good All right Good afternoon everyone Today is Friday April 18th This is a special meeting to uh for the potential selection of a new town manager It is 1:00 All town council members are
present Town manager town attorney town clerk if you please rise for the pledge of allegiance I pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and
justice for all Uh next is the approval of the final agenda Is there a motion to approve the final agenda So move Second A motion by councelor King seconded by councelor Safford Further discussion All those in favor signify by saying I I Opposed
Hearing none That motion carries unanimously Next Public comment Anyone like to speak in public comment We will also have a public comment after the questioning of the uh of the candidates So if you want to wait you're the only one here John So
I'm good Looking at you No pressure John I'm good Thank you very much All right Next is our uh administrative agenda is questions and answers session Who's going to be first Michael Brilhart Okay Bring him in Michael Brilhart
Everyone have their questions ready Um mayor you might want to go ahead and read the narrative that we have on the agenda under section C I will do that because it does set forth kind of what what's going to happen this afternoon Okay I will do that Uh selection of the
town manager Thank you In accordance with the town council policies and procedures resolution 23-182 town council shall have a 15minute question and answer session with each of the applicants Um town counselors are to have an open discussion of the candidates Each
council member uses the provided ranking sheet to list their order of selection with one being their top choice The town clerk will tally the votes and announce each applicant's combined ranking score with the lowest score being the candidate selected A contract negotiator from town council is selected and the
transition period if necessary is discussed Michael good afternoon How are you sir Good Thank you Afternoon You want do we want to give us introduce yourself or do you just want to go into the questions Attorney whatever Introduce you'd like
to introduce yourself Yes Good afternoon My name is Michael Brilhart Appreciate the opportunity to be before you today in interviewing for the town manager position Great All right John we'll start with you U I'll be consistent with what I was two years ago First question
is Michael thanks for being here but why Fort Myers Beach for you Uh Fort Myers Beach has location size staffing everything that I enjoy about local government management in my career
uh would be a good fit here specifically So that's why I applied for the Fort Myers Beach Town Manager position Thank you Vice Mayor Michael one of the most important traits I'm looking for in a town manager is servant leadership As it relates to public service I would define
it as an understanding and an approach where it is established that the public servant works for the people and not the other way around The authority and power entrusted to a public servant is temporary and on loan from the people This should manifest it This should manifest itself in a spirit of humility
and a desire to put the needs of the citizenry first before one's ego or personal agenda Do you share that approach to governor governing and leadership And if so please provide some specific examples Yes Um a public leader a public servant um is is the same thing
because if we when you're leading you also have to be a public servant And a public servant leader is someone who cares about the jurisdiction that they're working for all people involved including citizens businesses and of course the elected council So it's very
critical to me to be a a servant leader to be able to serve the public to provide the services and operations necessary to have a a successful quality of life Thank you Council Woodson Um can you briefly summarize your career
path and how it has prepared you for this role Yes Uh after receiving my bachelor's degree um in urban administration urban studies uh with an emphasis in in city management from the University of Cincinnati um I worked in Penllis County government in Clearwater
Florida for eight years um worked in the county administration's office at the very end where I was the intergovernmental liaison grants writer who happened to uh put together marketing piece for the p penny for panelis a sales tax initiative which has
since been approved by voters two times on tenure increments thereafter so I've I've worked in local government uh since my time after penllis county government gone into town manager city manager county and city uh county administration
roles I love the public sector Uh I think I've had a lot of successes and would like to be able to end my career here uh after five years in in Fort Meyer speech Thank you Counc
Hi Good afternoon Michael Uh please describe your experience managing municipal budgets What was the scope and size of the largest budget you've overseen and what were your key responsibilities in that process Um the largest budget I've ever seen is uh in
the city of Wapanetta Ohio Uh 110 million that included general uh all the enterprise funds water sewer storm water and electric Um 14 department heads We developed the budget um implemented it had strategic
planning sessions uh the required millage rate um adoption two public hearings um and in addition to the general operating budget the capital improvement program budget which a little bit different in Ohio is required to be adopted each year as well by the
end of December So that's the largest budget I've been involved with lot of time and effort in dealing with the the public officials and staff and preparing that budget which would be the implement the quality of life initiatives for this for the city Okay great Thank you Uh
thanks Michael for for submitting your application and being here today Mine's kind of going to dovetail off of councelor Safford's How would you approach budgeting in our small municipality with limited revenue streams and fluctuate fluctuating property values due to the disaster I
would look at things over a five-year period And when I say five years it not only the capital improvement programming but what I believe to be our expenses over that over over the five years So I I want to look and see where we need to be from a budgetary perspective where
our reoccurring expenses need to be where our non-reoccurring expenses through grants through loans will be ending that are operational in nature and determine that gap and then work with staff on preparing a budget looking at our revenue and expenditures over
that five-year period and of course working there in each year uh accordingly Thank you Councelor King Uh Michael what do you see as the greatest challenge for the next Fort Myers Beach Town Manager Um implementing all of the the the funds
that have been acquired through the state and FEMA for capital projects those I mentioned occurring reoccurring expenses making sure that those projects get implemented and then putting together um a budget where you've got reoccurring expenditures and and
knowledge and as to how to acquire those things over the next I'm going to guess three years Um because probably three years you could get get most of those projects implemented Thank you Thanks Mayor Uh communication and relationship
building skills are a couple of traits that are critical to the success of a town manager Both of these skills are applicable to key constituency groups including residents businesses visitors town council members town staff lee county commissioners sheriff school board state and federal partners as well
as the local media Please comment on how you have pri prioritized the skills of relationship building and give some specific examples of where you have utilized them to advance the interests of communities you have served in the past In this instance I'm going to say
that intergovernmental coordination intergovernmental relations and interpersonal relations all are all the same three because they require communication with whoever the agent and party of So we need to I communicate very effectively with all those
organizations and entities that I'm dealing with on everything from projects to programs to funding Uh when I when working for St Lucy County government I was also serving as their interim uh transportation planning organization director which dealt with funding uh
along the Treasure Coast Um I was able to coordinate receiving $10 million uh of leftover FHWA funds that uh Palm Beach Broward and Miami Dade counties could not use So I was able to write uh
talk to our legislative board talk to our legislative officials at the state level and over a fourmonth coordination period was able to get those $10 million which helped build Port St Lucy Boulevard Thank you C would say So assuming that
everyone has critics right in their life um so what would your critic say about you and how do you respond to that feedback Probably the biggest uh thing is I'm not an expert on it as much as I'd like to
be I rely on the experts to tell me what I need to do So I'm not an IT director but I think that would be my biggest my big biggest critic Okay Council Staff Michael tell us about a time you led a community through a
significant change or recovery What were the key challenges and how did you prioritize action Uh recently um Hurricane Milton Anhelene uh came through Putnham County Florida and I was working as an interim city
manager for Crescent City Um I was able to reach out to FEMA uh coordinate our application process work with FEMA inspectors on projects that we need that were destroyed by both the hurricanes Um and we we got some funding um uh adopted
And so up until my time there I was working on the allocation of those dollars So that was really a critical component Great Thank you All right Michael What strategies would you use to build consensus among council members staff and community stakeholders
with diverse opinions Um one thing that I have always suggested wherever I'm working is that we have an annual strategic planning session usually at the beginning of the calendar year where the where I develop an agenda that allows the public to have
input on everything ranging from economic development to the upcoming budget to projects or of a concern with a specific neighborhood By allowing that it allows I and staff to look at how we
can go about uh fixing particular projects working with the elected board on on the budgetary side and policy development uh which allows uh opportunities to take place that otherwise we may not know about aside
and apart from having a general public in involved in a strategic planning session Okay Thank you Michael Thank you Who's next Tom's gonna take Yes Thank you so much
Don't listen to Maybe Andy in the in the essence of time maybe we could have Tom as we're going through the last questions tee up the next one up You got it What do they say John Dead air Dead air Dead air Dead air Dead air
Well that's dead air No sorry Yeah this dead air is brought to you by the local library Hello Patrick You want to take a second to introduce yourself and then we'll each ask you uh two questions Okay Uh my name is Patrick Jordan I'm from Michigan
but I've been to a few different states over the course of my career Um my wife and I have been married 32 years Um we have two boys that are 41 and 24 Uh we have four grandchildren in
Michigan Our sons are doing both doing very well We don't mind leaving Michigan and coming down here because we think our grandkids will come and see us So um I've been uh in public management for about 22 years
Enjoy it very much I did uh take a slight detour a few months ago to try something different Uh I was I mean I'm approaching 60 and I thought well is there something different I can try to do and I I did I found that my strengths
are right here Uh I think this is kind of where God has directed me and to to go and the line of work that I'm in And uh I appreciate it very much Enjoy what I do and uh thank you for your hospitality uh coming down here The
welcome was very very nice Thank you Thank you Councelor King Patrick thanks for being here Um why Fort Myers Beach for you We we vacationed here 30 years ago Uh a couple years after got married My wife's whole family came down We all
converged here and spent several days and golfed and had a had a really nice time driving around I don't recognize anything really I think we're at the other end of the island when we were here But we I love coastal communities
Uh having lived on on an island and managed on an island in the Beering Sea Um I understand the challenges of being an oceanfront or a waterfront community Uh I've managed waterfront communities in in Michigan I understand the special
