Special to The Laker/Lutz News

 

 

 

By B.C. Manion

 

Michele Baker – Pasco County’s first female administrator – brings a broad range of experiences to her current post.

As a teenager, she was involved in Civil Air Patrol and then went on to become a member of the U.S. Air Force Reserve.

Over the years, she’s worked as a waitress, a movie theater manager and a flight attendant.

It was a temp secretary job in the Office of Emergency Management in Miami-Dade County, however, that led her to a career in government work.

“I just found myself really attracted to public service. I fell in love with it. I like being able to do something that contributes to the community,” said Baker, who went on to become operations manager in the Office of Emergency Management.

She was in that role when Hurricane Andrew wreaked havoc on Miami.

“In Andrew, I could not do everything, be everything for everybody,” Baker said.

As a leader, she knew she had to rely on teams and procedures she had developed and to empower people to do their jobs.

“In a stressful situation – lots of new information comes in, and so a trusted agent says to you, ‘Hey, I’ve got this problem. I’ve got this recommendation.’ You develop a gut and you say, ‘O.K., that’s a good recommendation, run with it.’

“It was good training for this job — baptism by fire.”

Baker joined Pasco County’s staff in March of 1993.

She’d interviewed with John Gallagher – the county’s administrator for 31 years – on March 12. The following day the “Storm of the Century” also known as the “No-Name Storm” slammed into the county.

Baker had gone from her interview to a vacation in Atlanta.

“They tracked me down in Atlanta,” Baker said, and told her that if she wanted to work in Pasco it would be a good time to begin.

“I started on the Sunday after the storm, so I was here for the recovery from the storm,” Baker said.

She ascended through the ranks to become Gallagher’s chief assistant, and then served as the interim administrator when he retired after a 31-year-old career at the county’s helm on June 1.

Baker makes history

After a national search, commissioners voted to offer the county’s top job to Tomas “Tommy” Gonzalez, the city manager from Irving, Texas.

After those negotiations fell through, commissioners voted July 9 to make Baker the first woman to hold the county’s top job since Pasco was established in 1887.

In her new role, Baker oversees a staff of more than 2,000 county employees providing public services for about 467,000 residents living within a county that covers about 750 square miles.

She was hired at a salary of $170,000, plus a monthly car allowance of $450. Her contract calls for a $10,000 bump in pay, after a year on the job – contingent upon an evaluation by commissioners that she merits the increase.

“This is a really tough job. I’m willing to prove that I’m worth it,” said Baker.

She intends to draft performance measures for the board to include in her evaluation.

The goal is to base her performance on objectives the board deems important, Baker said.

“I will propose some measures to the board, based on their strategic plan. By putting the priorities out there, it makes me focus on what’s important to the Board of County Commissioners and not allow myself to get distracted by all of the fires that go on.

“We’re going to do that for the entire organization, so we’re working on what’s important, not just urgent,” Baker said.

She has identified some specific areas she intends to tackle immediately.

One top priority is to improve Pasco’s permitting system.

“What I hear from people is that it’s difficult – it has a reputation as being difficult,” Baker said.

She plans to streamline the system, making it more efficient and customer-friendly.

The changes will be based on recommendations from builders, contractors and county staff, she said.

Many of these recommendations will be put into place within 90 days.

“We’re a learning organization,” Baker said. “Those things that work, we’re going to keep using. Those things that don’t work, we’re going to swap out and try something else.”

The county also plans to introduce walk-through permitting, which will make it possible – in some circumstances – to pull a permit in a day.

Fostering employee engagement

Baker also plans to emphasize efforts aimed at maximizing the use of employee talents, Baker said.

Baker, who describes her management style as being collaborative, said the county’s employees are its most important resource.

“What we do is, we deliver services, and we do that through our frontline personnel. They are most critical,” Baker said.

Noting that employees haven’t had a raise in several years, Baker said she’s pleased the board has built a 3 percent raise for employees into the proposed 2013-14 budget.

“It’s been tough,” Baker said, noting that shrinking revenues has caused employees to take on more responsibilities, without additional pay.

“We have amazing employees,” Baker said. “They’ve really doubled down.”

One change calls for employees to have their evaluations completed at the same time, Baker said. That will provide a better understanding about how well employee teams are functioning, she said. By looking across a team, it will be easier to identify areas of strength and those needing to improve, she explained.

The county administrator said the county has challenges, but she’s enthusiastic about its future.

“When we say — ‘Pasco County, Florida’s premier county’ — we mean it.”

“We have great bones. We’re in the right place. We have good infrastructure. We have good housing. We have good people. Fabulous things are going to occur here,” Baker said.

She credits Gallagher for taking the county from its infancy through its turbulent teen years. She’s eager to help it reach full maturation, she said.

She said she’s also pleased to be working with a team of professionals who care about creating a thriving community.

