you good good okay sure and um just to assure you we do have a very capable um gas department director although um he has been here for many years and will at some point be retiring um anyway so my question to you is um can you tell us a little bit about your style of communicating with um commission members um how you keep them informed um about C activities and operations yeah great so uh I think I was was you last night but uh so um one of the things that um that I do on a weekly basis or U is every Monday and we us do it used to do it at breakfast but every Monday mornings were kind of chaotic so every Monday afternoon about lunch time we usually all my partment heads leaders they come in together and we discuss um I check you know I check with the key guys has over the weekend or Monday morning hey anything major happen this weekend I need to know about uh and I'll get the information out to you quickly but we us have staff meeting every Monday and so I know what the issues are and then we also review what's coming up obviously um and um we have a system called Tex mov and it's a it's a it's a great system I'll be glad to sh out to you'all but our citizens can opt in and they can U get messages from us everybody not on Facebook older people told me down a lot so everybody's not on Facebook so we got text my go and they op in and they also can report problems to us as well and it's a great system it's not really that expensive for C our size this size U but anyway um so all my uh councilmen are on that mass system like that now the thing about that message is going out or obviously one way but always thought hey you know feel free to call me if you have any one question but I'm FL I say last them but I give them uh stuff that I think they need to know right away obviously have to learn y'all what's more important than what's not but I'm J Gonna Give You general information hey we got a order main break guys are on the scene they're working on it keep you updated you know and know call me there's a problem and lot times y'all get the information for I do y'all call me and say you know there's a waterm break over here so but anyway uh but I communicate that way uh don't give you every little thing that's going on because really doesn't you don't really do that in my opinion unless you just want that but anything major anything that might I say hey this this might get cause y'all to get a phone call you're going to know about it [Music] quicker oh I got so so anyway that that's it I communicate I think I make exception well I they would tell you that I know y'all don't be surprised I don't I like surprised thank you that's important do you have experience with C or Main Street yeah so so the C we have something similar right side grants things of that nature so that would be yes uh the main street we don't have it in our city as it's on this we used to have a Development Authority which is similar um and they shut it down before I got there um and it needs to come back the issue is we were so far behind with our uh struct work we need to do I really focus iove approve our Police Department equipment uh greatly our fire department equipment greatly and our infrastructure we' made great strides in the four years that I've been there and we're we're in my process of building a new Wastewater Plant right now so commission okay commission B you're still not it I um yes and I have two questions but okay um as you know we have a small staff so one question I have for you is um are you accustomed to writing requests for proposals and other bid documents I am okay um just to make sure and then um i' ask this pretty much of everyone um if you were offered the job and accepted do you have a timetable in mind um on how long it would take you what what is your timetable for taking this position if you would be offered it sure uh the minimum I'd like to offer my C would be 30 days I'd really like six weeks though which would be more I mean I say I'd really like six weeks that was so the first of March yes [Music] um so commissioner were those your two questions they were okay commissioner um I think I'm good think you're good okay um I think um commissioner Mo you good commissioner Burt you are caught up boy she I tried to stay with her but I know it's tough it's tough okay um with that this is your opportunity put us on the hot seat that's why that's why we had the temp to turn down we're now on so this is your opportunity to ask us um any questions that that you might have so uh while we we actually talked about it I can tell but uh but I guess thing what did you think what would you say is the most significant challenge I'd have walking in day one people management okay okay employees well employes and and possibly Commissioners yeah okay yeah just people people in general we're very diverse we have a lot of ideas sure a lot of our own ideas so so to you kind of bring all of this together and yeah I think that' be you know probably be very signicant start look at me like that I would just say I agree with and also the public you know because that's you work for us but you also work for the public that's one the things you might if someone's going to come in the door and say Hey I want to talk to the city manager you know they might just want to ask about what their zoning is or something like that but they're going to want to talk to you because you're the boss so you're the one in charge um so that's just you got to be ready for that spending half your day talking to people but that's what that's what you have to do but you do have some great you would have some great staff supporting you so commissioner de it sure um I think it would be you know probably somewhat similar to what you experienced coming into your current city manager job um you would be the key Point person for a lot of projects that we have going on we have um the waterm project underway we've requested legislative Appropriations those are going to have to be monitored um we meet every month and um you would have to well you would have to work with a very new clerk who is my understanding um as far as I know has not previously been a city cler before um so and you would have to become familiar with all the specific for the laws um and make sure that our agendas that and um ordinances get properly noticed etc etc so um I don't um discount the um man the people management but there'll be a multiplicity of things to do sure keeping keeping things going great so follow everything one is is that you know reading Law understanding law I I'm very confident I can Pendle that you know understand get in line I'm sure there's I know there's a Florida City County manager association we have in Georgia and and U you know I'll use those resources to make sure I'll reach out I'll make relationships I think to the rest of you uh you know I think people used to ask me what's what it takes to be a good police officer and it's the same thing that it takes to be a good police city manager right that's two things I think that's common sense people skills and I think I excel up in those areas so um solving people's problems listening to people um and then communicate with you guys go back to your communication every one of y'all may have a different idea you know takes three of yall to make something happen right so it's my my job is to bring you the data the information and what I feel like is the best process for now I disagree with Mr I disagree with mrito but agree with bton it doesn't mean that I'm taking sides this is what I really think my subject going to be factually based and hey what can we afford what's the data show into to your point what the legal verifications would be and that's how we' work this out um I do like your approach and and I know we had a former city manager and that was that was his um ideology also is that we got to take pride in ourselves first um and and that and that has that has definitely been proven to be a benefit um I think as we've as we've taken pride in ourselves we saw the way to go you know there's some budget constraints um we see other others taking pride in in their properties as well and so that's um I like that you that you do bring that approach that you also bring that approach and so that would be one of the things that with me and you ask me is it's of course always going to be people it's going to be um you know managing staff um with morale and keeping it up and and um and and then dealing with the public um and and being accessible um that to me is is is is important um and you saw you saw the city yesterday and you had an opportunity to meet you know a lot of our some of our residents and of course the Commissioners and so it's it's sing multiple personalities absolutely yes sure um do you have any other questions of us I think I'm good you're good okay thank you thank you very much you commissioner do you have any other questions question would you adion yourself living in City moving here yeah so uh you know the cave that talk to a couple of Y last night is I have a 13-y old son want to put him in the best school situation I can so I'm not telling you it's out R I don't want to commit to that without doing a little bit more research on the educational process opportunities for him he's an advid golfer um so things of that nature from course before as golf teams or whatever sports or whatever you might potentially give him opportunity maybe go to college not cause me to pay for that tuition would be great those same kind of things so I don't I'm not against it matter of fact we saw a little house a little earlier