Our View: Start with a blank sheet

In adversity, there is opportunity.

For the town of Longboat Key, the departure of the town manager presents a huge opportunity.

This is it: the opportunity to start with a blank sheet of paper. To think big and bold. To question seriously the entire status quo surrounding the town manager’s job and the structure of town government.

If they think deeply about what they face in their search for a new town manager, town commissioners have this rare moment to step back from convention and tradition and ask themselves: What are the possibilities?

Are there better alternatives to managing the town? Are there better alternatives to conducting a traditional, standard national search that will result in selecting that one man or woman who will fill all of the same job duties of the previous town manager? Is that what we need — a municipal-government administrator who has climbed the bureaucratic ranks and who operates within the framework of the International City/County Management Association handbook?

The alternatives should be explored.

First, Longboat Key Mayor Jim Brown is right. In the wake of Bruce St. Denis’ departure, the town cannot afford to have a “placeholder” occupying the town manager’s office until a permanent replacement is hired. There are too many pressing issues that must continue moving forward — resolving the town’s pension problems; facilitating and monitoring the redevelopments of Publix, Longboat Key Club and the Colony; beach maintenance and renourishment; the town budget; firefighter union negotiations; whether to build a community center; not to mention the normal day-to-day challenges that arise.

Brown and his fellow commissioners made a good choice when they appointed last week Police Chief Al Hogle as acting town manager. And although Hogle would make a strong interim town manager as well (if not a permanent town manager), Town Attorney David Persson recommended Monday another worthy candidate for the interim manager position — Dave Bullock, former assistant county administrator and No. 2 administrator for Sarasota County. They both have long histories as manager/leaders in municipal and county government in our region; they know the town and its issues; and they have reputations for being competent and effective. With either Hogle or Bullock, Longboat taxpayers could feel assured the interim town manager would keep the town moving forward.

What’s more, with either of them as the interim town executive, commissioners would have the time to explore all options on how the town government should look and be managed now and in the future.

Longboat’s future
There are ample possibilities.

But start with the town’s likely future. Longboat Key is a physically mature community and virtually built out. It’s not going to grow in population or density. New construction will be redevelopment. Commercial growth will consist of the expanded Key Club, perhaps an expanded Longboat Key Hilton Beachfront Resort and possibly a boutique hotel at Whitney Beach Plaza. But even these projects, along with a redeveloped Avenue of the Flowers, only will bring Longboat Key back to where it was 10 and 20 years ago. And while these projects will require some skills dealing with developers, managing the town will not become any more complex than it is now or was. Longboat Key will remain a quiet, residential, resort community with moderate tourism traffic.

The primary government concerns will continue to be beach and water-system maintenance. Public safety will remain a top priority as well, but Longboat Key’s demographics will continue to make that a low-demand service (relative to most communities).

Altogether, the relative simplicity of Longboat Key (vis-à-vis such communities as Sarasota or Bradenton) begs the question: Can the town’s bureaucracy be simplified or pared without sacrificing the service levels Longboat Key residents expect? What can be privatized or outsourced that would not diminish the quality of services — and yet lessen the taxpayers’ burden and responsibilities for the employees and issues that come with them?

Outsource? Privatize?
To this point, you can find an increasing number of municipalities around the country shifting to outsourcing and privatizing more and more services.

Three hours or so south on Tamiami Trail, for instance, the city of Bonita Springs has 60,000 residents and a town government staff of 60 full-time employees (That compares to more than 100 for Longboat Key). The Bonita Springs Fire Department and all utilities are outsourced or privatized. The Lee County Sheriff’s Department provides police protection.

We know Longboaters cherish their town-controlled fire and police departments and would shudder at the thought of turning those services over to a county-run fire or sheriff’s department. But who says Manatee County or Sarasota County are the only options? What about a privately run fire-rescue corporation? Is this a viable option?

Or consider the city of Weston in west Broward County. Its population totals 64,000 residents. It has nine — only nine! — full-time city employees. All services are contracted out. The nine city employees are all directors of departments, in charge of working with contractors to make sure the services provided meet contractual standards. Weston, it’s worth noting, has the lowest tax rates in Broward County.

And just as appealing: Weston has no unfunded pension liabilities or, for that matter, no employee pensions at all — Weston’s vendors handle all of that.

It’s a new time and different era than it was 14 years ago when the town hired Bruce St. Denis as town manager. It’s a different era than when the Town Commission committed to paying town-employee compensation in the top 25% of the public-employee pay scales.

Americans have seen more than three generations of an ever-expanding government and all of its attendant expenses. And now they are seeing what was an inevitable result — a private-sector economy overwhelmed and suffocating from the weight of the government burden. This is what dominates today’s political debate. Americans want dramatic change — and that means a smaller government.

Longboat Key is a part of this. And that’s why, in spite of the difficulties that come with changing town managers, the Town Commission has an extraordinary opportunity. Look to the future. Ask: If we started over, what would we do? How could it be better?

Think big. Think bold. Carpe diem.

AN ANSWER TO THE PENSION PROBLEMS
Longboat Key Mayor Jim Brown told members of the Longboat Key Kiwanis Club last week that he and his fellow commissioners are moving closer to resolving the town’s public-employee pension problems — specifically how to cauterize and erase $25 million in unfunded liabilities.

Brown would not elaborate on specifics, primarily because the details are discussed in executive sessions. And the last thing the mayor wants — in the midst of everything else going on — is to rile town employees before the Town Commission is ready to unveil what’s next.

But lo and behold, in last Saturday’s Wall Street Journal, under the headline, “Perry Is Right: There Is a Texas Model for Fixing Social Security,” Merrill Matthews, resident scholar at Dallas-based Institute for Policy Innovation, explained how several Texas counties and cities opted out of Social Security in the early 1980s for their municipal employees and created what is known as “the Alternate Plan.” Matthews noted how these communities’ retirement plans have no unfunded liabilities and have produced far better benefits and larger retirement funds than employees ever would have received from Social Security.
The author of this plan is Rick Gornto, president of First Financial Benefits Inc. in Houston. We spoke with Gornto. When we explained Longboat Key’s pension problems, he said the Texas Alternate Plan could be a good alternative to what the town offers now.

We’ll save the explanation of how it works for another week. But before town commissioners finalize their new plans, we would urge them to contact Gornto: 713-882-4245, or via email: [email protected].