“It’s really nice to be able to work, shoulder-to-shoulder, with people who share a common mission,” Baker said.

They share values, too, she said.

“People who choose to work in government are not in it for the money, they’re not in it for the personal glory,” Baker said. “You’re not just making a widget, you are contributing.”

 

 

Proposed district park deal involves partnership between Pasco County, Pasco County Schools and Wheelock Street Capital

 

By B.C. Manion

 

A deal that’s being discussed could lead to the creation of a district county park that shares facilities with a potential kindergarten through eighth-grade public school.

The partnership would also include a private developer, who would cover initial operation and maintenance fees in exchange for being allowed to use about 20 acres of land for houses, instead of park land.

Details of the potential public-public-private partnership were discussed at a July 16 workshop of the Pasco County Commission.

Pat Gassoway, of Heidt Design, an engineering firm in Tampa, told commissioners that the new owner of the Starkey Ranch Development of Regional Impact, wants to include an active sports park.

He said Wheelock Street Capital wants to help the county get the park up and running, and it is willing to pay the operation and maintenance costs for a period of years.

In exchange, Wheelock wants the park and school designs to be compact, freeing up land for development.

Proceeds from that development would cover park operation and maintenance costs for a period of time, Gassoway said.

The specifics of the deal have not yet been negotiated.

The school district is interested in making this concept work, said Assistant Superintendent Ray Gadd.

The park would be built next to 22.5 acres, set aside for a school.

The location would provide opportunities for the school district and county to share resources and would benefit the public, said Commissioner Kathryn Starkey. She envisions the potential for allowing the school cafeteria to be used for public events.

Gadd said the school board needs an elementary school and a middle school to accommodate future growth.

Initially, children living in the development would attend Longleaf Elementary or Odessa Elementary, but the school district anticipates the need for another elementary school around 2018.

Gassoway said the proposed plans are a result of a planning exercise, where professionals gathered to consider the pros and cons of various sites and offer their thoughts of how to lay out the park to include the desired features.

In the end, Wheelock Street took the work accomplished that day and refined it, Gassoway said. It is proposing a two-phase project that includes multipurpose fields, baseball fields, basketball courts, tennis courts, a playground, a picnic pavilion, parking and other amenities. The project would cost slightly more than $17.2 million.

“In my opinion, it’s a remarkable opportunity,” Gassoway said.

Commissioner Henry Wilson, who took part in the planning session, is impressed by what Wheelock Street Capital wants to do.

“He wants a park built before he builds the houses,” Wilson said, and the developer is willing to pay operating and maintenance costs for a number of years, as well.

Gadd said the school district supports the effort.

“We’re committed to finding some kind of design that we can fit in there,” Gadd said. “Hopefully it will be a K-8 (kindergarten through eighth-grade school). That would be my desire,” he said.

Now that the general concepts have been worked out, it’s time to iron out the specifics, said Michele Baker, Pasco’s new county administrator.

Baker said she supports using private-public partnerships in the quest to improve the quality of life in Pasco County.

 

 

 

By B.C. Manion

 

Pasco County may spend as much as $400,000 to put together a master facilities plan, which ultimately could lead to cost savings and greater efficiency.

Andrew Baxter, the county’s operations supervisor, said the county needs a master plan to get a clear picture of what the county owns, how its facilities are being used and to help plan to meet future needs.

The county had been looking at the possibility of hiring a consultant to put together a master facilities plan. Preliminary estimates for that work were put at $650,000.

Some commissioners balked at the idea of spending so much money for outside help, so county staff went back to the drawing board and came back with a new approach.

The new proposal, which Baxter refers to as Plan B, would involve hiring a project manager for a year and contracting for outside services. That approach is estimated at $400,000, including $75,000 for the project manager.

The idea would be to hire the manager for a year to get the facilities plan done, then the Pasco County Commission could decide whether to continue that position, Baxter said, during a workshop with commissioners on July 16.

The county needs the master facilities plan to identify all of the county’s real estate holdings, to get a true picture of how its facilities are being used and to help determine if there are ways to share facilities, reduce the use of rental space and so on, Baxter said.

Commissioner Henry Wilson said it’s not easy to get a good understanding of the county’s real estate holdings.

County Administrator Michele Baker said the county has property that it didn’t buy and doesn’t need, but she added that more information is needed to determine how to best use the county’s resources.

“We need to understand what we have,” Baxter said, so the county could collocate various departments and could better share its resources.

The county needs to do an occupancy study, to develop facility use and space allocation standards and to take a long-term view of facility needs, Baxter said.

The plan will include space needs of the county’s constitutional officers, Baker said.

“We’re behind where we need to be,” Baxter said.

Since the board was meeting in a workshop setting, no action was taken. Any vote on this issue would need to occur during a board meeting.