today we actually called on it just just in case and kind of try to look at it because um so at least uh you know there W be Georgia until the end of the school year he's in 8th grade and he'll start high [Music] school and I can understand I had B her also and she through her senior year um she went more academic I understand importance of that and they have a lot of teams actually something to look into um and we have one over here we have The Oaks is over here we're about to hold a golf tournament there on February 8th in memory of one of our former um football coaches um they hold it an become an annual gol tournament some asked me to play last night my husband looked at me you got but um but anyway so there are some there are some those opportunities you might want to look into and I know that the O I mean the um the golf course is municipal course in Alka but they host um Junior golers um matter of fact our church development doers go to the majority of our church development gosl febrary 8 we actually going to be down here because my granddaughter she's cheering she's cheering she's she's B she has her heart by the way but she's cheering in Orlando so we're be we so we get the golf tournament [Music] too well thank you very much with that commission we need a recess or are we good to go on to our next I need recess okay I'm going to take five minutes e e e e e e e e e e we are back and Mr Adams welcome to pres city um you were um right up right early this morning here thank you sorry for the we we told you that to anticipate that a little bit yesterday so um but that's good that means that we've got you know with everybody that we're engaged um so with that I'm going to start off with I know you did it last night if you would just kind of give us your three minute elevator pitch about who you are and what you bring good morning uh again just want to apologize for my voice still trying to get over this cold uh so jald Adams i' I've U my background is primarily was primarily in Information Technology that's where I did the majority of my my career um and then I in the city of Sebastian I went I was fortunate enough to WI a seat on there city council I serve two terms here one is their Vice May and in doing so I realized you know I actually liked the work I enjoyed U working with the the residents and with the c the city staff to do whatever I could to make the city CER um so after coming to that realization I actually went back to school and got my master in public administration and then start out employment and I was the city administrator for the city of oakill I had that position for a year until the C changed uh so I I've had a I'd say a pretty good experience in that one year just for the reason that the city's staff was extremely small the staff was total of six uh three Public Works one code enforcement One ad assistant and a parttime building inspector and myself so I got my hands in everything um I was doing the HR stuff Finance the health benefits yours planning um going out to look at uh code viations with a code officer and preparing the uh agenda because I was also the clerk getting things done as far as resolutions organiz so yeah talking with other State officials or country officials attending meetings it it was it was a full plate so if nothing else I think gave me a broad very broad um introduction to what city government is and and different functions within city government thank you I'm going to um we're going to start some questioning um and so I'm going to start with commissioner Burton and um [Music] again finish you don't ever start in the middle I what saying start the middle start on and we're gonna um start with your first question okay um first question welcome number one to welcome you here and I hope you actually get this this cold it's been going on for a lot of people lately uh so what do you view as the opportunities and disadvantages in joining us what what is it that you want to accomplish here uh just in going around see the looking at the uh the plan that you guys have it seems like there's a lot that we would like to get the the CRA comes to mind that's something that I I actually peat my interest uh trying to revitalize the area making it um business friend attracting more businesses to the area uh not only for you tax fices but to help your your race uh they or jobs or places that they'll be able to spend their money here to get the things they need rather than going out of town and take their with um the area like I said too I it's very well kept that's one of the things that I noticed it was very well kept and I like very nice for me what iing to get besides more exps is to help the city get to where they want to be thank you thank you actually you answered my question I was going to ask you what was your impression of City so um you want to elaborate a little bit more what you saw on your tour um like I said very well kept one things that I really really stood out to me um and for being such a small City to have your own utilities that's something that struck me because that's not that's not all so for you to be able to have your own utilities to provide those services to your citizens I thought was very very committ and uh I I hope the ciens appreciate it because it's not something that uh you find in many places and to not um being un sewer and not ontic especially being so close to the river that's a step towards reducing pollution and that's something that everybody's trying toasted is still predominantly SE un yes so coming here to hear that you you have sewer that was something that was pretty special that was PR good something we take for granted um I was just looking at your agendas at oill and it seems like recently you guys had a lot of growth a lot of new buildings a lot of new development um and so what is your experience as far as planning and you know the planning field we have a contracted planner but it's still something that the city manager needs to know about like all those maps on the wall behind you kind of what those those colors mean and stuff do you have experience with that I did not until I got to oill um I learned a bit but we also had a contract firm that did planning for us so I was able to sit with them and learn as you know as I went so it's still not I still wouldn't call myself a planner by any stretch of my but I have learned a lot more so than I did what I just started there great thank you thank you for being here um what would be um your first steps on becoming city manager here um what would you plan to accomplish or how would you spend most of your time in the first 90 days in the first 90 days the exact you get into the staff getting to know what staff is working on um what progress is made for the next actually meeting with the commission to get their their what what the commission's priorities um time frames and see how best we can move out to get those accomplished in the time frame that you desire good very much um and and coming from Sebastian and I know the driving back in hour and a half Drive each way you had an opportunity to plan your day and shut your day down um what are your thoughts about relocating to to this area I know you've obviously applied to this position here in Crescent City but um what are your thoughts of not being able to relocate here and how quickly think you to do that yeah that's that is something that I would definitely be looking at because two and a half hours back and for family too wouldn't be something that i' want to go on a daily basis so I definitely initially be looking for somewhere to rent just so I could be in the area to make sure it's a good fit for both of us make sure I'm I'm here you're comfortable with me and when thing is seems like it's good then we look at relocating family ini would just be myself here um as far as time frame a month or two just so I because I'm not familiar with the the you know the housing situation here so just to give myself some time to see what's available and what what cost okay thank you um you pull your microphone I'm sorry commissioner Burton just said that thank you have you been involved with planning and Zing at all in OT any other areas that you worked in I have um like I said we do have that that firm that does the the plan for but as far as when the developers bring their their application and be the person that have would have to take application uh go through it to make sure everything that we required is there before sending on to the planners to be collecting whatever fees that need to be collected um and I would have a monthly meeting with uh not only the planners but our building official um someone from the county the um fire marks just to make sure that we're all on the same page and everything is being the way it should be anything is needed and then we also contact with the developers to say this is what's needed or [Music] good okay a question just a little bit um can you um tell us some of the skills and experiences that you um have that will make you successful for this job I I consider myself to be very organized um and oriented I like to plan things before I actually move into I'm not one to just jump and do something I like to plan it out and know what I'm doing what my steps are what resources I'm going to be needing um so in that sense I I think that's that's one of my strongs um I like to know what's happening so I can keep regular contact with staff just so I know where they are they need any help from me for anything or need to get any other resources for them um yeah that's I open communication okay that's