SOUTH PASADENA — The City Commission has reshaped the way it runs the day-to-day workings of the government.
By adding more administrative heft to the city clerk’s position, commissioners can pay more attention to “significant issues affecting the city” and spend “less time on minutia,” according to a resolution passed last month creating a new city clerk/administrator position.
South Pasadena City Clerk Carley Lewis, 33, was immediately appointed as the city clerk/administrator. Her new job description says she will be “assisting the mayor and commissioners with the legislative and administrative functions of the city.”
South Pasadena, covering less than a square mile with about 5,000 residents, is the only municipality in Florida with the old-time commission form of city government. Its five commissioners, including the one elected as mayor, each lead a department: Administration, finance, public works, public safety and community improvement.
At workshops discussing options to keep commissioners focused on the big picture, Mayor Max Elson — who is over the administration department — said it would be better to resolve differences among city staff members during weekly meetings coordinated by Lewis rather than at public administrative workshops. He also said commissioners spend too much time discussing small details like “whether or not we are going to have a clown, a face painter or a puppeteer at our block party.”
Holding a public meeting is the only way the five commissioners who serve as department heads can discuss city business under Florida’s Sunshine Law. Elson said this is one of the reasons Lewis had already been acting as a point person for the city in her job as city clerk, and formally recognizing her problem-solving and coordination role was a logical next step.
Starting last year, former Vice Mayor Lari Johnson, who oversaw the community improvement department, tried to convince fellow commissioners to explore hiring a city manager. But Elson and Commissioner Gail Neidinger said they were leaning toward bolstering up the city clerk position as a less expensive option that would allow commissioners to devote more time to important issues.
When Johnson lost her seat in the March election, serious talk of considering a city manager came to an end.
When Elson asked at a May workshop if the commissioners were in agreement to move forward with a city clerk/administrator, Vice Mayor Arthur Penny joined Elson and Neidinger. He said someone is needed to oversee issues that come up between departments before problems occur, and who can “follow through with the policy we set.”
Commissioner Ben Thomas — who was appointed to replace Esposito after she resigned on May 21 — voted with Elson, Neidinger and Penny in June to establish the new position and appoint Lewis. Commissioner David Magenheimer was absent.
City Attorney David Ottinger said creating a city clerk/administrator position did not trigger a change in the city charter because “the commissioners will remain responsible for running the departments” while Lewis “will take away some of the administrative details.”
Lewis, who has three young children, received a master’s in business administration from the University of South Florida in 2011. She became South Pasadena’s city clerk in 2013 after about three years as deputy city clerk.
Her annual salary of about $89,000 climbed two steps in the pay plan with her appointment as city clerk/administrator. She will get another raise on Oct. 1, resulting in a salary of just under $103,000, based on information proved by James Graham, South Pasadena’s director of finance.
Lewis will retain the responsibilities of the city clerk along with her new administrative tasks.
Hiring a full-time city manager would have probably cost South Pasadena at least $100,000 a year not including benefits, considering city manager salaries of other small Pinellas municipalities.
We are unique among small cities,” said Elson. “This (the new clerk/administrator position) is not a dramatic change at all. The commissioners are still over the departments, but we have someone to coordinate the city’s efforts.”
Nancy McCann is a graduate student in Journalism and Digital Communication at USF St. Petersburg.