Succession plan: Life after Bullock

Dave Bullock made a five-year commitment to the town in 2011. What’s the plan as the clock ticks toward 2016?

By Kurt Schultheis
| 12:00 a.m. February 26, 2015

Town Manager Dave Bullock won't divulge how long he wants to be the town's manager.

Longboat Key
News

What will Longboat life look like after Town Manager Dave Bullock departs? According to Bullock, that’s up to the Longboat Key Town Commission to decide.

On Oct. 31, 2014, Bullock began his fourth year as town manager. When he was hired, he gave the commission a five-year commitment.

Asked if he will stay beyond five years, Bullock told the Longboat Observer he “doesn’t have a departure date.”

“I absolutely said I would do five years,” Bullock said.

Asked again what his plans are beyond five years, Bullock declined to provide a date or a time frame beyond Oct. 31, 2016.

“What I can tell you is there’s a lot going on right now on Longboat Key,” Bullock said. “I came here to do stuff, and the next 12 months are extremely busy.”

An amendment to Bullock’s contract signed in July 2012 reveals that on or before Sept. 15, if the commission takes no additional action on his contract, Bullock’s contract will be automatically extended for another three years, so Bullock could stay on through Oct. 31, 2018.

Employee evaluations also evaluate directors

Town Manager Dave Bullock’s department directors review employee performance, but that doesn’t mean the town manager doesn’t know how his more than 100 employees are doing. “I look at every evaluation,” Bullock said. Those evaluations, Bullock said, “tell me both about the employees and the department director performing the evaluation.” Asked to elaborate, Bullock said if a director or manager writes up an evaluation that states the employee is simply a good worker with little evaluation or feedback, “I pay extra attention to those,” he said. “I try to give my directors help whenever they need it,” Bullock added. “There’s always room for improvement on all levels.” Bullock said as town manager, he constantly assesses his staff and asks himself if they are the right person for the role they currently possess. “There’s not one job any of us have today we will have in five years,” Bullock said.

Bullock insists his contract details aren’t important.

“I spend absolutely no time thinking about my contract,” he said.

Bullock said he’s here “to modernize the organization and work to build the community until they (commissioners) don’t want me or I’m at where I should do something else. It could happen tomorrow. It’s not there yet.”

With only a five-year commitment confirmed, some commissioners have discussed the need for a succession plan during their individual meetings with Bullock.

“We want to know there’s someone in place that can handle the job,” said Commissioner Lynn Larson. “We don’t want to be in the lurch like we were when Bruce St. Denis left. We need a plan.”

The commission hired Bullock on an interim basis in 2011, after St. Denis, town manager since 1997, resigned after pressure from commissioners mounted. In 2012, Bullock and the commission agreed on a more permanent contract.

Bullock, though, said he won’t create a succession plan or find a replacement town manager unless the commission asks him to do so as a collective body during a public meeting.

“The selection of a town manager is a charter responsibility,” Bullock said. “Any town manager who thinks they are going to hire the town manager forgot to read the charter. The charter is clear the commission hires a town manager.”

The commission hires and fires its town manager and attorney. For the town manager, either decision requires an affirmative vote of five commissioners.

Bullock promoted Anne Ross, previously the town’s engineer in the Public Works Department, to a newly created assistant town manager position in January 2013.

In January, Bullock announced at a workshop he was creating a new Public Works utilities manager position to oversee and administer current and future capital projects related to water and sewer infrastructure, including a $20 million, 12,000-foot water main replacement.

The position, Bullock stated, was needed because when Ross was appointed assistant town manager two years ago, her town engineer position was split between the Utilities Division and Town Manager’s Office. The promotion has shifted her further away from her engineering and project management work and more toward her assistant town manager duties.

A resolution requesting $66,315 within the capital improvement fund for a new utility manager position to oversee the capital improvement projects was met with skepticism, though, from some commissioners who wanted to know how much the position will cost when benefits are added to the position’s mix.

Merit-based pay incentive program

Town Manager Dave Bullock has worked with Human Resources Manager Lisa Silvertooth for more than a year to formulate a merit-based employee incentive system for general employees. “If someone is doing a great job and someone else is not doing a satisfactory job, should the person not doing a great job get the same raises as those that are?” Bullock said. “I think most people would say, pay your higher performing employees better.” Bullock said he’s not prepared to discuss the system further until it’s implemented later this year. Bullock said a similar system will be discussed in the coming months during Longboat Key Fire Rescue union contract negotiations. “It’s a system where employees get to participate in the discussions and provide me feedback on the things they do well,” Bullock said. “It’s about setting up a better way to create and develop expectations so employees have a clear expectation.”

Asked if Ross is being groomed as a town manager successor, Bullock said, “That’s up to the commission.”

Bullock said it’s more difficult to find multiple replacement options in smaller organizations such as the town.

“I try to build a department that can last and fill it with people that this town wants to have,” Bullock said. “I make management decisions every day and don’t put them in the newspaper for everyone to read. My objective is to always make the town as effective and productive as we can.”

Bullock said whoever replaces him will not be his clone.

“You have to think about an organization served with a bit of diversity in its layers,” Bullock said. “I look for people who have a sense of where they fit within the larger picture. I don’t always have a perfect form of succession in place and make sudden decisions. But I’m always looking for second or third replacements for employees in mind.”