always a a key make sure everybody's on the same thing okay question more um I would just like to know how how did you run a whole city six people it's I mean looking at the website you definitely said set up the website with all the minutes and agendas and stuff on SharePoint very classic very so obviously you have the technology background yes which we can use backr I can tell so um you know I don't K you guys didn't have utilities though at all so you have experience of running no we all our business go through the and we do work a lot with the county as far as something like our building department is all our building inspections go to County and then we do our planning we have our contract so it's sometimes it's juggling trying to get everybody together on the same thing which on the same page but um do you have um is there any particular successes that you had in O that you think show how great of a city manager you are or something like that is there anything particular that you did during the last that year that you were really proud of uh when I started the the previous city manager and clerk had left like six months prior and there was only the ad assistant in the office so as far as U the books were concerned finances it was not good um she just writing checks and you know paying bills whatever so I think what I did was something good for them I actually got a third party company to come in to take over our books to bring them up to make make sure everything got reconciled we could get a report to see how much money we had spent and how much was left so I did that and that I think was one of the big big things for our city so that they could see where they stood financially um other things because of the size of the city then disted it's just the day today Stu that I so being able to work with companies to get new playground equipment for par get locks on the doors type of it was just pretty much day today running running the the the operations um you couldn't get too much into large projects because just didn't have the staff that could accomplish it um they did have a uh a SE dour conversion going on when I got there and I was able to work with the Cy and um the state they had they receiv received a grant to get a certain section of the city put on to sewers and to work with them to get that completed State we got more Monies to we can actually give to the residents to assist in connecting um to the SE to the SE system and there's a lot you be you would be doing a lot of getting blocks on things here taking you know it's everything from the big big picture to the small picture so we might have bigger stop but it's still your and everything that's what I when I said not very big it's not a very big community so I understand you having such a [Music] small great uh thank you so much um so and it's okay if you uh don't but I am because obviously you are good at learning things um do you have experience in writing rfps and um other bid documents and um I assume managing contracts I mean do you have you actually written a requests for proposals yes I have I've actually written a couple I've written one for uh actually went for rp40 bank for what a bank a new bank for for the city so that was um that was still old when I I departed um to remember the other I did but I I have done I have done and contract management have you done contract management um U I wouldn't say exactly um I've had contracts that were in place that I've had to me with like state agencies or a or something like that I'm not sure that's exactly ask yeah sure um my question is I I take it that you know based on your on your application your resume you departed oill in November is that correct yes that's corre okay was that under your terms I mean is that uh with the new commission that came in they decided to move okay and that happens and that does happen especially in this in this realm that you that you have embarked on you know and it's and we have to understand that that it's just a whole different you know you get a new commission um and so that's something that you know um thankfully right now I think we're pretty set we're pretty set for a little while right we just had our election we just had our election but it can do it can do I um it can change things a little bit when new Commissioners come in different ideas and they want something a different thank you for your honesty I got to to to take part in my first elections find everything get all that that was interesting uh definitely you know learning curve invol it was interesting to get to see that part of uh government now work is and you set on the side too so you understand you understand I've seen it from both sides you you've seen it from both sides a lot of people get that perspective and say that's that's that's a good quality that you can bring to where you come where that I'm GNA go back down to commissioner bton I'm good you did I'm good you good okay commissioner um I would just like you to tell us what do you think presid where your impressions to where you think we're going I see the development that's possible the plans that you for to make the city that much better than it is it's looks pretty good already for iess I keep saying that I guess it really impressed me that way when first heard present small like okay it's not going anything that c it actually looks very good it's very impressed and again I tell you because you have your own utilities not something you see everywhere so it's interesting that you're so a small City but you still are able to provide such good services so to be a part of that would be be quite interesting sure um just one more question a little bit about trackr so you had um oill had six employees and in your career um have you ever had what is the largest number of employes you've had under your um scope of responsibility and would you know do you feel that you would be comfortable managing um 20 plus employees in Crescent City then most of of employees I've had under being 17 okay um again in the it field when I work for St luy County I was the um the network operations coordinator had 17 people reported me three different sections the health bu the network guys and assists and Telecom team um I worked directly with the CIO in preparing uh for strategic plan uh doing budgets uh organizing any any like projects that we might have for so I'm comfortable working with uh lot people backgrounds ands have that great thank you that's very very specific and very helpful thank you um I don't have I don't have any questions I think you answered everything that I had um so you can put us on the hot seat now and so are there any questions that you have of the commission um typical would be what are your expectations of the person you bring on at C maner for the first 90 days well I think the first expectation that I have is for you to come on in see who your staff really is learn staff uh and then of course you know get to know your Commissioners but you will very quickly get to know the Commissioners because that's just who we are and uh and then from from there okay you we'll give you we'll give you a few days now but you know to kind of settle in and um but but that I know would be kind of the first first step uh to just kind of get to know what's going on kind of catch up with everything [Music] would said I mean you got to get to know your staff you know you see them every day you see us every you know week or so maybe how on some of us but you'll get emails from all of us phone calls but you know it's the the citizens that you'll be seeing every day and and the staff that you know you get to you need to get to know and get figure out everyone's you know how everyone works kind of the management style and their their work style and your management style so it's getting familiar with everybody and figuring out what's going on and we'll each sit there for a few hours and tell you what we think is right but you got to take all that and then kind of make it happen or make it figure out what's to listen to or what to actually do so it's a we we like to talk a lot so he speaks for not everybody some right okay um well um I would say in addition to getting to know everyone um I see that you're a member of the Florida City County manager association and the Forida Association of city clerks since you functioned as cork um which is very admirable and helpful um I guess it would be important to me that you would um follow the code of ethics of the um I guess it's the international City County manager association um and do your best to give us um all the information the correct information to supply the commission with the information that we need to do our jobs and to always be um you know honest straightforward and and trustworthy that we can rely on the information um that you would provide to us and be as complete as possible um and in addition to getting to know [Music] us um probably what I would be looking for is I'm looking for stability and and more commitment and knowing that someone is coming in and willing to work with our staff get to know our staff um and and get comfortable get comfortable in that position um at the same time keeping keeping the city going I mean that's that to me is is extremely important there's a lot of hats that you wear um as you know from being kill and small staff it's it's it's a it's a can be a benefit can also be a curse because certain things you know you're trying to juggle like you said yesterday there's a lot of plates in the air all the time and um being able to juggle those flights and multitask um