circumstances that are involved there This is a beautiful place Beautiful place Um the natural resources and the beauty you have here is uh second to none Uh I look at the challenges that you have but I look at the staff that you
have lined up in place and everyone doing what what they're doing and I I'm amazed by it You have a great staff and that makes me comfortable uh coming forth and asking for this position because of the staff that's here and because of your support for
them Um I kind of came down here blind but um you know my eyes have seen a lot since I've been here Uh you drive around and you go "Wow." And you look at the damage that was done two years ago Uh but I look at the
possibilities and it's all going to come back and you want you what's that going to be when they get done with what's that going to be when they get done with it And coming from the north from old industrial communities you see there's empty buildings all over Nothing's going to happen there And it's sad And here
you see empty or a shell of a building and you go "Man that's going to what's that going to be It's going to be exciting to watch that." Uh so that's really why I want to be here Thank you Thanks Mayor Patrick One of the most important traits I'm looking for in a
town manager is servant leadership As it relates to public service I would define it as an an understanding and approach where it is established that the public servant works for the people and not the other way around The authority and power entrusted to a public servant is temporary and on loan from the p from
the people This should manifest itself in a spirit of humility and a desire to put the needs of the citizenry first before one's ego or personal agenda First do you share this approach to governing and leadership And if so could you please provide me a couple of examples I agree wholeheartedly with
that I mean what you said was the definition of servant leadership was excellent There's a there's a consultant that does this line of work consulting for searches like this named Ron Holyfield from Strategic Government Resources He's out of Texas and he does
classes on servant leadership I've viewed a couple of them but it's interesting Um I think you you and I talked earlier and and and I said an example I gave was uh was uh David before he was
anointed king of Israel It's Good Friday We can talk about this stuff right Um Samuel went to David's father's home and he brought his brothers all the sons in and because one of them was going to be king right Samuel looked at all of them and said "No that's none of them Do you have
another son?" "Oh David's out in the field." They brought him in That was him Samuel anointed some king king of Israel Got oil running down his face And what does David do He went back out in the field with the sheep and back back to
work and to what he was felt he was meant to do And that's that's what God looked for in a leader of the nation of Israel was someone with a servant heart like that And um that's the way I've always seen uh my job It it gives me a lot of humility to be in a in a
leadership position in a community because you know you're entrusted by them to to make their lives better as much as you possibly can So I guess that's my take on that Thank you Cson
So can you briefly summarize your career path and how it has prepared you for this role My uh my career path in this line of work began when I was about 38 years old Now at that point I had already finished my masters in public
administration At that I didn't know what I was in law enforcement I thought I might obtain a leadership position there but I had left there and I got involved more in politics Uh but I was asked to um become the deputy township supervisor for
Moskegan Township by the supervisor He's ready to retire So I became his deputy and then about a month later I was sworn in as supervisor chosen by the board Had to run for re-election in '04 and I held that office for four years Um I realized
that the politics part of it wasn't something I wanted to do but the management was Um now we went to Texas for a few years I managed a large department for Tarant County clerk which was a large 1.7 million people uh we
grew we probably quadruple the size of our office when I was there and I managed that growth and um but I wanted to get back into missile management so I looked for a job and I made a comment to a couple of you my wife's doctor said you should be in a colder climate
because the hot the hot dry in Texas affect affected her uh it's not an issue now we have tall under control it's a my thing so we went to uh Bush Alaska uh to get back into managing a a government a county a
burrow actually up there Um it wasn't really wasn't the place for us Beautiful place amazing place but it it wasn't for us Um the school wasn't for me wasn't sufficient for my son Uh
we were invited to come down to an Alaska which is Dutch Harbor to be assistant city manager there So I did that and it was a I learned a tremendous amount there Um uh I found I learned there's so much
that goes on when you're on an island community and an oceanfront community that you don't deal with elsewhere The costs of projects are you know double triple sometimes depends on how hungry the contractors are
Um I did three years there but we came back to to Michigan to come back basically to go back home Um I went to Wexford County Um I I don't want to talk about really necessarily publicly what happened there
but it was a very unethical situation Um I drove 220 miles a day for a year and a half uh and uh then just decided to stop and and just separated Um went to Eskanava
Michigan and the UP which is north of Green Bay for five and a half years and managed that community and did had wonderful time up there Learned a great deal of serving that community Um up there was a board change and a philosophy change over what they wanted
to see in the community Uh and I just I just realized we're we're at opposite ends I mean my job is to support you no matter what your stance is is is to support you and make sure that your policies and your initiatives happen Uh
but there's there comes a time with a with a sometimes with a council change in this line of work where it's necessary to to just leave quietly and humbly And that's what I did And uh spent the last two years and we live
now in Iona County and I managed a county which is a totally different animal than a city Um uh but um enjoyed very much doing that Now when I got there Iona County was was uh it was an upheaval Uh the previous
administrator and finance director walked out during a meeting quit walked out And so for a year they had to contract out finance services AP services administrative services with a temp and they spent probably a million
dollars and I got there and hired and got the right people in place It was running very very smoothly when I left But I resigned take to take a pos to kind of take a gamble And I mentioned this earlier I uh a friend was uh
elected to the legislature in Alaska and he asked me to come up and join his staff and uh be a key role in his staff and uh I I thought let's let's do that You know my wife was agreeable to it Um and I just I got out there and learned that
it just it wasn't for me It wasn't me Wasn't what I was meant to do at this point in my career Um so I we my boss and I we talked about friends we talked about it said this ain't working You know the chief of staff and most chiefs of staff there have been there 20 years
and they started out in the mail room and worked their way up You know um to hit it from the from the you know to try to hit it running from zero is just almost an impossibility And uh so we thought I just I really should just leave So I came back to Michigan and
been interviewing ever since But everywhere I've gone and everything I've done has has I've learned more and more and more about how to be effective and efficient in in managing a community
When it comes to utilities especially I love the utilities component of this job Um you know building utilities making sure they're done properly making sure you're accommodating for future growth Uh It's just a very interesting thing to
do and I'm taking up way too much time I'm sorry you guys Thank you Councelor Safford So I have a quick question about budgets What What was the scope and size of the largest budget you've ever ever seen And what were your key responsibilities in that
process I would say it was the most most recent budget with Iona County was $40 million Um in my role my role is really assembling the budget working with the finance director uh working with the department
heads uh putting together a budget making cuts where they're necessary uh and presenting to the board a balanced budget for them to consider and adopt Um I I always remind my staff especially you know throughout the year but
especially in the last couple months of the fiscal year A budget is not a mandate to spend Uh just because it's budgeted doesn't mean it has to be spent Uh and the mentality of we have to spend it this year to get it next year just
doesn't it doesn't fly Uh don't spend it unless it's necessary Great Thank you So They'll kind of piggy back off of his How would you approach budgeting our small municipality with limited revenue streams and fluctuating property values due to the disaster
impacts with a lot of advice and consent I'd have to admit Um never been here before and I've never managed a budget that has all of the characteristics of yours you know
Um I would uh do it very intentionally and and with restraint and take the advice of the people that are senior here that have been through this Uh work with my department heads on their budgets and make sure they have
what they need but let's you know use restraint because we don't know you know what next year holds Um be just very respectful of the public's money very careful Thanks Councelor Kane Uh Patrick what do you see as the greatest challenge for
the next Fort Myers Beachtown manager I think I think just seeing through um the restoration and the the the progress you're making right now with recovering you know from Ian um making sure you know lobbying with the with the
federal government with FEMA to make sure we get the reimbursements that that we're that we should get restoring relationships with FEMA if there needs to be work done there I've been to DC I've lobbied with uh my US
senators with Marowski with uh Don Young when he was when he was alive Uh lobbyed with the US Coast Guard at their facility there in DC uh with the with the uh the Army Corps of Engineers uh working on a dredging a dredging
project for Dut for Dutch Harbor Um and it it's finally getting done Those things take a lot of time It's finally getting done And the price has doubled since since I met with them Um uh but just restoring those relationships making sure that you know
getting to know all of the stakeholders in the community building relationships with you with my staff uh with the neighboring communities um trying to improve where they can where things can be improved um making sure the first the first
charge of local government is health safety welfare of its residents and those are the things that we need to focus on It entails a lot but I think part of that is is uh you know presence of the sheriff department law enforcement maybe working on a new contract with them Uh
but getting to know uh this budget and how it works Uh I guess that's that's it Thank you Vice Mayor communication and relationship bu building skills are a couple of traits that are critical to the success of a town manager Both of
these skills are applicable to key constituency groups including residents businesses visitors town council members town staff our Lee County Commissioners sheriff school board state and federal partners as well as local media Please comment on how you have prioritized the skills of relationship building and give
some specific examples of where you have utilized them to advance the interests of the communities you have served in the past I I mentioned to some of you in our in the meetings that we that we had uh about my experiences uh with Moskegan
Township and the relationship between our township other townships and the county that we we essentially fought a war in the newspaper for a year for over a year before it was resolved Um
keep going Sorry Yeah Um I think just having having a little bit of humility and self-awareness when you meet people when you start building these relationships with people uh is very
important Um there there were times when I was going into a meeting where I was low man on the totem pole There are times we go into a meeting when when you know my township or my what was the pong gorilla in the room and it it doesn't matter it doesn't matter where you are in that on that spectrum
