Cooper under the magnifying glass
On Tuesday night, Delray Beach City Manager Don Cooper got a lecture—and a raise. The decisions are not as contradictory as they might seem.
During their first substantial review of Cooper, Mayor Cary Glickstein and the commission praised the manager’s integrity and accessibility and noted Delray Beach’s progress in the 14 months since Cooper started. In her written evaluation, Commissioner Jordana Jarjura also pointed out that Cooper is “apolitical.” Even for the manager, in Delray that’s an accomplishment.
They also expressed frustration, however, at what they consider Cooper’s failure to delegate more, perhaps because his upper management team—the two assistant city managers—is lacking. While acknowledging that the city is “light years ahead of where we were,” Glickstein said Cooper places “too much trust in people” and needs to get rid of underperforming employees.
During interviews Wednesday, Glickstein, Jarjura and Petrolia described the discussion as “awkward” and “uncomfortable.” It was. All three, however, reiterated the belief that Cooper can accomplish their mutual goal of making Delray Beach government more efficient and thus more effective. Glickstein, Jarjura and Petrolia hired Cooper in November 2014. Mitch Katz wasn’t elected until 2015, and Al Jacquet missed the meeting.
That trio’s collective frustration stems in large part from the expectation they had for Cooper, who has spent decades in city management. They expected Cooper to hire the right people so he could focus on wide policy issues. Instead, as Jarjura said Tuesday night, Cooper has been doing routine paperwork that should fall to subordinates. Petrolia said Wednesday, “A one-man show ain’t gonna get it.” At the meeting, Glickstein said he wanted to avoid “de-moralizing the staff” by seeming to beat up on Cooper, but added, “It’s more de-moralizing to keep underperforming employees.”
From reading their written evaluations and hearing their comments, one can determine that there is general agreement on where Cooper has done well, such as public safety. The commission likes Cooper’s supervision of the police department and his choice of Neal de Jesus as fire chief. There has been slow but discernible progress on something as basic as procurement, which was an unorganized mess when Cooper took over. He fired employees caught up in an ethics investigation over purchasing violations.
Glickstein and the commissioners, though, criticized Cooper for getting ahead on them on two fire department-related issues: the contract with Highland Beach and contracting with the county, which the commission rejected. Though Cooper seems more in control during his first full budget cycle, the commission still complains about not having enough information on agenda items.
As noted, though, the commission most wants Cooper to demonstrate the potential they see in him. Jarjura calls it “bandwidth.” Petrolia calls it “juice.” Glickstein wants “that efficiency part.” Katz wants Cooper to give himself “the help he needs.”
In the self-evaluation he did for Katz, Cooper faulted himself for not yet establishing a “performance culture” and a “nurturing atmosphere.” He plans soon to start training sessions and getting employees to focus on meeting the commission’s policy goals.
So why the 10 percent raise for Cooper, to a salary of $187,000? Because of that progress and what they see as potential for more, the commission doesn’t want to lose Cooper, who puts in long days in addition to a daily commute from his home in Port St. Lucie. Also, when Cooper leaves the commission wants a higher salary scale, to make the job as attractive as possible.
In her written evaluation, Jarjura probably spoke for the commission when she said, “I want the Don I interviewed and the Don that was at the first goal-setting workshop.” She wants to see “fortitude and energy.”
Glickstein shares that sentiment, but he also probably spoke for the commission on Wednesday when he told me, “And I won’t wait until next May.”
Ethics questions
One early, post-evaluation indicator of Cooper for the commission will be the outcome of an employee dispute that has led to an ethics investigation.
Last November, Human Resources Director Tennile DeCoste held her family’s Thanksgiving dinner at the Pompey Park Recreation Center. DeCoste did not pay for her use of the facility. She got a key and the security code from a lower-level employee of the Parks and Recreation Department. That employee’s supervisor said in a memo that the city also paid overtime to an employee for cleaning up after the dinner.
In February, Parks and Recreation Director Suzanne Fisher notified Assistant City Manager David Scott, to whom Fisher reports, about DeCoste’s use of the city facility. From there, the issue has swelled into accusations by Fisher that a decision to place her on administrative leave was “retaliatory.” Fisher has hired a private attorney. There are other accusations and denials. A campaign against Fisher also seems to have been started, and there is much talk about who started it and why.
Through her attorney, Fisher at first declined to return to work after being placed on paid leave, offering instead to work on a contract basis until work on the budget was done. Fisher then agreed to return to her job, which she did on May 9, but Fisher now reports directly to Cooper. Which exacerbates the problem of Cooper being stretched in his work.
On April 28, Cooper suspended DeCoste for a day without pay, related to her use of the park. The same day, the matter went to the Palm Beach County Commission on Ethics. City Attorney Noel Pfeffer did an earlier investigation for the city.
I’m told that Cooper has had a joint meeting with DeCoste and Fisher on improving their working relationship. Mayor Cary Glickstein said Cooper “mishandled” the issue, and other commissioners agree that it never should have become something that—in the worst case—could lead to a whistleblower lawsuit.
Office Depot update
Office Depot CEO Roland Smith held a conference call with investment analysts this week to discuss the company’s plans after a federal judge blocked the acquisition of Boca Raton-based Office Depot by Staples.
Most of Smith’s comments were predictable. Office Depot will try to create smaller, redesigned stores and cut costs. The company will finish working out its own purchase of Office Max. That absorption stalled when Staples made its offer just after the Office Depot-Office Max merger in late 2013.
But there was one interesting note. Smith said Office Depot would seek advice from Bain and Company, the management consultant. In the 1980s, Mitt Romney left Bain to form Bain Capital, a private equity firm. One of Bain Capital’s biggest successes? Staples.
Camino Real bridge
As Boca Raton has been studying how to improve traffic from the barrier island on Palmetto Park Road, one element outside the city’s control has been Palm Beach County’s plans for rebuilding the Camino Real Bridge. That work, which could take six months, would divert a lot of traffic to Palmetto Park Road.
The project had been imminent, but Mayor Susan Haynie told me this week that it has been “pushed out a couple of years” so the county can figure out how to add wider bike lanes and a wider sidewalk. The city and County Commissioner Steven Abrams had asked the county to make the new bridge more pedestrian-cyclist friendly.
So perhaps when the county is ready to start, Boca Raton will be readier for the temporary shift of traffic.
Transportation plan
At today’s meeting, the Palm Beach Metropolitan Planning Organization will adopt its latest five-year plan for transportation projects. Money gets allocated in certain years, and then the work begins.
In the 2018-19 budget is money for a six-foot sidewalk on the west side of Northeast Fifth Avenue in Boca Raton between 20th Street and Boca Raton Road. Also in that budget year is money to make George Bush Boulevard more accessible to walkers and bikers.
The big money, of course, will go to Interstate 95 and the Florida Turnpike. Nearly $600 million will widen the turnpike to eight lanes from the Palm Beach-Broward line to Lake Worth Road. And watch out. What the Florida Department of Transportation calls “managed lanes” but really are toll lanes are already as far north as Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. Roughly $150 million in this five-year plan would extend them to Linton Boulevard. The two inside lanes would be separated, with the toll charge depending on the time of day. The other three would be free.
State officials tout these lanes as a solution to traffic jams. Drivers who use them don’t always agree. The vendor, though, is happy. The joys of privatization.