and that would be very important to me is the ability to be able to multitask [Music] also it's just part of it's just part of the job but you also learn a tremendous amount um in doing so so you have any other questions of us as far as um the the residents within the city party involved the C meetings um start yeah I justed sure okay um so you want to know what level of involvement yes do the residents of our community have um I would say that um it's very mixed we have a lot of people who we really don't hear from unless there's a problem um who don't necessarily come to the me meetings or belong to a community group so we kind of have um you know what they used to call the kind of the silent majority that some people are just um we don't hear from them unless there's a problem but we have a smaller group of people um much smaller who are very active in community fairs and groups and who volunteer and who do come to meetings um we have people serving on our um planning and Zing commission and um we have a tree board um and it's you know we don't always have a multiplicity of people applying for those positions but we've been able to build them so I would say um we have quite a few people who put in a lot of time trying to make the city better but it's it's a sub group so I hope that's helpful yes um I would agree with Mr veto I me you saw who was here last night some of them are here right now some didn't want to get up that early this morning um but you know we do have our regulars that you would see at every meeting um and they keep an eye out for things they also you know keep everybody else informed so you have a lot of people that do care and they like you said there are some that you just W hear anything from unless there's a problem but when there's a problem they're going to come straight to us or they come straight to you so you will hear from them so it's best just to be prepared for that or make sure everything keeps working yes I guess wonder I'm not saying anything but I am new eled so there's a lot that I'm still learning as well so I'll here more things later I myself together thank you just keep in mind too um we also Zoom our meetings on YouTube at same you know they're Zoom live so there are people that actually watch on Zoom do you have interaction with the people on Zoom we do have some issues right now technical issues I think you know a lot of people complain that they can't really hear us and so so there's some things that we that we need to kind of update I think along the way here this year hopefully but but there are people on Zoom that that get on Zoom watch us and you know I hear from those people quite a bit so there you go and that's um and all of that a lot of that happened through okay being able to and we did we did have interaction during that time we offered that opportunity um during that time some of us came in during Co you know so that was that was a challenge too um we do offer that it is a um we don't have to have we don't have to do that we just feel that that just keeps everything transparent and gives people an opportunity we have an older population here too that sometimes especially when the time changes they want to know what's going on they're not um it's not that they're not involved it's just driving after dark um is is is difficult and so that provides them an opportunity to um to to be aware of what's going on in the city um it also provides um us and others an opportunity to view from the past you know how did we handle things um you know what do we say here what do we do here so um I think that's been a benefit and that's why you know we've just continue that forward um and keeping that there um but yeah but it it is so we do while you see um you know a lot of often times our usual um audience bases familiar faces there's faces out there that are watching us um surprising you know I have people that I run into when they and I saw what y'all you know what y'all did and what you said and and how's this going to happen and I'm like wow you know they are watching um so they are engaged so the community some you know that wants to be engaged they have that opportunity to be as engaged as they would like to be those are the people that usually meet in wi [Music] Dixie don't ever think can go and just get your ice or sour or ice cream yeah something I brought to them to able to get their meetings live stream on YouTube for them also they still just viewing uh no interaction they never had that before yeah so when people wanted to see something from 3 months they have to call you'd have to download it no they can just go on YouTube to everything is out there one other quick question as far as what's the relationship of the the commission here with the county with the county yeah there um I you should ask I mean we have we have we have an inter agreement on certain things that spells their obligations for like animal control is done by is carried is carried out by the county um we'd like to have a little bit more of that than they provide but um a lot of the County Recreation stuff they they cover a lot of Recreation services um like so we we work with them and we we we have a new commission several new Commissioners just SE it and I think our relationship with count is going to improve after this or at this time because we have some Great Commission so it's uh it's anybody else well I think our face really has been mayor Myers primarily with the commission um she's kind of on face for commission for puton County tourism the CH chamber she she's the one that really kind of represents us as a commission does a very good job by the way Bill thank you thank you tries to bring everything back and sometimes when you're talking about the County Commission it can be somewhat confusing uh just because of some of the different things that we are discussing as commissioner or says you know the animal control and all the different things that uh that we get you know kind of updated and fixed within the county along city as well so yeah it's been a good thing we get on pretty well s that was an excellent question um we're a small County so um we tend to know other I mean people even we live in the southern part southeast part of the county um we tend to know who our County Commissioners are and know some or all of them personally and they know most of us probably um we've always had a good relationship with the commissioner in South County um it just changed I think that's going to continue um we're also a poor County and so we do have an interlocal agreement with the county um for for certain services and responsibilities um the county is not always able to do as much as we would like and um there there are areas that maybe sometimes um we would hope the county will take care of but sometimes that falls back on us um just because of the lack of resources I mean we're we're officially a disadvantaged area um but I would say um the Rel relationship is good and the communication is good but it is something that we have to keep on top of just to make sure um that we're we're getting the services that we need and that they you know know what our needs are um I can I can probably expand on that a little bit so uh we have worked really hard I believe in in making sure that that our voice is heard in in that's where our county seat is I think we went over that yesterday um and so that they don't forget that once that bridge at D Creek that the county doesn't stop there um and I feel like our our previous County Commissioner he was Bard race here and um he um really uh worked hard to make sure that we got representation and possibly we had getting in the past and I know when I came on that was that was a big um issue for me too and I sit on several boards with with the county um and so I'm constantly saying wait a second what about South puam you know don't forget about us um I will say that prent city is represented and has been invited um to sit at quite a few tables there and um so I think that that we've really worked hard this commission um has worked really hard to try to build those relationships with the county as live always you know there's there's you know conflicts that we you know try to get through I know Animal Control right now is a big issue for us um and we're trying to work through them with it but they usually are very um responsive and I know during our emergency um when we have an emergency when we're in an emergency situation here we have um a top um Emergency Management portion in the county and they work with all municipalities and they make sure that we're taking care of and if we have need they get down here I mean just like with a generator situation this last time all we had to do was reach out and say hey we need a generator I believe two down here like almost immediately um so so in that regard I think that you know we've gotten some some strong voices we have a new uh County Commissioner who is also from this area and thankfully he's well known across the county um and very respected and so he like commissioner Mo they're just getting their feet wet and kind of learning you know their boundaries and what they can you know what we need and what we don't need but he I think will be a a a strong advocate for this area and looking very forward to working with them as well you have anything else oh that was it you good well thank you commissioner you have anything no well thank you very much we appreciate you coming here and um and and W to be part pres thank you for G the opportunity to for appreciate it I think George do you and Jim want to um take