 

 

By B.C. Manion

 

The Pasco County School Board has approved a 15-year charter renewal for Imagine School at Land O’ Lakes.

The board supported its staff’s recommendation to grant the renewal and to allow the school to increase its student enrollment by 20 percent for the 2013-14 school year.

Under terms of the contact, the school will be allowed to have 704 students in 2013-14 and up to 728 students in kindergarten through eighth-grade for the remaining years of the contract.

The school’s previous five-year contract expired on June 30.

The district and school agreed to terms of the renewed contract on June 19, and the school board approved the charter renewal on July 2.

Imagine School at Land O’ Lakes opened in August 2008, with an enrollment of 397 students. It had 630 students last year.

The school received a grade of B in 2008-09, a C in 2009-2010 and received As in 2010-11 and 2011-2012. The school grades for 2012-13 were not yet available when the school board considered the agenda item.

The school district will conduct annual reviews of Imagine School at Land O’ Lakes and may terminate the contract for statutory and other good cause as defined in the charter.

The school’s charter is now valid until June 30, 2028.

 

 

School is needed to accommodate the area’s future growth

 

By B.C. Manion

 

The Pasco County School Board has approved the purchase of 22 acres for an elementary school site, on the south site of SR 54, across from the Ballantrae subdivision.

The new school – not expected to be constructed for five to 10 years – will provide future relief to Oakstead and Odessa elementary schools, said Linda Cobbe, spokeswoman for Pasco County Schools.

The site is within the Smith 54 mixed-use project, which calls for offices, a shopping center, a hotel and multifamily housing.

The site is off SR 54, between US 41 and the Suncoast Parkway, in one of the county’s high-growth corridors.

School district data notes that nearly 1,200 elementary students live in the area, and another 1,200 are expected when the 6,863 approved homes in the area are built.

The district’s current elementary schools are designed for 762 students.

The district anticipates it will need a minimum of three elementary schools to serve the area, and at this time, Oakstead Elementary is the only noncharter school located in the corridor.

Two more public elementary schools are needed in the corridor, according to documents prepared by the district’s planning staff.

To help address that need, the Pasco School Board approved a $2.2 million purchase of the 22-acre site within a mixed-use housing development known as Smith 54. The tract is on the south side of SR 54, approximately 1.5 miles east of the Suncoast Parkway.

Two appraisals were done on the property, with one coming in at $85,000 per acre and the other at $130,000 per acre. The district purchased the site for $101,000 per acre.

In the short term, the reopening of Sanders Elementary is expected to relieve Oakstead, Cobbe said.

 

 

By B.C. Manion

 

The Pasco County Commission voted to spend $125,000 on a study that aims to bolster the county’s ability to attract new businesses and jobs.

The board approved an agreement with the Urban Land Institute (ULI) to bring a panel of experts to the county to provide guidance on future development.

The panel of experts will meet with government, business and community representatives to look at progress the county has made since a previous ULI study was conducted five years ago. It will also recommend ways for the county to go forward.

The panel is expected to convene for no less than five days in October.

In its previous study, ULI helped the county to identify strategic market areas. It also laid the groundwork for enticing more job-creators to Pasco, by suggesting that the county identify market areas, offer incentives to attract job-creators and streamline permitting to make it easier for companies to choose Pasco.

The ULI is an organization that aims to benefit the general public through improved planning and use of urban land.

During this study, it will devote about 20 percent of its efforts toward reviewing how well is previous recommendations are being implemented. It will recognize strengths, identify weaknesses and prescribe steps to take for improvement.

The other 80 percent of its work will address issues such as the county’s regional economic role, its residential growth dynamics, its quality of life, transportation issues and its investment tools, including public-private partnerships.

The county is partnering with the Pasco Economic Development Council, Inc., and both groups want to use ULI’s services to position the county “to maximize its current resources and identify options for economic development and potential revenue sources.”

The study will include recommendations aimed at helping to carry out the County Commission’s vision for the county, as expressed through the board’s strategic plan, according to county documents.

County commissioners have been focused in recent years on the goal of attracting jobs, to help boost the local economy and to improve quality of life by helping residents finding work in the area, instead of being forced to make daily commutes to other communities.

The ULI panel and its staff will study the area, will gather research from local officials and will consult with public and private officials, representatives of relevant organizations and others.

It will prepare its conclusions and recommendations, which it will present at the end of its visit. It will present a draft report within 30 days and a final report within 90 days.

In preparation for ULI’s work, the county and PEDC are seeking feedback from citizens and business regarding the county’s progress on development readiness as it relates to recommendations made during the previous ULI panel.

Before the panel comes back, the county and PEDC would like to determine, from our collective viewpoint, what has been accomplished, where improvements have been made and what is missing or still needs work.

To take the survey, go to http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/J2CTSNL.