uh show a little bit of humility and bury your ego at the door and come on in and and meet with people and and uh build those relationships I've uh I've always I had training when I was with the sheriff department in like
deescalation you know deescalation techniques I know the public can get uh emotional sometimes especially here I mean there's been a lot going on that causes emotions to rise and uh you have to be able to to meet with
people deescalate the situation as best you can Um I know that's not exactly a question you asked me but um it's all it's all about just honest upfront having integrity and uh and speaking truth to
people Uh you know not hard truth not harsh truth not I'm going to tell like it is It's speaking the truth with love or speaking the truth with a little bit of softness to it can go a long way with people especially when when they have
something at stake you know So thank you So what would your critics say about you and your leadership and how do you respond to that feedback I uh my police chief from a previous uh
from actually from the city of Escan he gave a background check on me uh a reference check on me once when I was leaving there and I was applying and he said I talked too much and I I couldn't I can't argue with
that Um but I listen to I I'm I'm a good listener too Uh I uh and my wife will tell me the same thing that I talk too much But anyway I my leaders my my my employees um enjoy
working for me Uh I love them I respect them and uh and it was it was hard to leave when I left my last position because they really nobody wanted me to leave you know So thank you Patrick Uh Patrick tell us about a time that you
led a community through a significant change or recovery What were the key challenges and how did you prioritize action I guess the one that I can really speak of is something I've spoken to some of you about um at Moskegan Township back in the early 70s There's a lot of
federal money going around for environmental concerns and Moskegan County built a county wastewater system and it was located inland from the lake I guess about 13 a couple townships in huge huge thousands of
acres in this treatment site 14 municipalities in the county all had their separate little systems collection systems and and small treatment plants And that's a lot of redundancy And why have all that redundancy They all
joined the county the wastewater you know authority They shut down their plants and we connected all those pipes to flow into one place downtown Moskegan and then be pumped through a 30 a 66 inch
uh pre-stressed concrete pipe all the way to the wastewater plant And in uh March 2nd 2007 that pipe broke And there was always a fear of it It broke in different places because it
kind of came through a marsh area before it came up and went down MacArthur Road Um and it's broken before this time right in a neighborhood where many of the houses along that whole block were lower than grade level than the road
level And it it just flooded raw sewage flooding homes millions of gallons My staff and the county staff was fabulous They shut down the pumps to stop the pump the flow from coming but there's still a couple million gallons
in that pipe that's going to come back It took a long time to come back and it flooded several homes Um we activated the the EOC Uh my job was more on the the politics side and working with the
county and and the county wastewater on how are we going to make these people whole Um their homeowners insurance wasn't going to cover it Um we weren't really sure whose insurance was going to cover it
but working with the county and helping them understand that the best way to do this is just to just write checks write checks to these people and make them whole Uh it the the county wastewater fund was very
healthy Um had years of years of revenue build up in in it u millillage money as well as as uh user fees Um and they made people whole but it was my job to just kind of work on
the side with the leadership and make sure that that happened and that it happened quietly and no one no one sued anybody I mean that's a for something like that to happen and for all those homes to be destroyed the way they were
and no one sued anybody and it was keep the lawyers out of it as best you can So no offense Nancy Okay Oh I'm sorry Yeah All right Hey we talked We're We're good All right We're good All right That's great Thank you All right Thanks All right Patrick what
strategies would you use to build consensus among council members staff and community stakeholders with diverse opinions talk to them get them in the same room Um sometimes it takes several attempts
uh to get people together and maybe start seeing the other's point of view I think I think uh you know compromise is seems to be a thing of the past almost at when you look at the federal federal and the
state level sometimes Uh but I think uh everyone has the right the right intentions They're right here for the right reasons um they may represent different special interests maybe their own maybe a group
but um just get people together lay out the facts for them talk it through let them digest it and uh work toward a a common decision Okay Thanks Patrick You're welcome We'll be We got a next
one All right All right Thank you so much everybody Who's next Not I'm sorry I thought it was Yeah What Yeah Hello Again Will you want to take a brief minute to introduce yourself to
everybody that's listening Sure Mr Mayor Thank you very much I'm Will McCay and I traveled out here from Colorado Springs uh for this opportunity Thank you for the invitation Um I'm really looking forward to transitioning uh to uh uh Fort Myers
Beach municipal management town manager position I spent a a career uh in the US Army recently retired and my most recent position most applicable is I was garrison commander of Fort Riley Kansas It which is a city manager job on an army installation installation about
midsize city uh 60,000 or so total population all the normal departments that you would find in any municipal uh government municipal operations And uh before that throughout my career in the army I spent my time coming up through as a law enforcement officer as a police officer and a director of emergency
services working for that city government type structure Okay we're each going to ask you two questions one at a time and should take 15 minutes roughly We're longer to set the timer No that's fine No thank you
Will thanks for being here Um you said you're looking forward to it but why do you want to be part of Fort Myers Beach Fort Myers Beach to me represents a terrific terrific opportunity um to be part of um bring rebuilding the community and bringing this community I
think there's a lot of opportunity here uh to help the community come back from um recent tragedies recent incidents but also since I've been here and in researching the the community before coming and talking to friends who've spent a lot of time in the area I think
it's a terrific community Use that word several times and we are me and my wife are looking for an opportunity like this where we can come and be part of a community right away get vested in the community and uh team up with other members of the community to help build
it and help set it on the path for the future Thank you Thank you Thanks Mayor Well one of the most important traits I'm looking for in a town manager is servant leadership As it relates to public service I would define it as an understanding and approach where it is established that the public servant
works for the people and not the other way around The authority and power entrusted to a public servant is temporary and on loan from the people This should manifest itself in a spirit of humility and a desire to put one's put the needs and of the citizenry before one's ego or personal agenda
First of all do you share that approach to governing and leadership And if so please provide some specific examples Thank you sir Yes I absolutely do share that uh um idea for leadership I think it's essential Uh I've tried to embody that throughout my whole career as a
leader up until this point My leadership philosophy is very similar It doesn't start with me It starts with those that I serve I start off by listening I listen for listen to learn Then I amplify uh my team to amplify their talents and uh put them into leadership
roles and put them into positions where they can be more uh effective for for the team And then uh I empower them to do that And I find that uh by first listening building the personal relationship with the team I find out ways where I can best serve them as a
leader what their motivations are what their priorities are and what their talents are And then for the team to continue to serve the team as a whole and the community uh is to align those talents where they're they can be best used most needed and allow those you
know the members of the team to grow and continue to build even more Very good Thank you Councilw So you kind of answered this question in your introduction but can you briefly summarize your career path and how it has prepared you for this role Yes ma'am
Absolutely Um my career path I I I did join the army uh right out of high school as an enlisted service member and eventually transitioned to college Uh and after college I became a military police officer um for the US Army And I've worked my way up through the ranks of military police as a platoon leader
all the way up to brigade level command most recently leading you know teams of 30 or so all the way up to over 200 Throughout that career I've had the normal uh path of an army officer would with uh you know especially since 911 combat operations humanitarian service
operations etc that were outside uh the military police lane but continued uh to help me develop as a leader and broaden my my skill set within military police Like I mentioned I served as a uh MP battalion commander uh equivalent to a chief of police and a chief of uh
investigation division Moving on after that as a director of emergency services where I had both fire and police as well as access control for the installation under my leadership Served in different staff positions in between um all the way from brigade level up to the
Pentagon and then I had the opportunity to uh serve as a garrison commander which is a city manager uh for the army Now myself as I mentioned I have Fort Riley Kansas about a medium-sized army installation 60 to 70,000 personnel on it every day um in Kansas and had great
relationships with the the communities around it that support us and we supported them So my relation my my roles in the job and then my relationships with the city managers that I worked with every day and my intergovernmental partners uh from the state of Kansas and local communities uh
really just gave me even more of a of a passion you know for municipal leadership type roles like this one So then I did have one more assignment after that you know US northern command in Colorado Springs who supports all of the states in our country providing
department of defense assets in times of emergencies and so forth So I did get to see things from the strategic level you know for disaster response which was an eye openener um working with FEMA and uh the other agencies every day Um and then so really all those experiences I think
honed my interest my you know in um really where I felt that I was most comfortable and was really my strength was leading more at the community level which led me to this opportunity Thank you Thank you Cford Will thanks for being here today Um let's talk
budgets What was the scope and size of the largest budget you ever managed and what were your key responsibilities in that process Thank you So the the scope uh was when I was garrison commander at Fort Riley the size of that budget was
just over $200 million Um understanding I'm talking to an audience who will understand it's a little bit different Uh yes I'll acknowledge that a little bit different how we received the funds as that garrison commander is as the uh the funds were mostly allocated from the
department of defense down to us Um we were part of the I was my job was to build the budget request identify all the the funding that we needed for my different departments for um capital improvements on the installation you know for um emergency operations and
then submit a budget up through the higher headquarters line by line and talk about that and sell you know basically explain to my leadership uh why I needed those funds Then eventually the budget when it was approved would come down to us and then my role became as the leader of the of the staff