e mayor I have a very key question um really have we given the candidates an expectation of um no I think Jim and George have been talking to them um as our senior advisor you've been talking to them I think I know one has left um has anybody I think a couple have left but um I guess their expectation is that you will decide who you want to make an offer to today but um I don't think it's necessary for them to stay for that okay they they would like it would be appropriate after you're through for the staff to call them and let them know what what you did [Music] I think we need a break I would think so you want me to just I can bring some I can with Melanie and here we can bring some pick the table up and bring it [Music] out yes sir thank you um do we uh get to ask any questions of these guys or can we offer our who we think is the best candidate for the position at this point Point yes otherwise how have you how do you survey the people that were here last night and the people that are here today and the others that may want to say just based on wherever they gather their information in person or online would think this would be the and that commission um typically this is a decision that we that we make um I'm going to leave that up to the Commissioners so Commissioners what do you want to would like to do well my suggestion would be before we take a break and is to allow public comment of about two minutes these people have sat here all morning and if they have comment and want to give it in public I think we should let them if they prefer to meet with us during the break individually that's fine they can't so is Commissioners are you are you okay with that yes okay good we'll go ahead and so if you if you would like um please come forward state your name and your um address if you will and out now it's normally set for three minutes but well just no I won't be three minutes Michael Frank 83 Lake Shore Drive and I think he did a good job of getting the candidates here and selecting candidates there's two that are pretty neck and neck but there's one I think that stands out above the the rest of them and that swing flowers she has that small to experience I love his work ethic he's committed to staying in the community he's a family man um and the thing that impressed me too last night his wife was here and that's showing supporting spouse and we all know that's very important in one's home life and she's very excited about the prospects of Crescent City so I would say I would recommend the city and also have tremendously good vibe just talking to and even today it was on display very relaxed low key so I would say my recommendation to the commission is to make an offer to wa for hours thank you thank you for your we have anybody else I always that would be highly unusual for me not to have an opinion you said that not I think I think it's not a bad thing um you say it like it's a bad thing no I said you said it um I I believe that that our our Consultants did a really good job in their selection of candidates and you guys have a really tough decision to make um uh but I agree with Mr Franks that um Dwayne flowers was above and beyond with his experience and his personality which personality is a big part of this job and you can have the experience but if you don't have the personality to get along with people you're not going to be successful on our small town thank you thank you very much anybody else this your opportunity I mean at least come up and whether you're hopeful or I received emails from several members that also like good here right thank you for being here thank you hi hi friends I'm L Carter at 200 centr um I concur with uh both Miss Diane and Mr Frank I actually really wanted to get here last night but the dance coincided the the dance class coincided with the reception um I did on my way home uh yesterday I saw Mr flowers stopping people and shaking hands with them and I almost made a u-turn and it would have been completely illegal I just St myself and I said you know what God's got this but I uh yeah I just had put my two thank you thank you for being here today oh I appreciate it you guys are doing such an amazing job thank you thank you so much hey anybody else I know sounded like we wanted to uh to to say something um I'm John new and I live at 566 17 um you guys have a lot more experience in dealing with this than I do I do have an opinion but I'm not going to voice it here I think you have a great site of candidates I think each one of them have great qualities and I know you're going to make a good decision thank you thank you thank you okay I think we pretty much um Mr Doge you good come on you might as well thank you join in and while he's here I do want to say this Mr Dodge made this recommendation and and um I think it was a great recommendation the other night and I'm going to reach out um as soon as we get through this that we um have commissioner Banks acknowledged by the county you know sh I hav already done that thank you for bringing that to my attention and also to the governor um maybe they can do um he can do something as well so thank you for bringing that to our attention thank you mayor um first of all I want to point out that I think this chair needs to be adjusted because what happens when when candidates sit in at some of them they're back they're back from the edge of the mic three feet so it's hard to hear uh so I think if the back is a just to be more forward it might help they look very comfortable but it's hard for us to hear uh so so given that my first uh uh recommendation is Carl Brown I found that he was highly intelligent well educated well diverse I was very impressed that uh um with his energy and I I believe that U he uh I was impressed with his accounting background his financial investment background and highly impressed with his grant writing ability uh which is so important particularly to a small community uh like us uh the second choice um was more difficult for me U but I I agree that uh Mr flowers uh is a strong candidate unfortunately I couldn't hear all that he had to say um but in meeting him last night uh he and his wife um I I found them very pleasant uh and um Mr Adams is is also of uh of uh interest um in a second position as well unfortunately I I had to run home and missed the first part of his uh presentation thank you all very much than you very much appreciate thank you I think that's everybody um is there anybody else that wants to speak in this time if not I'm going to do a 30 minute [Music] recess e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e I'm gonna reconvene our special meeting at this time um thank you everyone for being here today and for enduring this I know it started it early this morning many of us were up very early this morning um good habit to get into you probably get the day started get the day started um with that I'm probably going to go ahead time Commissioners um and turn it back over to Jim and George so I know we've been doing this together for a few years well it's I hope you I have a question not everybody here if Jim could just briefly say who they are because some people I think don't know that they're volunteers from the league of cities all right well we are U George Forbes and I are senior advisers of the Florida City count manager association and the international city manager association we are both retired managers both about 31 years experience in various cities uh we volunteer to help out we don't get paid sometimes we get a registration con at a conference or something like that but that's about it um but we do a number of things um assist managers that just been fired uh we had help the mentor new managers but one other thing is to help the smallest cities and counties who can't normally afford executive Search funds uh when they're searching for a professional manager obviously in our whole career we we supported professional management and we sort to take it personally if we can help uh cities and counties to get professional managers and make like better for everybody so we've helped quite a number of cities and a couple small counties over the years but um and I hope we have been some service to you uh sounds like you you've gotten through your interviews and all the other steps of this process I guess there's a couple steps left obviously it's time for you to make a decision do you want to um to be your next city manager often times we recommend that a council uh consider a second choice in case you can't reach an agreement with the First Choice sometimes you know the first choice is say I want more salary than what you guys posted so it's often good to do that normally a elected body would authorize somebody to negotiate a contract with your manager most managers have contracts for because they're different than regular employees obviously normally include sance Pras if they're fired just because you have nothing nothing done by them but if you Council um normally a a body would designate their mayor or chairman of their County Commission as well as their attorney to negotiate contract uh we we have uh in our search guide uh a draft contract that includes wording on just about all the provisions you would want to have in a manager manager contract and it is in word format so it's really easy for your attorney to to use um so um while you're negotiating that we always recommend that you get a detailed background investigation on certainly your first choice because and we're talking um there is a by the way a document also in that search guide detailing all the pieces of