Meet Jack Green: interim Town Mgr.
Since being named Fort Myers Beach’s interim Town Manager on July 22, Public Works Director Jack Green has been busy adjusting to his new role.
Green, who was on a scheduled two-week vacation when Town Manager Scott Janke was terminated, returned after one full day of rest and flew back to Connecticut for six “semi-off” days before assuming full-time managerial responsibilities on Aug. 4.
“It hasn’t been as bad as probably a lot of people would think,” he said of the transition to town manager. “I’ve been on town staff now for about 4 1/2 years and I know what’s going on around town. Being the Public Works Director for three years, I am familiar with all those different land use issues and, while I can’t say I was intimate with every one of those cases, I was familiar with all those cases going on.
Green began his Town employment in April of 2005 as the principal planner of the Community Development Department. A year later, he was asked to be the Public Works Director when Damon Grant, the previous director, left.
Since then, Green has managed the Town’s public works duties and has been involved with streets, storm water, water utility and its repair work, the mooring field, and the trimming, weeding and landscaping around Town facilities to name a few.
Green also has -and still does- handle most of the background work as emergency manager and takes responsible for the emergency operation plan, communications, logistics, debris clean-up, first responders and interfacing with emergency partners. And, if that’s not enough, he’s essentially the Town’s Information Technology manager by virtue of his background with the Coast Guard, which he served from January of 1975 until he officially retired in July 2005.
“Being a senior staff member in a small staff, it’s hard not to know what everybody here is doing,” said Green. “I have the luxury of having an easier transition. And, of course, the Town Council knows me. They have confidence in me and I appreciate that.”
Green has acknowledged he has his critics. But, being a public figure, that responsibility comes with the territory. During a five-year break in his Coast Guard service, he gained a lot of his knowledge and hand-on experience of municipal government when he was the Assistant Executive Director of the Waterbury (Conn.) Development Agency and the Community Development Director for that town
“People know me,” he said. “Certainly, like everybody, I have folks that like me, if you will, and I have my critics. I think you can’t be in a position like this whether it’s Public Works or the Town Manager’s position, and not have a little of both.”
Green is unsure how long the interim position of Town Manager will extend.
“The manager is selected and appointed by the council,” he said. “The council has not yet discussed what they are going to do or what type of process they might want to follow. Right now, I think they feel comfortable that I’m in the role and I know what is going on. We need to get through the budget, the Bay Oaks transition and several different things that you just don’t want to hand off until they’re concluded.
“You don’t change horses in the middle of a stream. We have, in a sense, done that, but I was in that stream already. I don’t want to speak for them, but I guess they’re thinking is ‘let’s just let things settle down and get through this for a while and then we’ll make a decision whether we stick with Jack or we go out and search for somebody else.’ Whichever process they choose is entirely up to them.”
Now that he has picked up Town manager duties, Green has appointed Cathie Lewis (Deputy Public Works Director) as interim Public Works Director and Scott Baker (Special Projects Manager) as interim Deputy Public Works Director.
“These positions will exist for whatever indefinite period until my situation has been resolved,” Green said. “Essentially, Cathie will be taking over many of my responsibilities that I had at Public Works and Scott will be taking over many of her responsibilities. You can’t be an effective leader or manager if you have too much on your plate. You have to trust your staff to make proper decisions delegate and provide guidance.”
Below is a short question and answer session with the new interim Town Manager.
Q. How will the Town do with running Bay Oaks Recreational Campus? Should we have asked the County to keep the facility a bit longer?