working with my um chief financial officer We called them a resource manager um to make sure that we're executing that budget as directed as we requested You know we're following through on our promise and then executing it as directed by our higher headquarters and department of defense
Um along the way it was regular every other day usually at least once a week we meeting with my financial officer going through making sure that we are absolutely executing in line with our plan and that we are taking into account any unforeseen unforcasted expenses
making sure that we're staying within our reserves so that we you know maintain that throughout the whole year and are ready for the next year as we go into the next budget cycle Okay great Thank you Next Well thanks for being here and for your service Mine's going to kind of dovetail off of of councelor
Safford's How would you approach budgeting for our small municipality with limited revenue streams and fluctuating property values due to disaster impacts Thank you Mr Mayor Yeah definitely uh an important question um as I've seen and
talking with a lot of you ahead of time talking with the staff how things have changed so much over recent years Uh and right now maybe some of that some of those normal funding streams are lower than they have been in the past But then trying to see where those where there's going to be growth where there's
opportunity for growth in areas where we can you know maybe potentially increase some of the funding streams and in different taxing areas different user fees or different maybe even funds and grants that might be available But then shifting eventually shifting to where funds and grants may no longer be
available um because you know you're further away from the crisis where then now we have to shift the balance more towards those other funding streams of potentially tax revenues uh user fees um maybe you know other things associated with the tourism industry which is so
vital to Fort Myers Beach Perfect Thank you K Uh Will what do you see as uh the greatest challenge for the next Fort Myers Beachtown manager I think the greatest challenge um is uh a quick understanding of where the where the recovery is where the process is right
now Um where the team has has gotten us to this point and where this still needs to go And then I think closely aligned with that is balancing the um development um the going forward the redevelopment and new development
balancing you know where you need to do economic development and where there community development in different areas I think balancing those two things is going to be the biggest challenge for anybody coming into a leadership position So the more information that uh the incoming town manager can gain by
listening to uh the staff listening to the council listening to the community uh and trying to find out where those priorities and opportunities are to best balance and take advantage of opportunities within those development lanes Thank you Yes ma'am Communication and relationship building skills are a
couple of traits that are critical to the success of a town manager Both of these skills are applicable to key constituency groups including the residents businesses visitors town council members town staff Lee County Commissioners sheriff school board and our state and federal partners as well
as the local media Please comment on how you've prioritized these skills of relationship building the skills of relationship building and give some specific examples of where you have utilized them to advance the in the interests of the communities you have served in the past Thank you Yeah again
I'll go back to what we were talking about before Mr vice mayor that the um I start by listening trying to find out who those key stakeholders are that I need to uh engage with and listen which generally is is a very large audience but then on the particular issue narrow that down and listen to them first to
get to you know get to know what their priorities are their issues are and try to then over time build a relationship with them so that we're communicating on a on a a level of trust where we both know where we're coming from and uh we both know what the priorities and and
joint vision that we're trying to achieve all the different parties Uh I value that as well when I talk about you know inter agency relationships intergovernmental relationships I found as the city manager there at Fort Riley that uh I was you know we were very reliant as a community with the um
cities and agencies outside of Fort Riley for support uh in crisis when we would need it And uh there's a saying in emergency management you never want to exchange business cards at the crisis Uh so if we knew each other beforehand uh it was just a phone call or even without
a phone call they would show up and then we'd just get to work Um some examples of how uh I managed that in that role I think uh one of the biggest challenges when I was city manager was we were all dealing with CO 19 as everybody across
the country was Uh along with being a city manager I was also a schoolboard member for the county school board there because numerous students within the county came from our came from Fort Riley And so just the everyday interaction and discussions between the
council on how to manage the health concerns and continue education and then the safety of the staff um were daily conversations even you know outside of council meetings Uh we were talking to each other all the time on the phones uh in person and uh
because the goal for all of us was to keep our kids in school which we were able to do Uh we kept them in school Education continued and it was challenging but the relationships that we had allowed us to get through a lot of those very difficult uh discussions
and uh you know without too much friction because the priority was always on education and protection of the staff We could all agree on that So it allowed the conversations to go Um otherwise we also wanted to do some economic development for the installation So the
chamber of commerce was a big one that I was also a part of and communicating with members of uh you know in different economic development lanes from the communities who wanted to conduct business on our you know on Fort Riley um yet had
to app um had to follow our rules had to follow our policies which often were national level policies coming down and maybe the communities outside didn't want didn't agree with that didn't have the same policies but it was because of the relationships that me and my staff had with them on a personal level that
really lowered the conflict down and there was a lot of understanding and respect So we were able to get through those challenges Thank you very much Thanks Council Wilson So Will we all have our critics right So what would your critics say about your leadership and how do you respond to
that feedback Um I think my critics would say um I I talk a lot about liking to listen to learn and get to know people quickly but I also tend to be a decisive and actionoriented type of person and I like to get things done Uh when I see when I
see an issue I like to just tackle it right away Um but how I then see that in myself as maybe not necessarily a weakness but an opportunity um is that then maybe yes I could dig right in but
maybe I'm not the best one Maybe I don't have the most information on that particular issue A member of staff might be closer to the the issue and have a much better understanding So I at least need to talk to them first Same goes with the community Um I may not be the one with all the information So uh I
think sometimes taking a step back if there's time to do so bring in more voices ask questions and then come to a a decision on what to do about the particular issue uh is something that I I see as an opportunity for me to work on Thank you Thanks Jeffrey Well besides
the pandemic can you give us another example of of when you and your community went through a period of change or recovery and what what were the key challenges and how did you prioritize those things Thank you Yes I can speak to uh we had a couple of
severe weather incidents Uh one was a tornado on Fort Riley and another was um extreme cold uh for a extended period of time about three days where we had below negative10 temperatures uh which for some parts of the country may not be a big deal but for us it was gonna say no
I think it's it's a big deal for everybody right so so we had those those issues but I think it's really those two identified um one Fort Riley has a lot of historic buildings so the tornado when it came through it really did a lot of damage
and we had a lot of our soldiers and families living in some historic buildings who were displaced and uh the the challenge there was to find them suitable housing immediately uh prov and for us to provide that for them uh and then to identify the damage
and see how quickly we could restore the damage um not just uh you know for those families but also for us as an installation Uh I felt the team did an excellent job at that And to the budget point all the while I directed the staff I said "Okay start counting right now
Start you know counting the costs for everything right now because I want to be able to submit for you know some additional funding uh you know before this is even over so we can really get on to the next phase not temporary housing but get them back into their homes." and the uh the severe
cold identified a lot of infrastructure problems on the installation uh water lines power lines and other things that were vulnerable to those types of solutions So after that we immediately realized that ours was antiquated uh on Fort Riley And the best way for us to
move forward was to partner with uh private and make a public private partnership with the power companies outside of our installation in Kansas Uh to ask them if they wanted to help us or if they wanted the opportunity to provide power to the residents of Fort
Riley Um while what we would get out of it is they would modernize our our uh power structure It became a little bit of a model that uh the Department of the Army started using at other installations around the US Oh that's great Thank you Well what strategies would you use to
build consensus among council members staff and community stakeholders with diverse opinions First it's having conversations uh one-on-one that listening uh starting with listening being a servant leader Um there's always going to be diversity of
opinion and that can be good because sometimes uh there you know we get into our own biases and we see things from a certain perspective I think the more that we're open to hearing other points of view the more information we're going to gather in and uh and and you know
potentially people can change their minds I think it starts with relationships across the board It starts with conversations starts with a lot of individual interactions you know me and the town council members me and the staff as much act you know active and inclusive conversations as I can have
with members of the community to just to fill that those voids of information in mind to make sure that I'm hearing things from all the different aspects all the different sectors of the community um and that we're um having a conversation as a town staff um about
those different uh voices that we're hearing to make sure that we're addressing them Everybody knows that they're being heard and that the issues are being addressed Thank you Thank you That is the last question Thank you for the opportunity
Thank you And Jeremy Schaefer is next Okay Are you sure Okay Now good afternoon again Jeremy We're going to give you a brief moment to uh introduce yourself and then we're each going to ask you two questions uh one at
a time obviously Go around and come back and go around again So take a few minutes to introduce yourself I'm Jeremy Schaefer originally from uh Cincinnati Ohio Currently reside north uh northeast Ohio near Cleveland and Geneva Lake I've been the uh village administrator there
for uh just more than half a decade Um I have a master's degree in public administrations uh specializing in shoreline um protection erosion control and public access Um uh an Air National Guard I'm a staff sergeant I've been in the Air National Guard about
approximately 12 years Um started out in logistics uh recently in the last couple years retrained as a parallegal in the Air National Guard All right John Why Ford Myers Beach for you Well for me like if this is kind of
Sorry this is kind of a career career uh cap for me Like looking at my whole history it's kind of all led me to Fort Myers Beach Um I talk with my hands Sorry everybody But um so I bit was a township trustee really young age township trustee right out of high
