Mrs. Davis answered as far as the staff morale certainly as it is connected to the answer
she just gave, making sure we fill those gaps of vacancies in the key leadership and making
sure that she understands their concerns and needs. What she sees right now is the lack of
stability and that stability is really a result of the vacancy and the turnover in the City
Manager position. So, being in that position will start the process of building the morale
because right now of course she is sure the team is doing a great job keeping the
operation flowing but, without the head leadership guiding and being able to give them the
support and the resources they need to carry forward it is hard to maintain progress. Once
you move over a different City Manager they will have to come about and learn the
operation. If that person leaves, you have to start that process all over and that is why right
now, we see very slow movement in the projects that are before us because of the guidance
that is not there to help them move along in what they are responsible for doing. The team is
very valuable and very important to the progress because they are the ones doing the work,
so they need that support. They need to know that they have someone there helping them,
encouraging them, empowering them, and also giving them the support and making sure
that they have the skillsets to carry through. As far as the community, it is the second part of
your question. The community needs communication and she thinks communication is key.
She heard yesterday from many of the community members they want to know that they
have someone who would listen. They want to know if they have someone who is available
for them to help share the updates, the information, and what is happening in the City. To
know that they have an ear about their concerns so, of course, she wants to be involved in
the community to make sure that they know that she has an open door policy to sit with
them, to make herself available to the community from time to time and to make sure that
they have someone they can have a pinpoint person to understand the makings of what is
happening in the community and in the City.
Commissioner Shimkus asked what your approach is to project management and how you
approach it with regards to the planning and the reporting of a project to all the key
stakeholders including the citizens, the staff and the Commission?
Mrs. Davis answered one of her major ways to handle project management, she believes
that each year it is very important to set goals. With those goals she works with all her
department heads to establish goals for their departments, and we make sure that we
understand the goals for that year. We make sure it lines up with the budget and make sure
those goals are established with key objectives to reach those goals. Then at the end of the
year we are able to determine how we have progressed. That project management process
is by listing all our projects, stating our projected completion dates or our goals and how we
want to meet those objectives and communicate that so there is a regular review by holding
weekly meetings. In her previous experience she had weekly meetings with all her
department heads and part of that weekly gathering is to go over the progress of what we
are doing and how we are fairing along with that. What are the hiccups, what are the issues
that we are coming about with those projects. How we communicate that to the
Commission is that we will give them a periodic update with that on those, a progress
report. She knows currently the City has a City Manager Report and videos that go out
through DeltonaTV and so she thinks those are nice avenues in which to communicate
project progress as well as written reports. So, that is how she will handle updating the
Commission on those projects.