that document but for example you want to verify their education you want to do a criminal background check with them signing off so that you can get the information uh of course to do a deep dive on a Google check to see what's in there um you know Financial background all that sort of things to make sure uh you know that that um everything is correct so with that and then of course that contract negotiation uh is subject to your commission approval before it becomes final but um somebody's got to deal with C with that I think you're coming in to the end of the process and I think you got some good candidates and GL to help way we can okay thank you we have um I know we have one candidate Mr flowers is still here um he is in the audience and um commission if you're okay with that I mean he can watch it on Zoom he can watch it here in person so if you are okay for our discussion as long as he's okay with our discussion um I don't think we can actually ask any we can we can I just wanted to make that him you know aware that in case anybody asked about that so I mean that's that's the sunshine L yeah I mean everybody for everybody El um because during the interview process they were sitting over there and said now we're now we're open um I'm going to open it up for um for some discussion we've gotten um four uh great applicants um I'm very excited about this for many of us um this is I know just in my fouryear tenure I've had uh two city managers and two inter managers uh so we've been through this a little bit under commissioner deito you have gone through it um since 2018 since 2018 and you had two additional ones there so um so you've gone through it six times um and I was included in one of those so I I I remember that very clearly um so with that um I'm just GNA open it up if um for discussion if anybody wants to start don't all jump in there okay you um okay um sure just um I want to say a couple things number one I appreciate everybody from the public who has come last night today um I think we've gotten a lot of good input and as well I think it's just a lot of moral support support and it helps us um I think when we're interviewing applicants that they know the community is interested and just thank for your time secondly um I think the process went well and I I've had the comment from residents I think we have a hard decision I think we got a very good pool of applicants um I think we need to figure out um how we're going to make the selection we didn't really um we didn't talk about that before but the other thing I want to say is um I appreciate each and every one of you I think we work together really well today um and um the four good candidates they asked great questions and I hope we do this again because uh because of their questions I think among us we've had some shared some very good information about our goals and objectives and what's important to us and I hope that we do this again even when we're not selecting appli I'm glad you're saying that because I don't like I don't like this again have someity there commission don't want to go through this not outside of selecting an applicant I hope that we undertake this kind of exchange again when we're um setting our plans so really my first question is I I think we have very good choices um and just you know how do we want to go about this do we want to say what attributes we think are good do we want to say who our first or second choices are or do we want to have um a ballot and then talk about that um I'm going to ask again we're asking our senior advisors just to make sure that we're you know we all have our different preferences how we'd like to do this but kind of based on your experience how you um the simplest thing to do is just have somebody make a motion okay and see if you get enough votes to support that you can you can do more but that I suspect most of you have your minds made up at this point anyway um [Music] no and I don't know so let's have some discussion I mean if we commissioner umiss Burton do you have anything that that you want to add or or that that has stood out to you I think what we all should do is just say you know we're five people here and just for all of our knowledge you know we've talked to four very good candidates but each and every one of us uh we all know that we have something probably very specific that's near and dear to our heart that we would like accomplish here in the city and what is that and maybe we can take what we learned from each one of these uh people and see if it applies to where we want to go to the city I do I kind of does that make some sense well I have a I have a little bit different take on it and commissioner L sounds like he does as well um aside from the specific things that we each want to get accomplished um I'm hoping that we will hire a candidate who has the best ability to do the job to as the mayor said keep the city running um and also bring whatever strengths and talents they have there to keep the city going um I see distinct talents and um abilities in each of these candidates that are a little bit different um and I I think um you know we we can't roll them all into one so we have to choose one um but I do think it's very important um you know that we look at someone who can who can really do the job who can best do the overall job to keep the city functioning and I think that's our purpose so are we going to do this with a silent Vote or are we going to do this right up front I think make motion commissioner Lor did you Personal Privilege turn you're warm I'm very warm so sorry but I can also make a motion if you'd like you me um yeah you you want if you want to make a motion I think um I'd like to move that we offer the position to Dwayne flowers with the stipulation that the background check needs to be done and subject to contract negotiation okay we have a prop motion we have a second then we can go into discussion um for purpose I'll I'll second it for is a discussion okay so let's have some discussion so what do we do we have any I I think Mr flowers obviously is doing almost the same job right now in Georgia um I think that several members of the public talk to him everybody likes his Vibe they like his approacha leness I found a very to talk to and he definitely has the skill set to step right in and start from day one knowing what's going on so I like that um I I I can add this and that um that Mr flowers out out of all the applicants um he he did his research um no doubt he reached out to to former members I mean former former leaders here in the community um he asked and sent in a lot of request so that he had the proper documentation so that he was prepared for this um and and so having and I and I do tend to work very closely with the city manager um as we all do um and find that it's it's important that someone and that's the one thing about Michael I think we've been very blessed is that his background his experience his knowledge he has been able to be action oriented and hit the ground running he's done a lot of things that he did not have to do as an interim um that's really what I'm looking for is someone that can come in here and and hit the ground running and and keep us keep us upright and still be have that personable um I I like that he was personable and and I think right now our staff um we have some um I mean's we'll be honest we do have some morale issues right now because there's so many uncertainties and so we need somebody that also that can pull our staff back together and say you know you're Valu you're here um I see you I want to work with you and I want you to be the best that you can possibly be and after looking at all the applicants and after having an opportunity to talk to them all on an individual basis I I truly feel like Mr flowers um he is he brings that skill set that's my that's my take on it you have anything else is anybody commissioner Mo commissioner Burton I did the second but I do have a comment okay so um I was very impressed with Mr flowers um I think commissioner Lor is absolutely right he's doing um pretty much he's doing the job that we need to have done and um I agree with you he has a very good approach to dealing with people um I also um was very impressed with uh Mr Carl Brown and a couple of residents when they gave their preferences noted um that he is very knowledgeable about budgeting um he's never done this exact job before um but he seems to have a lot of talent and um he's kind of what you call a non-traditional applicant but he has a lot of talent and I like the way that he also he has um in his master's degree he has concentration in urban planning which I thought oh my goodness um and I liked his um his creative attitude and his ability to weigh pros and cons he talked to us a lot about that well you could do this but then you have to think about um the flip side what would the effects be and how do you um how do you bring all the pros and cons together so he had a lot of talent but he's never done this before so um as much as I would like to take advantage of that talent and give a kind of a new person a chance um I think the more sure bet is Mr FL and Mr with all probably he probably be my second choice and then we're going to have to make a second choice exact um he would be my second choice but he doesn't while he brings um he brings the finance aspect that we need desperately the nuts and bolts he doesn't and so we have a learning curve there that we would have to understand and right now I just don't just motion is for correct know we're off on no she was just saying she was discussing her