Mark Lane: Good luck to Deltona’s new manager — he’ll need it
Congratulations to Dale "Doc" Dougherty on being confirmed Thursday as Deltona’s newest city manager by a 7-0 vote. I trust he knows what he’s stepping into.
Three finalists for the job had dropped out of consideration. That includes one who expressed concerns about the way the commission treats staff, according to a West Volusia Beacon report. Certainly a familiar concern. A new search had been discussed only briefly before being dropped by the commission at an earlier meeting.
But Dougherty seems unfazed about being the Plan B choice. He will leave his post as manager of Garden City, Michigan, and start his new job next month at $215,000 a year.
Related: Deltona City Commission to consider finalizing city manager contract at special meeting
Mark Lane: Deltona burns through yet another manager
Deltona, founded in the 1960s as a no-frills retirement community in the middle of nowhere, grew up fast and was incorporated as a city on the last day of 1995. It’s the largest city in Volusia County with more than 97,000 people as of last year. With that fast growth came more than a few growing pains and unmet infrastructure demands.
Even before it was officially a city — something that happened on the third try at voter approval — the place developed a reputation for tumultuous, let-it-all-hang-out local politics. As a result, Deltona has experienced an unusual turnover rate for its city managers. Dougherty will become the city’s 16th manager. (Counting interim and substitute managers.)
The city has tried out all styles of city managers — both pros from other cities and promoted-from-within city workers who hadn’t run a city before, from visionaries to functionaries. All have, to varying degrees, run afoul of their city commissioners.
Deltona’s first city manager, Harold Emrich, who served from 1996 to 1998, was abruptly fired after only 22 months — a commission decision that set a pattern. The longest-serving city manager was Fritz Behring, there from 1999 to 2005. (He left to manage another fast-growing area, Clay County.) The shortest terms were in 1999 when the city burned through two acting city managers.
Not to pick on Deltona, though, other area cities have had their own problems keeping managers. In Palm Coast, a divided City Council abruptly fired its city manager on March 19, citing only the vaguest of reasons. A longtime city employee, she had been manager for 13 months.
There are a lot of reasons that some cities here have a turnover rate on par with the average Burger King. Part of it is growth tensions. On one side, there’s the influence of political forces that know only two growth rates — active or hyperactive. On the other side are residents who see their quality of life constantly threatened and aren’t shy about expressing their unhappiness.
And too, there are the inevitable tensions inherent in the council-manager form of local government. That’s the division of labor where the council or commission sets policy and general direction while the manager and the professional staff under the manager take care of day-to-day operations — letting contracts, planning and engineering, keeping up with the legalities, running the office, making sure garbage gets collected and potholes filled.
That’s how more than 270 Florida cities, including every Volusia County city except Oak Hill and Pierson, are run. It’s the default way to run a city. In part because it's a structure that blocks political cronyism, pay-to-play contracting and permitting, and putting relatives, political supporters, girlfriends and fishing buddies on the public payroll.
Yet every commission and council has at least one or two members who are certain they could do the manager’s job way better and feel the urge to micromanage staff. And that’s a recipe for conflict.
So best of luck, new City Manager Dougherty. You’re a pro and no doubt know what you’re stepping into. Don’t sign any long-term leases.
Mark Lane is a News-Journal columnist. His email is mlanewrites@gmail.com.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Mark Lane: Good luck to Deltona’s new manager — he’ll need it
