Ross tackles new responsibilities

It’s been two weeks since Anne Ross assumed her new assistant town manager position, and she’s got the stacks of papers on her desk to prove it.

Town Manager Dave Bullock officially promoted Ross, who has been the town’s engineer since 2004, to the newly created role of assistant town manager Jan. 1.

Ross told the Longboat Observer Monday she’s excited about her promotion and was surprised when Bullock approached her a few months ago about it.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity,” Ross said. “I’m working on changing my project-oriented mind from the Public Works Department into more of an all-encompassing town view thought process.”

Papers and binders that Ross has been perusing to get up to speed on Bullock’s initiatives sit on her desk at the Public Works Department, where capital-improvement project maps and designs used to be the norm.
In the coming months, Ross will officially move from the Public Works Department to Town Hall.

The last few months leading up to the promotion, Ross said Bullock has delegated more of her responsibilities.

So far, Ross has the following responsibilities, assignments or topics on which to get up to speed:

• Continuing to monitor town capital-improvement projects because 30% of her workload continues to come from being the town engineer;
• Telecommunications;
• Comprehensive Plan changes;
• Code changes;
• Monitoring the process for hiring a planning consultant to facilitate town code changes;
• Dog beach research.

“All of this will be a challenge, but it’s an exciting new challenge for me,” Ross said.

Ross’ annual salary rose Jan. 1 from $88,587 to $97,000, and she is on a probationary period for the position through April 30. Ross has been a town employee for nine years.

Essential functions for her new role, according to a new assistant town manager job description, include:
• Assisting the town manager in carrying out the responsibilities of the office as assigned.
• Performing the duties of the town manager in his absence.
• Preparing correspondence, reports, briefings or presentation materials as requested.
• Assisting in the annual budget preparation.
• Monitoring or evaluating the activities of department heads as requested.
• Acting as a community liaison between Town Hall administrative staff, community and community organizations as directed.
• Processing confidential matters including employee information, dealings with the press, development projects and other issues as required.

ANNE ROSS
Age: 40
Family: Husband, Adam; and two sons, Hayden, 10, and Cooper, 8. 
Residence: Panther Ridge, east of Lakewood Ranch
Hobbies: Raising two children, swimming and triathlons
Interesting Fact: Ross met her husband at West Virginia University during a bridge-building competition.

Ross was a bridge engineer, and her husband was a woodworker. Their bridge received the award for best report and came in second when the bridges were tested.