school elected in a five-way race Um after that after two terms of that I served as mayor of my community Um after that I served as county commissioner Um I just love public service Um didn't really care long term for the for the county commission because I couldn't
make the changes and be hands-on like I could you know when I was mayor and township trustee At that point I I joined uh the Air Force Air National Guard and kind of done that the few last few years All during that time though I went to school got a political science degree um continued my education
logistics in the military and then you know capped it out with a masters of public administration Why here is bringing all that experience that 25 years experience here in the last six years I've been in Geneva on the lake and and my family loves it and I love it It's a tourist community which is what
you guys are right we had the same influx for public service delivery Um during season we have over two million visitors with 916 residents Um so I understand uh how and it complements this role here But I understand how you have different types of uh residents You
have your seasonal resident um or temporary residents that every six to eight months You have your resident that's here all year long Uh you have your tourists that come in to the transient rentals short-term rentals on the weekend And each of those you have to communicate with differently right Um so I know how to do that and I've
learned that the erosion control in Geneva on the lake that I've done we've built public access with public private partnerships Uh we we've got one right constru construction project we're getting ready to do right now That's eight property owners a township park Uh we're doing uh this erosion project and
this public access beach uh reourishment project with public dollars partnering w with those people Um and I can bring that here right and I've done some of that and excites me and doing these big projects Um the other reason is looking at your community and I walked around 10
miles when I got here uh on Tuesday Um you're in a place like it's a rebirth right You didn't want the hurricanes to come through and you know knock everything out but it did So to me that's an exciting time because I love the economic development and I love development and I do a lot of that in my
current role in Geneva on the lake But bringing that here um there's going to be structures that are hardened in all these things And what you guys are touching right now and what the next town manager is going to do is be part of that rebirth of of the beach And you can't stop it The next three generations
um whatever we do now as a group uh it's going to have our fingers all over it And because of what I've done in Geneva on the lake and how I love this coastal communities and everything that's what brought me here I didn't apply for a bunch of jobs anywhere I've only applied for this one because I think it checks all my boxes for my professional
academic um and life goals Thank you Vice Mayor In the interest of time I'll abbreviate my question I because we talked a little bit about servant leadership and how it should manifest itself in a spirit of humility and a desire to put the needs of the citizenry first before one's ego or personal
agenda Do you share that approach to governing and leadership And if so please provide some specific examples Yeah So um definitely like it's all about the community You know as a as a city administrator now town administrator and in this role um you're not going to come in and instantly
change policy and do things that the community doesn't want The way this works is I'm a visionary and collaborative but everything comes from the council The council gets their vision from the community It comes through them and then when it gets here to the town manager he's the one that has to execute it So it's executing the
community's vision and serving them So you're not coming up here right and just saying "Hey this is my vision of the beach It's the community's vision of the beach." And then how you guys approach it filter it down through me That's what I take forward The other thing I do is really uh know the community If you come to my town right now where I'm currently
at I could put you on the golf cart I could take you through town and tell you every business owner every resident We could go to the side streets I could tell you if they're a part-time resident a permanent resident um if where their families are from And to me that's servant leadership I know them because I
engage with them and talk about it And then that helps like form policy in me to have better discussions with the the council and the mayor now where I'm at And I would bring that here To me that's a servant leadership knowing what the committee wants and then moving forward to execute it Thank you Council Wilson
Well I think you've already answered this question but if there's anything you'd like to add um summarizing your career path and how it's prepared you for this role Yes ma'am Um I guess really uh what you could say with me is I've been hands-on I've been in the
trenches I know what ditches look like properly I know what SDR35 is but at the same time because of my education I know like the high level what it should look like from aca academia And I put those two things together And what that's helped me do in my current role where
I'm at that that I could bring here is the fact that we've went after grant funding right And that's big to offset you know budgetary uh constraints But when we go after grant funding when we're applying for stuff we're looking at these local projects and then we're using academia and adding this academia
to those grant uh project requests from the state and federal government and it gives us a leg up So also there's there's tons of stuff out there I guarantee and I haven't looked but I guarantee if we look at Fort Myers Beach there's probably studies that have been done that we could use and the team could use about shoreline erosion or
different things in different weather patterns or maybe even from the economic uh development standpoint And I've used this before Um like trails for instance we had a council meeting where some of our uh residents came in and they didn't necessarily want trails in an area and
they said it was going to actually devalue their property because people be going behind it and hanging out on these but there's trails but there's academics out there that show that trails increase quality of life and you could you and I printed those out and we took them and we talked about it So things like that
from my experience and my background I could bring here and it also helps us uh build a better uh beach Thank you Excuse me Jeremy Thanks for being here Um speaking of budgets what's the largest budget you've ever managed and what have been your key roles in in that
process Oh I believe uh around 35 million with a but general fund budget probably about a 10 million uh general fund budget It was when I was county commissioner Um and I was county commissioner in Ohio I know from state to state right government's a little bit
different Um but we were very hands-on as county commissioners with our budget We were in a smaller county and when I was county commissioner it was a time that the housing bubble uh burst Um so we had to cut millions out of our budget um to reduce reduce and I'll tell you
what it was super hands-on We had to meet with all the department heads and some of those department heads in the county are other elected officials like auditor sheriff and things of that nature Um but we did an interesting approach uh that I'll share with you might not work you know in some situations But what we did was instead
of just cutting um the millions out that we needed to cut out to come within budget we looked at how each department and what the percentage of that would be So we didn't say "Hey uh sheriff's department we need you to cut all the million dollars out or auditor we need you to cut all the million dollars out." We're like "Oh your percent of the
general fund budget's 10%." And to get us to our our million-doll number we need you to cut um amount that equals that portion out So uh that was a very interesting time Uh we didn't make anybody happy We actually couldn't fund
things like uh the Ohio State University um some of the conservation efforts and things that we did Uh but we made sure that we could still have public service on the road and things like that And we're all working with those department heads and trying to cut out and make everything as fair as possible Um in my current role though with budgets um we
try to offset big capital projects uh with grant funding and finding other funding Obviously fees are something you have to look at if you need to increase revenues Um and then on expenditure side you always have to watch your expenditures but you also want to grow the team right Because some of the things that you do in your community
increases revenues So it's a big balancing act um to me all the time we should be looking at definitely the revenues coming in so we can forecast and then you know the expenditures you know if you're forecasting properly and stuff you can cut expenditures through like attrition and things like that so
you don't have to lay people off if you know it's coming so yeah I have lots of experience with that the budget size honestly I I don't necessarily matter it's more the approach okay great thank you well you kind of went into answering the question that I'm going to ask but how would you approach budgeting for our
small comm our small municipal ality with limited revenue streams and fluctuating property values due to the disaster impacts right Um well kind of again just kind of what I said I don't want to reiterate it too much but um I I definitely being new if I was chosen as
town manager would have to lean back on the team like immediately because you already have some budgetary processes I'm sure in place that I want to come in and follow Um but I will tell you across the whole United States it's tough We definitely need to look at what they're doing in Tallahassee Um you know I know
in Ohio they're reducing the the state house is talking about reducing uh property uh taxes I hear from from being down here that that might be happening here in some way So we just need to be really cognizant about the policies that we um can't necessarily affect tomorrow
to again look out at the future and kind of forecast or forecast maybe without it So maybe through attrition if we have to do cuts we're looking forward that way So it's really just keeping the pulse on what's going on Also you know I talked about earlier public service demand in a resort community of the public service
demand that we're really gonna you you're probably watching all the time because you need more rangers on the street during certain times And if you get an influx of more tourists right than normal maybe you need more people or if you have a storm coming in maybe you're hiring more people So you just have to always be looking at the revenues and looking at those
expenditures and again forecasting out making sure your department heads are aware of what's going on And if you have to reduce stuff here and there you know you do John what do you see as the greatest challenge for the next Fort Myers Beach town manager That's a question I
propound on you guys most of the time Um I think it's going to be like I said it's it's a rebirth um here from the storm and it's a rebuild and it's a slow process Government's slow We all want it You know I get caught in it all the time You want things to move fast um but it
it just doesn't um with the the rebuild and coming back you know you guys have a multiple hurricanes in a row and you know FEMA still has funding that they owe you from some of the past ones You got some commitments but what that does is it restricts your cash flow right So
you definitely have to be cognizant of all that And I think that's going to be a challenge because you know the next storm is always going to come here and we got to be prepared for it But some of that cash flow from back other storms right you haven't received yet you've maybe repaired some stuff and it's got broken again from other storms So I
think just looking overall and watching that budget piece uh knowing that that there's money that revenues that you just don't have on hand right now um is going to be a challenge And then you know obviously you're trying to build back better You're looking at uh how this builds and and the new structures
are going to go up and the hardening of the structures and it's going to be a change The new development obviously you know we heard about that this morning I I was asked that question on your local Beach Talk Radio Um there's just going to be a lot of changes So it's going to be navigating those changes and
