Fort Walton Beach Council agenda — 05-11-2010 Regular — reading text

Patterson Holmes Anderson Initiative: Uses initiative to develop new programs to meet the needs of the City or Nabors Rynearson resolve identified problems; implements or modifies procedures and programs Reeves necessary to improve organizational effectiveness and efficiency. Patterson Anderson Rynearson Resiliency: Maintains energy and motivation in spite of constant demands, handles Nabors Holmes stress well. Reeves Patterson Nabors Anderson Rynearson Holmes Ethical Standards: Conforms to high standards of the profession. Reeves Patterson Comments: Great job of working with County on Waste -water agreement. Taking the lead on the lease situation in City was particularly noteworthy. Mr. Meares experience serves this City in so many ways directly and indirectly. We will appreciate his work for decades. Mr. Mearns is a true professional in all appellations and works tirelessly to keep the City operating at the lowest possible cost. Strengths, Weaknesses and Performance Objectives Strengths: What do you feel are some of the City Manager's strongest attributes and finest accomplishments in the last twelve ( 12) months? Past experience was very evident as he immediately took charge —little or no leaming curve. Knowledge of State Statutes is extensive. Finest accomplishments include Wastewater Plant Agreement and handling of inconsistent City policy on leased property. Also partnering Initiatives with County and other municipalities is impressive. Bob hit the ground running when he accepted the City Manager position. He properly realigned the City staff and made tough personnel reduction decisions. Bob handled the golf course situation in a proper and professional manner. Bob has gained or maintained total support of the City Council in all his actions /decisions. Mr. Mearn> is not afraid to tackle tough issues. He has demonstrated the ability to make changes and decisions that most managers would stumble with. Too many to list "outstanding ". With a reduced budget the ability to keep the city operating with(out) loss or reduction in services. Bob has created an environment in Fort Walton Beach that supports growth and economic development by removing barriers from within the City government. Mr. Mearns appears to be confident of his knowledge and skills in the area of public administration and willingly shares that information to benefit the residents of the City and the members of the Council Weaknesses: What areas of the City Manager' s performance do you feel most needs improvement? Do you have any suggestions for improvements in these areas? Be more consistent & timely in responding to email. None noted None No Comment I would like to see Bob be even more aggressive on some of our objectives. New Objectives: List new priorities you would like to see addressed in the next year. Possible contracting out of functions or further consolidation of like functions with County and other municipalities Bob has identified potential City owned real estate that could be developed into a sports complex at some point. I would like to see the City further investigate this possibility with some rough cost estimates and preliminary drawings of what such a complex could look like on the land available. I realize this is a long term goal and may take years to come to fruition. Employee morale issues. To help in the environmental crisis ( oil spill) and commit available resources to the good of all! Bob, you are an expert in your field of operating a City. We are honored to have you. City streets oare fast deteriorating some streets are patches on patches. It will be a challenge to find revenues to repave the City streets. Keep the City operating without further personnel losses. We as a city need to not explore more options for consolidation in the southern part of the county but to act on these ideas. We need to increase our lines of communications with the other neighboring municipalities. We need to establish a positive working relationship with these municipalities. Identification of alternate revenue streams utilizing the collective experience and knowledge of the Economic Development Task Force or similar group. Mayor —There are some things that are still on the table that we started a while ago and still not, and I think one of the success stories is your Business Retention Panel, I think it was one of your initiatives. But there' s still some things either timing or difficulty of the project but just, from my perspective, not only being the oldest guy up here but the senior guy on the Council, you are our third City Manager I' ve worked with. I know there' s some difficulties adapting but just one of the things that' s concerned me lately and it' s come up over the last few months is the personnel turnover and turmoil and concern a lot of employees have and I hope that they are leaving for better places, not being fearful of the environment, they don' t know what' s coming up. Because we' ve had some super stars leave. A lot of them took promotions, granted but there' s, I think reluctantly look for other jobs. I think we need to calm the waters, we need to stabilize the workforce and I know it' s going to be very difficult as we go into the budget but hopefully we can accomplish it without personnel reductions, further personnel reductions. Because the reorganization worked well and I think there is just some things, recent email traffic that I received and so on, and some of the discussions like on the Land Development Code, how we' re going to go on that. Some of those things are discerning from my perspective and I hope that we just go forward more positively for the next year. Mayor —anyone else? Okay, it was not meant to be critical, it was meant to be just my perceived. Granted, the reorganizations have been very effective but I think the moves are in vein and variable and like Mr. Rynearson said, almost in every case people have gone on to bigger and better jobs, more challenging job. And so what has happened is that it' s made it more challenging for the folks that are left behind to absorb that. And I appreciate the staff with keeping the City running, in maintaining the level of service we had under Mr. Mearn' s leadership.  CITY COUNCIL MEETING May 11, 2010 City Manager Reports City' s Response to Deepwater Horizon Event Synopsis: City Manager will provide up to date information ofwhat the City' s actions have been and what thefuture plans are to address this situation No Backup) Agenda Item Number: 15  CITY COUNCIL MEETING May 11, 2010 City Attorney Reports No Backup) Agenda Item Number: 16  CITY COUNCIL MEETING May 11, 2010 Mayor /Council Comments No Backup) Agenda Item Number: 17  CITY COUNCIL MEETING May 11, 2010 Adjournment No Backup) Agenda Item Number: 18