her her choices what she was thinking about the applicants for the applicants okay so so so the motion is whether or not what is the motion well right now right now it's discussion so we're having discussion so the motion is for Mr flowers okay so for Mr flowers and so we're having our discussion and so the purpose of my discussion was to say what I think basically the advantages are of that motion and um just to share with yall how I came to my decision and what some of the considerations for but sometimes that's helpful sometimes if you share what went into it then another commissioner might have a response to that if you don't have anything um M Mo you still good commission B fine okay this is a tough decision commissioner where you have to add before I have a go call I think say that yes this was a very tough decision we had an amazing slate I think we had four really Unique Individuals which I was very impressed with it was an impressive group of people on paper before coming into this and then meeting them they're all very impressive I want to say that Mr flowers did have a an extra bonus there by having his wife there last night I think she she helped charm us as well good job on that that was a smart move and I I think out of the years that we've done this this is probably one of our strongest sles of candid with that if we're ready um I'm going to go ahead and and Melanie if you'll do a roll call and Commissioners please keep in mind this is for our our Top Choice and then we will have to have a a motion for a a second candidate if we so if we so desire so now if you'll do a roll call for us please the the current motion is to offer the position um based on a background check and of course we'll have contract negotiations with um Mr flowers commissioner Deo I commissioner Lori I commissioner Moore I commissioner Deo I'm sorry apologies commissioner Burton I okay so so be it um Mr flowers thank [Applause] you we thank both you and Miss Ashley for um your willingness to invest in our community and to be part of it um we welcome you with open arms as we go forward please keep in mind there will be a very thorough back you know a background check we've already done the um the law enforcement side and of course with your background um I'm sure that that that was kind of a no for us but you never know we want no surprises if you feel there might be some Surprises please make sure um Sheila that you know with Sheila that you keep that in mind and then we'll go through the um contract negotiations yes sir for the purpose of the minutes um I'd like to know um clarification did that motion anticipate then that the mayor and City attorney would be separate motion [Music] and mayor I do have a question um I it's my recollection that we asked Miss Walker to inquire of all the candidates whether they were willing to work with our salary range she did and she did and that was confirmed the only one that was not that wanted to know if we were negotiable um was the gentleman who declined to interiew so that's not an issue and then um the other thing is um I would since we discussed that with him two nights ago in the regular commission meeting um Mr Holmes um agreed that he would negotiate for us um it's my understanding based on the last course I took that if we delegate something like this to um a member of the commission that those meetings are open that it has to be a staff member so my feeling was um I would make a motion that we allow Mr Holmes to negotiate for us that would been the guidelines so you have you have so that's a motion you're making correct yes sir is is that just Mr Holmes to negotiate that because they want bring the mayor in as well but but I just I think I just want to make sure your motion yes so it's just just right and would be implementing um our decision okay and and that's um and and goodness knows um Dawn having had the experience of being same manager and attorney um he absolutely um you know is is more than capable more than qualified to do that um that's fine that's I I I I'm fine with that um and second motion second okay we have any other discussion on that Melanie if you'll do a rooll call for us please commissioner I commissioner Lor I commissioner hi [Music] Myers you got to read the room sometimes you you got to read the room obviously they concern that you know and that's fine um if you want to um I'd like a motion for a a second candidate if so be if you don't feel that these candidates would um meet your requirements and what you're looking for then we can um see where we go from here and then revisit this but um at this time if you if you want to make a motion for a um a backup um or our second choice um I I always that to me is got um a little uh it's not that they're not a good choice it's just in what we're looking for right now we all have a different opinion second choice we all agree and then we all like somebody else second well let's if somebody wants to throw a motion out there if they don't if we if we don't get a motion that um but you know then that's fine too but if somebody wants to throw a motion out there and see how the commission reacts to it that's up to you I'd like to make a motion to uh stay where we are and go for other candidates at this time okay I'm not really sure what do you mean not not set a second choice out of these four okay get a second choice but not necessarily at Le okay and so start over start over if this doesn't work out is that that's your okay well um there's pros and cons to that well I understand well do I have a second um well we don't really we don't really need a motion to not to not do anything do no we don't but she has a motion she's made a motion so if I don't get a second then her motion fails for lack of a second so I'm going to need I'm going to need you aren't going to get a second then her motion fail for La of a second I I do have um I guess second we can have discussion okay go ahead um well I I think that we either need to set a second choice or um talk about setting a special meeting to either finalize the contract with Mr flowers or talk about um where to go from here um there's um I I thought we I thought we had a good um slate of applicants for not a good slate of applicants but a very good set of applicants I think any of them could do the job um and you know we have we have to be we have to be cognizant um that if for some reason things don't work out with Mr flowers then we will possibly lose the interest of remaining candidates so I don't know I just but if we feel that we cannot agree on who that would be then I just want to say something that the reason I'm doing what I'm doing is I felt that uh commissioner dito and may Myers you jumped the gun when you pretty much said that your second choice was going to be Carl Brown uh and it was kind of out of nowhere you know we're supposed to be discussing um Mr flowers and I well Jim I mean Jim told us that we needed to have a person a second I think that was kind of that me I apologize for doing so I I wasn't meaning that it was just part of the Stu the pin and said this is that was my choice just like that you know in our discussions if we agree or disagree then we can do that just because that was my that was my thinking it doesn't mean and you could you know but but but I already know kind of where you're going and and I just don't requires okay well hang hang on here um my purpose as I said before was to highlight how I made my decision why I was um going to vote for Mr flowers what I liked and thought was um of very attractive um attributes of another candidate how it was a hard decision um if we have a motion for um a backup candidate um that doesn't NE I haven't heard what other Commissioners have to say it does not mean that I would not consider what other Commissioners have to say and what was important to them so I was in no way saying um you know putting a flag on the continent of Greenland or whatever it is that's about Al now the North Pole shall we say I know I know I know where that came from I was talking about arctic explor but anyway so it was not meant to say this is my first and second because we hadn't had that discussion I was talking about the rationale for the first decision absolutely and um you know if we I think it's a whole separate discussion um can we agree on a backup candidate and if we don't want to um should we set kind of a time certain as to when this negotiation needs to be completed and when we um would reconvene so well currently um do we have you have anything else you'd like to say because I have a motion proper Motion in a second in front of us that I not yeah I mean we we're going to have to reconvene to proove this cont but you know assuming that he's going to take us um are we going to be waiting till February to do that or we going to have a special meeting because if that's the case then we can no we're don't have a special meeting okay so then why don't we just then I'm fine with not naming someone now and if we have to then we have to have a special meeting because we have a special meeting to approve the contract we have a special meeting to approve or discuss news next um okay right no do a roll call for us please um and and what we're voting on right now is that we're not as commissioner Burton said that we not choose a second candidate um at this time um and so then what we would be doing is we're going to have to be contacting these candidates and let them know that um we've made a choice and that they are no longer um um an no longer being considered at this time because they didn't go through well what