navigating what your community wants and then what that vision looks like and then how we um put those policies in place for that vision and you know operate daily here Thank you Vice Mayor Jeremy we've got a number of key constituency groups at the local county
state and federal level uh could you comment and how on how you've prioritized the skills of relationship building and give some specific examples of where you've utilized them to advance the interests of the communities you served in the past Yeah I've got all kinds of examples Um I
did sit on a fire district board for 18 years from its inception um until 2018 roughly 20201 I was a trustee a township trustee and I sat on that board when was first created in my county Um then as a mayor I sat on there as a municipal
leader and then I stayed on there in an open seat uh for the rest of the time Um that was townships and a small mun municipality working together and in my area at that time in southern Ohio it was something that wasn't being done Um nobody was working together as townships
and villages to create a district You know it was sandboxes right Everybody had their sandbox for play But after a few years and we put that together and the voters loved it and we worked We have other townships that joined us um before I got off the board but it was a way to collaborate and put funding
together that these individual places couldn't do you know alone Um and it actually was better to pull the money and then have a better public safety response Today if you go back to Highland County um there's three districts you know in the county and it it's grown and we were the first ones to
do that So that's just a collaboration of small local government Um other ways is definitely uh and I asked earlier uh to Councilman Woodson about uh what your relationship was with your state rep and your federal reps and things of that nature Right now in my current role I am
very close uh with with my state rep and in the past in my other roles I I do the same It's important to build those relationships with your state and your federal officials Um for one thing that you need to ask for project funding Um I've been really strong in Ohio getting capital budget for all the towns I've
been in Um recently outside of of doing that I was in um DC talking to Congress uh representatives from Ohio about shoreline uh erosion control and public beach access and construction projects So it's really important you know to know who your reps are and ask for them
I mean that's what they're there for They're here to help us especially here in in Florida right You really need to ask because you know the next hurricane's coming and right now you're rebuilding So it's important to know all those people and ask for funding that way Um outside of that you know you have a a fire district here so it's important
to work with the fire district and know who they are I assume we attend their meetings every now and again or maybe have a liaison to that fire board from council Um county commissioners they give out funding probably They you know in my uh county they do CDBG They control a lot of that funding in Ohio at
the county level Um so we're always in the county commissioner's office letting them know what our next projects are and building those relationships where I'm at now to make sure that they're going to fund projects like you know sidewalks and streetscapes and things like that to benefit the community So it's very
important across all levels of government and even across you know you probably have uh organizations locally that I don't know about but to really reach out and build relationships for them because it's in the best interest of the community overall especially if you want to get things done Thank you
Council Wilson So we all have our critics So what would your critics say about your leadership and how do you respond to that feedback Uh my critics are probably going to say like I want to move fast and sometimes I
move too fast Um I like to get things done You know I'm very strategic but I also I'm not afraid to make a decision Sometimes it's I'm decisive but sometimes looking back it might be the best not the best decision I'm not going to lie But you
made a decision you move forward And sometimes that's what has to move the team forward and the projects forward Uh we can all live in hindsight Um but for me I want to know as much information about something before I make a decision Uh but sometimes you don't have all the facts Let's say the you know like when a
hurricane comes in you guys probably made decisions that you look back on it said could have would have should have but you made the decision you were decisive and you move the ball down the court in the best interest of your community Um so that's what probably my naysayers would do is be like "This guy's fast he talks fast he's
energetic." Even though it may be a plus it's just real Like I'm always moving the ball down the court And sometimes that stresses people out a little bit to be honest I kind of push the the organization to do better and sometimes you try to take a lot on yourself So that's that's probably what they would
say Thank you So Jeremy tell me a time that where you led your community through a period of change or recovery and what were the key challenges and how did you prioritize action Um yeah So when I was uh mayor we uh
experienced the straight line winds off the hurricane Katrina and it knocked out in Ohio clear across the country it knocked out our electric for more than a week Um and you know the luckily it was summertime so it was nice out people could get out But the first thing we did
was make sure our police and fire uh could get out and just be in the area and patrol um not necessarily like police patrol right but just the fire department going up and down the streets with the police and separately So people knew we were there and we're able to help in that way Um the other thing that we did which at the time uh people
didn't like well we got some criticism from certain people uh because we we uh didn't let people go out out after a certain time with the curfew Um at the end of that looking back we were the only community during that time that didn't have vandalism and didn't have a bunch of stuff going on Now we didn't go
out and arrest people That's not what I'm saying at all What I'm saying is we were very present Uh we made the decisions that were best interest of our community at that time and u we helped people rebuild uh with no electric I mean you had freezers going out you had freezers you had power surges and stuff
burn up So we uh we gave out water as a community for that because it was it was like 10 days long So it wasn't quite two weeks but it was long enough Everybody lost everything you know in the refrigerators and food And then we also um we actually created a list at that time um where our fire department went
out to elderly people and people that had medical and things like that So we ran a list and we just executed the best we could at the time We also set up um our municipal hall or water department because it was the only place that had a generator in the town because some of the towns in rural Midwest they other
than uh maybe tornadoes and stuff they don't really plan on some of that stuff nor do they have the funding So we were stuck with really no place to go we set up um at the water plant and we're able to run all our operations out of there and just adapt and overcome Great Thank you All right Jeremy what strategies
would you use to build consensus among council members staff and community stakeholders with diverse opinions Wow this is a long- winded complicated question Um you know definitely work sessions and meetings Um you know you guys are going through a comprehensive plan process I believe right now I don't
know exactly you probably I don't know if you hired a consultant you're doing it in house but you know you can always start with some surveys um and things like that do some work groups some work sessions uh with the public uh you could obviously do some here with with your council um the same with the staff it's
really about creating that vision right uh through those things um I've done some some complicated projects maybe that's a better way way to tell you how I handle things um for the last six years we've been doing a shoreline uh project and uh there's eight stakeholders the township park and we've
been meeting regularly for six years and the consensus that we were trying to build with the stakeholders is one in Ohio is a little bit different um the municipality doesn't have any say over the shoreline in front of those private properties it's 100% private and um they had to sign
contracts um for us to be able to partner with them we couldn't just do it so we went about it a different approach the the village didn't just say hey here's the entire shoreline miles of shoreline in Geneva on the lake and here's what we wanted look like What we did is we said "Hey um in this specific
project brought them in but said if you want to work with the village you come in and let's create the shoreline that you want Let's let's do what you want to do." Um so we didn't have this big this is the plan We brought them in and talked to them about it And then we did work sessions each year We actually got
90,000 from the state of Ohio to do um to grant fund some of the planning with some engineers And we did different renditions of what they could do on their shoreline What kind of protection works and what it could look like You know do you want a bike trail in front of your house on the shoreline How much public access do you want Do you want a
beach Do you want to be able to swim in the area or do you want to be able to bring a boat in Like there's just all these things right that we work through to make sure that we could build a project that we could then later fund that everybody was in agreement with What was important about this was that
as we go we went after state and federal funding which we we have received right now and we're going to construction by 2026 Um we're in the permitting phase with Army Corps and the federal EPA and all those fun acronyms at the state and federal level But what was important is to get this far we had to have the
consensus built by the community members involved because once we get the funding we can't turn back and we didn't want to get clear to the end of the game and have something somebody didn't like the color of the beach stand or something like that It's a real thing right They're looking for this quality product
that also then protects their property and um creates habitat and there was all these other things for the funding right we had to do So we we got together for six years and we went through these slow processes We put stuff um on a screen um slideshow so people could see it and
every time we went through the same slideshow and that sounds a little crazy but the first time the slideshow was put together was probably five slides Today it's like 35 slides to make sure that everybody that's get coming in the room understand like this is where we came from and this is first and this is how
complicated it's got But the shoreline erosion kind of still exists The project is still important to everybody if somebody's brother or cousin showed up because they do that that own part of the property that we're trying to do in front and they're worried about it now They've seen all the the you know
openness of what we've done the last six years So that's a way that we put together a pretty complicated project with multiple stakeholders two governments um and neighbors and friends to to put one project together And now that that's happening um and the way we took the approach to build it the way
those communities members want in their town we have three or four other areas and other groups along the shoreline coming to us to say "Hey we're these shoreline owners This is what we want in front of our house This is what we want protection from." Um erosional lake is a very different animal than down here Um
it wipes out the and then it just it wipes out the shoreline It just gets hardened because people concrete and they're trying to save their properties We have a lot of remediation and things when we do these projects as well And some of those homeowners as we went through it they also didn't grasp that in the beginning So on the current
township project that I'm talking about that we've went through six years um we're actually going back and because the EPA won't let us to get Army Corps permitting because there's stuff thrown in there to protect those properties over the years we have to pull out So we're doing that on some of those
