OUR VIEW: The lesson from Ley

In the totality of his tenure, you can easily argue Jim Ley performed well as Sarasota County administrator. So his resignation last week — or to be more precise, the circumstances that led to his departure — should not forever or indelibly blemish his 14-year record.

But the entire saga stands as an instructive lesson.

Ley had no direct role — so far as the public knows, and we would be shocked if he did — in the employees who improperly used credit cards, improperly awarded contracts to favored vendors and otherwise unethically executed the county’s purchasing rules.

But viewing the incidents as an outside observer, you can see the transgressions that occurred as examples of what frequently undermines the careers of long-tenured chief executives. Over time, CEOs become comfortable and immune, and so do their boards. The CEOs become complacent in areas where they shouldn’t; they let their guards down.  Their successes and achievements pump them up, unconsciously blinding them to weaknesses and sloppiness that eventually, and often, do them in.

Then one day the dam breaks. The trouble that was minor in the beginning grows, spreads and then bursts. And although the CEO has no direct role in what went wrong, ultimately he must accept responsibility. The buck stops here.

This is how it appears with Jim Ley.

To be sure, Ley was smart, calculating and adept at nurturing and working all of his constituencies — his commissioners/bosses/board of directors; the competing special interests of homeowner/taxpayers and developers; and the county employees. You could call Ley a smooth “player” — comfortable on the social scene and certainly comfortable engaging with politicians and business people. You sensed he thrived and enjoyed his position of power and influence. At the same time, his public persona and behavior were that of an ethical chief executive who lived by the code of doing what’s right and in the best interest of the county’s many constituents. Give him credit, Ley was a capable leader.

To wit: During his tenure, the county’s property tax rate fell 25%; the county earned a triple-A bond rating, a rarity. While other cities and counties spent all they took in during the real-estate boom, Ley championed setting aside $150 million in reserves for the inevitable economic downturn — a move that softened the nasty recession.

Ley also cites as accomplishments road expansions; expanded emergency services; the addition of a new jail; turning the county from being a huge water consumer with no backup supplies to a water-rich county; helping campaign for and shepherd the acquisition of thousands of acres and the passage of sales-tax extensions to fund county infrastructure. We would also cite Ley’s leadership in hurricane preparedness; Sarasota County was ready and organized whenever hurricanes headed our way.

He proved his competence. You can’t take that away. Except for the blind spot that did him in. Problems in the county’s purchasing practices, we now know, persisted going back to 2007. Ley told his bosses on several occasions he and his managers instituted changes to correct the problems. We also know now those problems didn’t stop.

It’s easy and understandable for the leader of an organization with a $1 billion budget and 2,000 employees not to be aware of every operational issue. There is no way Ley could control the actions of all of the county’s employees. No matter how honest or ethical Ley was or how much he preached those virtues, a thief is a thief.

Still, the circumstances of Ley’s departure provide an explicit lesson — to Ley and every CEO. It’s an oft-repeated lesson in the management of any organization: When a cancer appears, eradicate it. Quickly and thoroughly. Your career and reputation are at stake.

+ His fiduciary duty
It’s easy at this point to be post-game talking heads on the Sarasota County commissioners’ handling of Jim Ley’s resignation. But give them slack. Put yourself in their seats and in the fast-moving swirl of the circumstances.

While some people are criticizing Commissioner Joe Barbetta’s suggestion to put a clawback on Ley’s severance in the event of criminal charges, we’ll argue Barbetta was doing his job. In these situations, it’s proper for board members to think of every scenario.