Opinion
By Steve Nicklas, 6-17-24
The wheels on a bicycle go round and round – resembling the Fernandina Beach city government. And nothing embodies this repetitive, mind-numbing motion like the hiring of city managers here. Especially the latest incident.
Ty Ross lasted about a month as city manager after an expensive and exhaustive search (which outlasted his tenure). Ross crashed his bicycle in an alcohol-induced accident along a city street and tried to keep it quiet. Amid community outrage, he resigned.
With little fanfare, in comes interim city manager Charles George. An engineer by trade, George is likeable but hardly qualified. Now the slippery mantle is being turned over to operations director Jeremiah Glisson, after George became ill. Glisson is likewise unqualified and untested as a city manager, even an acting one.
Meanwhile, another search for a full-time city manager will be launched. And it’s likely to be another search in the wrong direction. It is a replay of the prior 15 months of searching, grasping, with miserable results. As the wheel turns.
The city spends too much time and resources on hiring employees anyway. It’s like a bad habit. The city also likes buying things and building things that no one wants or needs.
In the meantime, the city has amassed a stuffed budget, featuring a bloated staff and oversized fleet of vehicles. And many pricey possessions, like $100 million of city-owned properties. Since 2016, when Dale Martin arrived to be city manager, nearly 10 full-time employees have been added each year, on average.
Martin was fired last year for his free-spending ways. And the search for a new manager resumed, uncovering a hidden gem in Ross. To entice better candidates, the city offered a package approaching $300,000 – nearly double Martin’s. Apparently, money alone can’t buy a good manager.
As a side note, several former officials contend the city has 50 more full-time employees than it needs, all new positions created by Martin. This over-indulgence costs city taxpayers around $5 million a year.
All the while, the city’s staff carries on with its over-regulating ways. Regardless of a permanent or temporary city manager guiding them.
Case in point, the building department has earned an untoward reputation over the years, scaring away outside investment. All the while, the city misuses impact fees declared illegal in several court decisions. The fees have been repackaged and renamed.
Like icing on a Krispy Kreme doughnut, the city now wants to borrow at high interest rates to fulfill its insatiable appetite for freewheeling spending. City officials are undecided on the exact amount and the actual purpose of the borrowed funds. But $20 to $30 million is in the ballpark.
All this despite a euphoric rise in property values, and subsequently tax revenues, in recent years. So the wheel goes round and round, ad nauseum, maybe until another crash. This time the crash could be financial in nature – from onerous, undisciplined spending.
(Steve Nicklas is the managing partner of Nicklas Wealth Management in Fernandina Beach. He is also an award-winning columnist. His columns appear in weekly newspapers in Northeast Florida and in Southeast Georgia, and on his website at www.SteveNicklasMarketplace.com. He has published a book, “All About Money,” of his favorite columns from the past 20 years. The book is available on Amazon. He has also done financial reports for area radio stations and for National Public Radio in Jacksonville. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or by phone at 904-753-0236.)
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The long-running “Investing in Today’s Financial Markets” series will resume on Thursday, June 27 (noon to 1:30 p.m.) at the Nassau County Council on Aging headquarters in Fernandina Beach.
The class, “Developing a Financial Plan,” will cover a variety of financial-planning aspects, from drawing up a realistic plan to executing it. Important issues like identifying income-producing investments, titling assets, utilizing insurance, etc. will be covered.
The series has been offered locally by financial advisor Steve Nicklas for more than 20 years, originating at Florida State College. The COA can be reached at 904-261-0701.
The views expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Citizens Journal Florida