we're going to have to do we're going to have to project there I mean is that not correct Jim that that unless something happens and then we would reconvene and I just want to make sure we're all clear well based on your first motion you're um you're going to start trying to work out a contract with fls I would think depending on the timing when that contract's ready for approval you can either call a special meeting or put it on the agenda for your next meeting if it's day or two um and go right ahead with that so that that would be fine if um you can't reach an agreement then again the same timing issue would come up do you need to call a special meeting because of the timing or um or do you need to um do whatever so I i' suggest the timing be flexible you could it could be they'll come to an agreement like two days before your next meeting and it's easy just put it on the agenda and not have to come special for that may I think we would be severely disadvantaging ourselves if we just told people they were no longer under consideration well and so if we make but if we've made a choice and they okay we've made a choice gotta make those phone calls I've always made those phone calls and those are not easy phone calls because the next question is well well where am I in line huh yeah I want to tell you you know if you're second that's the way you are second and you're looking for something else basically um that's not necessarily true well no maybe not but let's not let's not get we've done we've done a good job so far let's keep it the easiest thing to do would be simply tell the other three candidates you CH offer the job Mr flowers andless something changes we appreciate your we appreciate we appreciate your interest so that's where we are with this current motion so Melanie would you um please do a roll call commissioner Deo n commissioner Lori hi commissioner MO hi commissioner Burton hi May Myers hi okay so approved and so now what we have to set is we're going to have to determine um uh we've got several things that we're going to have to send to Don um and have him start the negotiations Mr brart yeah we okay sorry five hours I'm sorry stay us I said that earlier I said that earlier to to Christina and St oh I'm sorry I said it's been a long it's been a long day so far um uh one thing um in talking to Mr brart is that um there is a conflict the last week in January where he's currently staying um and so but coming back into the 1 of February I think he he could be willing to stay until the end of February possibly I'm not going to speak for him directly but I think right now it looks like he can possibly um stay um until hopefully the end of February unless something else comes up but um he does have um so we do have we do have a little bit of time that allows Mr flowers a little bit of time um also to um unfairness to his community um and and also Dawn some time to negotiate contract um um and my suggestion would be that the contract be negotiated as quickly as possible because Mr flowers can't give notice to the city until place exactly so my my recommendation to the commission is um well two things we can either set a date certain at this time um or we can um be on standby that as soon as they come to an agreement in the negotiation process that Mr Holmes can reach out and um I can call a special meeting um and as soon as as soon as it works with everybody's schedule so those are your options commission okay that's your pleasure um my question is does Mr flowers have any um timeline for us that he thinks could accomplish Mr flowers would you like to come forward and and I understand you can't control attorney home can I ask clearing on the question frame your time frame how um what time frame do you think would be needed to come to an agreement on a contract from your perspective so mean I know you can't control our attorney schedule sure as soon as he send it to me and and calling whatever we want to do talk through it first and kind of cut through that so I mean you can get to work on it as soon as you want to soon able to during the interview you said you wanted to give your city at least 30 days but prefer six weeks I'm still doing the U working with feo with the Helen Public Assistance we know how that is right so that's that's I think so I I think we can that allow us to play so March 1 you think and if something happens of course you know is there is there anything that you to the commission that some concerns that you might have or anything that that you feel that in in relocating or got a lot got a lot got a lot to ponder in the next on that ride that right espe we all get tickets to to the master my wife said oh no our days to the Masters are the same day as the catfish that's they sell pretty good though so um not really U again those are the things I told you my concerns about your res res residency um request um but also we're not we're not AOS we talked to Miss Liz and there's some options so again okay that's great that's sure okay do we have anything else um Commissioners that we need to I I just need a decision do we want to set a date certain or do or do we need to allow be flexible so that whenever we you do get that notice you know reach out and of course melan will reach out and say you know this is the date that we're looking at can everybody be available and if you're not able to come down um please know that we understand that with that distance we can always res what you know whatever works best sure I don't that's contracts are kind of standard fa so how long does it usually take to negotiate a contract depends mine took two weeks but that was just I think a lack of of time um our last one I think with Charles was about two weeks um I don't know Jim do you have any recommendations for for the time period a lot of it's going to depend on Don schedule yeah there's some some variables in the contract it's mostly benefit issues is he going to get a city car or a car allowance um no are you going to um put put money into a 401 uh versus a pension plan um you know how many days of vacation is he going to get for that that kind of stuff it shouldn't take a lot of time but um but that's normally and all that language is in the draft contract so it's easy to strike through we fill in the number and just get on with it so hopefully that contract will make it much quicker for you to this that's great and you'll provide that if you'll provide that to Melanie she can provide it to Don yeah you might already have it the city manager search guide he might online and the league of cities and I know that that document very well and then probably our final our final thing is um in making these phone calls um to our other applicants um uh do I feel unfairness of them we do need to reach out to them and let them know um do you want me to have that pleasurable job or do you want to um she was gone for the day so she gone typically would do it right after or we could have Jim and [Music] George I think I I think that you know how to do this and um I think it would be perfectly appropriate for you to make the calls I'm sorry you're oneing them a hard job that's why but I know you will convey our appreciation and tell them that it was in many ways difficult decision I hope enj pres do you want the um do you want to do that by motion so there's no question by any Commissioners later sure um I move that um we designate mayor Myers to to make the phone calls today to the three candidates who were not selected letting them know second um any further discussion no okay call for me please commissioner Burton hi commissioner mo hi commissioner Lorie hi commissioner Deo hi Myers [Music] that's it's fine it's fine it it really um it was better than the last time that was that was a tough one the last time um with that everyone I thank you so much um our staff uh you did a great job thank you everybody christinaa Melanie Karen um this was Karen's last meeting she left or she's still watching from next door next next door um Karen um we wish you much success you will be missed you will be missed um Melanie thank you for stepping in and like I said you got thrown into the fire and you've done so an excellent job so far Jim George thank you for your guidance thank you for getting us through this is a tough this was a tough process but you brought us for very very uh strong possible candidates there's [Applause] Karen audience thank you thank you for your participation and for um being here again there's still food left if anybody wants food if you want to take some and and and lastly I want to thank um Mr flowers and Ashley again for your willingness to make Cresent City part of your life um I find that um you'll there's some wonderful people here it's a great community and we welcome you again with open arms and with that I'll take a motion for um what what do you got question we have discussion motion forment and second and discussion well this a whole separate topic our cour mentioned that she is no longer the administer of our Facebook page yes I'm just Wai I eyes of thing so before we adjourn do we need any clarification on what is going to happen in the near future with our Facebook page because Karen said Charles was the CH is the administrator she's the administrator of our Facebook page so so it's not out of commission oh okay because all the clerk said the outgoing clerk said was that she's not the administrator she did not say there is one is and melie will also be and Michael is also I believe Micha is I think he I know he posted before okay so we have all in favor please say I e e e e e e e e