A. The county initiated this. They came and said, “It’s yours.” At one point, we were able to convince them that there was no way we were able to do that. Our interlocal agreement with them for cost-sharing has expired at least a year or so ago. Even though we had been cost-sharing, we provided probably $230,000 in general fund monies to them for the operation, but we also provided some SDBG funding to partially pay for the senior programmer. So we were in the neighborhood for roughly $275,000 a year. So, we have concluded that if we’re going to do this, we would roll the pool into the overall operation. We’re confident now that the County’s going to provided us with $150,000 in transitional funding for one year, but we want to keep that money in reserve until we really need to. Tentatively, at this point, the Town Council has put about $135,000 out of ad valorem taxes into the budget and we think we can come up with the difference in fund-raising activities such as marketing the pool, branding the BORC and maybe corporate sponsors for the baseball fields. Those are the type of things we are going to look at. We may have to raise the fee structure a little bit more. We’re going to have to establish a general membership which is customary. If you look at our counterparts, Sanibel or Bonita Springs, they have membership requirements. It helps offset the costs.
Q. Are there any repercussions or downfalls from taking over for dismissed Town Manager Scott Janke?
A. I have not had any comments made to me. The few folks that have spoken to me have expressed support or, in some cases, good luck. I haven’t been out of the office much to be honest. So people haven’t seen me that much.
Q. Any goals or objectives that you may want to implement?
A. Obviously, the overall Town goals and objectives are set by the Town Council. We endeavor to meet those goals and objectives and provide the results. One of the things I have heard since I have been here is discussion regarding the budget such as ‘I don’t understand the budget’ or ‘Why are you raising taxes?’ I would like to develop a method of presenting the budget so that it is transparent and understandable. Another thing is ‘How can we manage our projects better?’ since we have a lot of them for a small town. Can we have a theme for our Town Council agenda? A third thing is to better present to not only the Council but even staff in some way to collate all what we are doing. You need a dashboard with red, yellow and green issues. For example, if it’s green, I don’t even want to talk about it; if it’s yellow, tell me why; if it’s red, come see me.
Q. How is beach re-nourishment doing?
A. We are still moving full-speed ahead in attempting to get the easements. We haven’t received the feedback. Commissioner Ray Judah had indicated that sometime in August the BOCC has to give the thumbs up or thumbs down because they too have budgeting constraints, and they have to make decisions. My gut tells me that it’s their Aug. 18 meeting that they will make that call, but I could be wrong. We’re still attempting to find out if people are going to do it or not. If the residents have chosen ‘no,’ then that’s their decision. I think the council will acknowledge that. Whether they are pro or anti-nourishment, they went out to see what the people wanted. They didn’t do something that the people didn’t want.
Q. What about the water project?
A. The first half of the emergency valve placement is nearly complete. We’re looking at Phase II of that which can be considered an emergency as well. Right now, we’re looking at a valve on an 18-inch line; the last one of the emergency Phase I shall we say. We can put in a valve if we shut the entire system down again at about half the price. But, we would end up with the 48-hour boiling water situation again. I’m already at the point where we’re going to do it the more expensive way. That might not be a prudent decision. But the impact on our residents, businesses and property owners if we shut the water down again is severe. With the water utility in itself, we’ve recently had a rate study completed. It has not yet been disseminated to the council but it has to the ad-hoc committee. We have a single-tier water charge fee. Most communities don’t; the more you use, the more you pay. What we have to determine is ‘What is a fair amount for people to use in tier 1?’ Then there’s the issue of there is no way that we can repair, refurbish and maintain the system without having access to large sums of money. There is one alternative: to raise the water rates. Water is an undetermined value. Sewer fees are about 65 percent of the overall bill one gets every month. We need to borrow money at a reasonable rate. The long-term costs of borrowing projected over 20 years creates less of a burden on the water users then if I raise the rates astronomically to cover those millions of dollars we need. It really is the prudent thing. The charter does not allow us to take on long-term debt beyond 36 months. We had a referendum a couple of years ago that, at the time 91 percent of the people said go ahead and do what you need to do to fix the water utility. Will we get the same response if we put it on referendum again? We own the water system. We asked for it and we got it. We still owe for a good portion of what we paid for. So, do we go validation of the original referendum or do we go out for a new referendum?