citizens behalf Um so sorry complicated answer These are complicated projects and they're complicated projects across the whole board building consensus You got to just bring everybody together be transparent and work through it Even if it takes years I mean I just talked to you about how fast we want it to go We
wanted that project done a long time ago but sometimes this stuff takes six seven years So but we can get it done All right Appreciate it Thanks Jeremy Bring some bring some energy next time would you Yeah absolutely I'm really excited about the opportunity Thank you all Thank you so much Next is
John TR Hey John We're going to have you introduce yourself to those that are listening and then we're each going to ask you two questions Okay John TR from Shersville Ohio And I appreciate the the uh Can you raise the
mic up to you a little bit more Thank you I appreciate the hospitality and the process you guys have put us through the last couple days Really do Great John John thanks for being here Why FMB for you I've been coming here about 40 years
and I really like Fort Myers Beach I've always liked the quaintness of Fort Buyers Beach Uh and then coming back in February when I was here prean to coming after Ian seeing the resiliency of the people and the businesses I you know I retired once went back to work I'm too
young to retire And I see what a challenge here you have to work with you and as a team I thought that would be a unique challenge and keep Fort Myers be as good as it has been and keep on growing Thank you I've been asking
everyone about servant leadership and how how it should manifest itself in a spirit of humility and a desire to put the needs of the citizenry before one's ego or personal agenda Do you share that approach to governing and leadership And if so could you provide some specific examples
Uh yes I do a share approach and uh to be you know being civil and and leadership challenges to uh show empathy to people and make sure that the citizens come first We're in this together You're elected uh you would be elected would be hiring me and to do
that in the leadership you have to take care and I know this is a boots on the ground job here in Fort Myers You're small enough and you show that with your team leadership here and that's a great approach It's too big a job for one guy to delegate everything and to have that team approach and to work with the
constituents and the volunteers are very uh important on this island and I see that Thank you So can you briefly summarize your career path and how it has prepared you for this role Yes it it I started out when I
was 17 years old working for cities given the choice you want to be a lifeguard or you want to run a jackhammer I of course was qualified CPR and trained to be a lifeguard and I said I want to run a jackhammer I was a 17 year old kid 175 pounds playing college football So I said I'll run a jackhammer
and get a little bigger I think I overdid it but uh I can relate that that food control has been a a managing process U went to school played college football graduated with double majored in history pre-law and education since 12 Had an
opportunity to teach high school and coach However I paid like 16,000 a year and working for the city paid 22,000 Little did I know started out as a water supervisor worked my way up to the city of Barbberon By the time I was 25 I was a union president running five locals in
in town and I negotiated all the contracts The state used to come in and negotiate the contracts I took it over at a young age At that time I applied for law school and grad school Ended up going to my masters in public administrations Mother passed away left $2,500
um from the 2500 if you got A's and B's they turned it over and I ended up about 10 years four kids later got my masters in public administration uh spent 19 years at barber worked my way up from the street department took a cut and pay the building department was a building inspector code enforcement uh from there
I seen an opening in the planning department so I was a code enforcement for the zoning officials and planning was a staff I wrote all the staff reports and so forth while I was in the planning department and became the strategic planner handled the capital improvement budget both the narrative and the budgetary one for all the
departments in the city of Auburn But from there I got a call u from the city of Aurora They wanted a director of public services knew I was good with unions They had some union issues I took care of that We had no union issues I was there 17 years had one grievance I managed people well I I do the team
effort to to make sure I manage them well Uh but 17 years years at uh city of Roy I started as just the director of public services After four years the mayor in his infinite wisdom did not rehire the engineer So I became the engineering director too Kept doing it
for no more money and just kept on plotting along I had five engineers who were under me and I'm a a nationally certified planner Um so I knew how to do it but I knew how to stay off of the engineers toes and work with them So we would let up RFPs that many of projects
uh in the uh city of Aurora you know it was a mayor went through with three mayors in the city of Aurora and being the director of both It was a a great career step And then after the city of Aurora I retired I thought I'd stay retired longer I didn't At the 53 I
ended up going right back and managing the is the Manowway It's the Manowway Village It's only 10,000 Had some water problems And in Aurora I had negotiated Cleveland water and brought it all the way to the southern part of uh Portage County So then I they had a water problem that was getting so high about
300 a month and it was not sustainable There would have been a ghost town for that small thousand A friend of mine was mayor I told her I'd help her out and we did I thought I'd go there for one year Ended up two Uh in the interimm I was offered a job at the county as
superintendent general superintendent Uh key thing about that it was only four days in the summer 410s and I had Fridays off I got to golf once in a while It was really nice But I ended up instead of golfing working for the village still and working for the village both Friday Saturdays and Sunday
Did that about two years and uh that brought me to where I am and then uh they changed a politician came a friend of mine that was hired he ended up actually moved to Fort Myers Beach down here in the city and uh the new engineer said he's going in a different direction
Um but those that brought me to here uh you know the city of Barbin had 28,000 way had a thousand The county I managed um 370 mi of roads and 152 bridges and it was 166,000 people and three commissioners and I was to go between
the commissioner and the engineer and uh had a lot of responsibilities with that We dealt with a lot of the FEMA stuff the EPA environmental documents handle that grant process and manage it and make sure all the documents are kept in the right place at the right time and the auditor come look at any time is
very important Thank you Counc Speaking of budgets what's the scope and size of the largest budget you've overseen and what were your key key responsibilities in that pro budget process Yes And in the budget process I had to go back to
Barbara at first that responsibility of the CIP handled the entire budget process and delivered to the mayor so he could actually do his budget So I had all the capital improvements and operating and uh delivered to him that was also a CDBG entitlement community So
we had to manage those got about a million dollars uh to use to match water line sewer line replacements or even those 8020 federal matches You can use that 20 for the 80% and be a total match project over several years So I handled
that originally and then in Aurora I handled all the utilities both both enterprises funds the water and sewer and eventually in storm water too those utilities I manage those all those in Aurora from 1.2 to 1.6 and then another
1.7 at the other Uh we had a $12 million capital budget in the city of Aurora which allowed us great latitude and and turned over all the trucks and got those you know they went from just having snow plows uh that were multi-use to single use That was very fortunate to have in a
community that had that much capital to improve Um uh the budget we we'd go from we had a zerobased budgeting at uh Aurora One mayor had to do that and we did the entire process with that It was very long very tedious to go all the way back to zero and look at every cut and
see what's going on And then the new mayors would go about 2% to maybe 3% depending on the union contracts and the raises to try to keep the budgets right there So my budgets would range from three to$6 million direct control but to
225 of the budget of the city of BAR We had many projects I had a couple projects even where front of the first uh department of transportation multi-year projects involved uh used to be sea world area We widen the street We had ended up about $12 million project
six million each year And I really had to lobby uh district four to get the the payments all at once They wanted to excuse they want to give us all it wants to us to make our portion of the payment of that 20% Even for a community such as that you know uh resources are always
finite limited resources So we I finally the first project to get it split between the two years and actually make the payments They didn't get their money up front They got it one year and then the next and uh so budget was pretty successful and never went over budget Always always under budget my departments that I would look over
That's great Thank you All right John Thanks How would you approach budgeting for our small municipality with the limited revenue streams and fluctuating property values due to the disaster impacts I think they uh the CGTR relief and make sure we spent that properly so that we
can spend things to get the CIP eventually uh take those disaster funds and not only the towns come in really along with the public properties but the private also we need to be transparent and help those a little along the way we necessarily wouldn't have to do all the work for them but show them where to go
and help the private property owners And that way we can keep taxes down also as we uh get through this process and look for other avenues for leveraging and matching dollars and actually the private public uh partnership has to be developed a little more and everybody's
working on it every day that private public partnership and work uh work towards it because I believe the unique situation and how everybody pitches in here They'd be ready for that and especially with the FEMA funds which are definitely limited and only so many
years Jen John what do you see as the greatest challenge for the next Fort Myers Beachtown manager I think uh developing those coalitions that are needed to be developed I know Andy's had some with the the state Tallahassee and DC and also Dan has Keep those uh going
those coalitions going and and respectable That way when there comes times there's always competing interests and those competing interests you can agree to disagree without uh great problems at a time So at least you have the basis and the knowledge whether it's going to lunch going to dinner going HOA
being visible in the community and actually working with the community members helping them out if you can use my knowledge over the last 43 years to help not only the the government structure but also the community members Thank you
You your your last answer just sort of uh addressed part of the question that I'm about to ask It's about relationship building skills Could you comment on how you've prioritized the skills of relationship building and give some specific examples of where you've utilized them to advance the interests
of the communities you've served in the past Yes the relationship skills are very important to build those to build those uh community relationships Uh for instance uh I use a coaching approach I I coach high school kids and everybody's
uh everybody's kid was going to go you know to college or pro Unfortunately not so But uh the balancing of the parents and everything else uh with that was a challenging area in my year But that did I know that would train me for what I do now And you have to take sympathy and
and empathy and know the passion some people have This is all the money they have put eggs in one basket You can understand that you got to figure out how they're going to do this and stay one step ahead And I how I've done that in the past Uh there I was on the technical advisory committee for
metropolitan planning organization and uh city of Akran was a bigger city in the Cleveland area They used to take all the money and take all the matching Uh we got tired of that and I decided to sit on the technical advisory committee became the chairman and both 05 and 17
and the years 15 years prior I was always come to the meetings they're very sometimes you just run the gavl the other times you're learning the process So I figured out in the process you get on the grant making committee and score those grants and everything else you could eventually change it So I changed the process uh got a little straightened
out uh and the smaller communities were given some equity They have their own par equity with the bigger communities and everybody was a distribution of the money equally over different five-year periods And that's how I uh changed the system If we need more we would go to uh
the state house and change team at the state house for local government sharing and so forth Lobby at the state house for that Thank you So if you had critics what would your critics say about your leadership and how do you respond to that feedback
I think if I had critics they saying he coaches too much You know I empower the employees you know from I know both sides of you don't have unions here but I know both sides of the fence How the employees are feeling toward managers and how managers feel to employees And I
I like to empower employees as I've seen here which Andy has done most recently making those employees uh come up through the ranks They can see light through their tunnel They're not job hop hopping like a lot of younger employees have done today in in today's market and
economy And to to that issue uh probably you know sometimes you're you're too lenient You shouldn't give them this empowerment but you have to give empowerment and and and employment Uh and make sure they're part of the picture Like I said this is too much for one man to do Uh needs a community of
employees constituents and residents to bring this community back where where it's going now Thank you John tell us a a time when you led your community through a period of significant change or recovery What were
the key challenges and how did you prioritize action I think uh probably two communities both the uh village of Manoway uh when they were having problems with water and sewer and how do we deal with this from rates going up to $300 a month and
making it unsustainable for a thousand residents Uh what we did is set up an RFP and that RFP would sell the both water and the sewer water tower and all the lines and sewer plants So we set the RFP and the counties and bid on a couple
uh other private tried to at first but then they backed out So we took that and and we took it over to the county We got multiple grants as a matter of fact got a million dollar grants for the water line and the backup water supply for the county and that so it was a win-win
situation for the village and the county uh and do that that that today that community striving and water rates are almost back down to $65 a month instead of that 300 So that's what he did in the both of manaway but also the city of
Aurora uh challenge event We had SeaWorld there SeaWorld and uh Six Flags It was very challenging with the tourists and and the road widening and everything else They were coming in and closing down SeaWorld But we had a a widening project going on But with that
widening project we also had a um it was force main uh excuse me not force main but a a uh transmission lane uh main water line coming down from Cleveland So same time we were widening the road the parks were closing and we still had $12 million on the table but the water lines
were necessary to bring it down The unfortunately the north tower was higher than the south So we had to pump it clear up north and then back to the south the uh forefathers in their infinite wisdom did not put the tower high enough You know four feet would have done it but it didn't work So five different pressure stations pump
stations that had to all come to mind So it was a trying time and the residents the water was very hard at that time and residents complain if they're they don't tap water and it's hard It just they just did So the city of Ravena was uh excuse me the county was selling Revena
water which wasn't good So to transition that water over from Cleveland um from the county water to Cleveland was very important at the same time a major road project with that main coming up through uh from Cleveland from the Frost Road to
Cleveland down down through uh about it was two and a half to three miles of of water man that we brought down and we did that through federal funding and some categ partnered about four different uh uh grant grants to make it
to no cost to the citizens uh besides a little bit of capital improvement dollars we have put away Okay great Thank you John What strategies would you use to build consensus among council members staff community stakeholders with diverse opinions
Diverse opinions are easy I negotiate contracts I understand there we we got to start somewhere we have common ground and then build from there Um a lot of people will be passionate Everybody's going to be passion but we live here in Fort Meyers we would decide you know at
least we have one goal common and work from that that commonality and understanding each other and respect it Keep it civil when they're doing it and uh try to reach those goals and those coalitions as you built prior to hopefully you've developed enough respect for each other that you can
agree to disagree and help one another in any other time where maybe you don't disagree All right Thank you John Thanks so much Thank you for the opportunity and I I appreciate how hospitality you show us Yes Thank you John Okay we're
going to discuss now and we'll let you guys know Public comment Oh yes We'll now open it up for public comment John would you like God bless you It's too funny All right
we will close public comment Uh would you want to take a break or We're going to take a break for Yeah take a break All right we'll take a brief 10-minute break and we'll come back at 2:50 ready All right we'll call this meeting back
to order We've now heard from all five of the potential candidates Uh we've had private meetings with them We've now had public uh questions for them Uh discussion Anybody like to discuss any of the candidates or does anybody feel
that they are not comfortable moving forward with any of the candidates And we have to go back to the drawing board We'll start with there John are you comfortable with making a decision You know I don't know mayor Um I'm still kind of torn about some things
Um I guess if I go forward I've got one person but I I'm not sure how comfortable I feel honestly Okay Vice Mayor uh I am comfortable moving forward Uh I would suggest procedurally
uh if we all come to an agreement on a on a selection and for whatever reason and I don't mean to be pessimistic because I'm very I'm optimistic and hopefully it all works out in terms of negotiations and so forth I would like to suggest that if that if that top
candidate if if we're unsuccessful in reaching a negotiated you know agreement with that candidate that we over to our streaming has stopped for a moment I've just been told Okay back up and put who unplugged the cord
[Laughter] What We go back in time Okay They're going to ratify the I'm going to read each person's ranking order Three
process certified That's better That's a better word Thank you Ready Back in the back Okay Uh councelor Safford in first rank or number one is
Will McCann Uh two is Jeremy Schaefer three Michael Brillhart four Patrick Jordan and five John TR
Okay Mayor Allers uh number one is Will McCann Number one Yep Will Mckenna Number two What's Oh this is Mayor Allers
Sorry Yep Uh number two is Jeremy Schaefer Number three is John TR Four Patrick Jordan Five Michael Brillhart Uh Vice Mayor Adder
Halt Number one Will McCann Number two John TR Number three Patrick Jordan Number four Jeremy
Schaefer Number five Michael Brillhart Okay Uh Councelor Woodson Number one is Will McCann Number two John TR Three Jeremy
Schaefer Four Patrick Jordan Five Michael Brilhart And Counselor King Number one Will William McCann Two Jeremy Schaefer Three Patrick
Jordan Four John TR Five Michael Brilhart should have been total at the bottom Yeah the total is wrong Yeah the total Let's do some I mean it's like golf the low score some and then highlight those
for right give us a moment I'm not sure what's so hard It looks like there's only one Yeah person to go forward right I I I can say the lowest score up there would be Will McKenna I just don't know the ranking of the the four the other direction
There you go So um from Do you want me to go from bottom to top or top to bottom Either way Okay Um with a score of five the lowest score on the board is Will McCann The next lowest would be Jeremy
Schaefer with a total score of 13 Uh John TR with a total score of 16 Patrick Jordan has a score of 18 And Michael Brillhart with a score of 23 You have to right So the next step in
your process would be for you to certify that this is a true and accurate uh depiction of your votes So move John is that a true and accurate depiction of your vote Yes it was Vice May yes it was Mr Sford yes it is Woodson Yes And mine
is as well Okay And so the next step would be if there is a motion uh to consistent with uh the vote to appoint um will and you're going to have to help me with this ma
point of order point of order wouldn't negotiate make a motion to go into contract negotiations Not to appoint him yet till you right Oh yes Yes Okay Contract correct to move forward to negotiate a contract um
leading to an ultimate um appointment at a future date Mr Mayor he's correct Mr Mayor I would move that we move forward with the appointment process of William McKenna negotiating negotiating process and that we appoint councelor Woodson to
be the council leazison to that negotiation process I second that Okay we got a motion by Vice Mayor Adderhalt seconded by councelor Safford Any further discussion I'm great with that Thank you very much The roll call Okay Vice Mayor Halt I
Councelor Safford I Councelor Woodson I Councelor King I And I'm an I as well Motion carries unanimously Can you bring in Mr It's getting closer for you You guys didn't unplug it back there again did you Still hear us
Yeah we actually had somebody complain they couldn't hear Jim and I was stunned but We almost made it by three We almost made it by three Are they together in the room I don't know I'm not sure Are they together in the room
Yeah When you went through the process were you all in the same lobby area Right there Shel's in there too Okay Welcome back sir Thank you Mr Mayor Well Sheremy you've heard the news that you
were selected unanimously by the council to begin contract negotiations Councelor Woodson is going to be our liaison to work with you to hopefully put together a contract to bring you on board Thank you Mr Mayor Thank you council for the opportunity I very much look forward to
it Right So you'll come for $100 a to be determined All right Anybody else have any questions for for Will Before we I just want to say for the record Will first of all congratulations but second of all
how important it is that the council independent of each other you were the number one choice of each individual counselor So you've got unanimous support from the town of Fort Meer speech to be our our next successful town manager So congratulations Thank
you sir I really appreciate that All right So I'm looking forward the next steps would be to what the negotiation and what we would probably do is work um with a draft of
Andy's contract and then make whatever changes we need to as a starting point um counselor Okay Okay And thank you council members for um having me involved in this I really appreciate it I think you're going to do
a great job and thank you guys for finding him Yeah Great job If I can say on to Lisa and the whole staff did an excellent job The the whole process was seamless very professional really uh made us feel welcome from the very
beginning It's a great staff and we look forward to you joining it Thank you I appreciate it I look forward to it as well Thank you so much If I may Yes sir Yes Only if you only if it's voted now He said we got one no vote one yes vote
Only if you use a French southern accent No say it's the way it works here Learning I'm here to help as much as possible My official last date is the 30th We have put on an agenda item on Monday to extend it for 30 days So I'll be at your
disposal whatever need and has my contact information and we'll we'll get that to you Thank you sir I really appreciate transparency there Perfect Anything else All right John move to adjurnn All right Got motion second I
got a second All those in favor signify by saying I I The post