Published: September 04, 2008 12:00 am            

VIDEO: City manager's first year marked by challenges, successes

Watch a video interview with Steve Lewis
Meeting the challenges of a devastating ice storm, working on a stormwater master plan and improving the way the City of Norman works with the business community have been part of City Manager Steve Lewis' first year in the position.

He looks back on it as a busy, exciting and challenging year.

"Like most times when you go into a community, it's really exciting because you spend a lot of time trying to soak up the community and trying to understand the issues within the community," Lewis said, including building on relationships with the schools, the state and county government throughout the year.

Barely four months into the job, Lewis was faced with the Dec. 10, 2007, ice storm, the worst in many decades. The storm left about 600,000 cubic yards of tree debris downed in Norman along with hundreds of power lines.

"As I look back over the last year, I think that was probably one of the greatest challenges we've faced as a community as well as a city staff," he said.

Most of the city lost power ranging from a few hours up to 10 days. Having enough emergency generation to power key city and social service facilities was a concern. City crews worked thousands of overtime hours helping citizens cope with the disaster.

"We really had our hands full. ... I think the thing that made a big impression on me was how we were able to respond," Lewis said. "I think, all in all, I think I would give the city staff a B grade."

But he said if another ice storm occurred in Norman, he believes the city would move its response up to an "A."

"We have really kind of looked at ourselves and trying to see things that we need to do in order to improve," he said. "One of the things we are doing now is trying to position ourselves to basically have policies and procedures and vendors already pre-selected that we could call upon to help us, to allow us to bring in contractors more quickly. But it would allow us to get an increased reimbursement from FEMA as well."

Another thing they are working on is continuing to augment their emergency generation abilities as the budget allows.

Lewis also has spent a year without filling two key openings on the city staff: planning director and assistant to the city manager. Those were vacated respectively by Richard Massie, who retired in May 2007, and Scott Martin, who was elected to the Oklahoma Legislature in November 2006.

Lewis said internally the city went through a couple of cycles doing nationwide recruitment for the planning director position. He said the city hasn't found a candidate who is the right fit for Norman, with many of the people who have experience with managing growth similar to Norman's residing on the east and west coasts.

"Earlier in the spring, the city ... engaged an executive recruitment firm that specializes in the public sector," he said. "It's not necessarily a process. Number one, it takes time to do that. And number two, you absolutely have to find that right fit. We only want to go through this process once."

The location of potential candidates has been problematic as well. Norman's real estate market is relatively strong compared to the rest of the country.

"I understand that," said Lewis, who has yet to sell his previous house in Lee's Summit, Mo. "Then that's just one of the issues too, we find applicants that might be a good fit for Norman, but because of their personal financial position, they are not willing to take that leap of faith."

He said Money magazine's recent listing of Norman as No. 6 among "Best Small Cities to Live" hasn't hurt though.

"It absolutely helps with recruiting," Lewis said.

And that detail about not having sold his Missouri house yet.

"It's a challenge, but it has worked out in previous moves and we believe it will work out this time as well," Lewis said.

Stormwater planning has occupied a lot of his attention, with creation and implementation of a stormwater master plan as a requirement of the Environmental Protection Agency for cities of more than 100,000.

"We have the data. We have a plan. We are going to be looking at anywhere between $80 (million) and $90 million worth of needed stormwater improvements and we are going to have to find a way to fund those," Lewis said, including certain improvements that are unfunded federal mandates.

"We've said it is our intent at some time to take it back to the voters for their consideration. But obviously during that same process, we're going to be looking at different revenue sources," he said. "We are going to be looking for federal assistance where appropriate. We are going to be looking at a stormwater utility. And we may be looking at other combinations -- general obligation bonds to pay for some key projects within that package. So this issue didn't occur overnight and it's going to take some time to resolve it."

When Lewis was hired, several members of the business community on the citizen committee urged him to make the city easier to work with.

"What we've done for about the past about three months, is that we as a city staff have been meeting on a weekly basis with all of our division managers that are responsible for the development review process. They are involved in our building inspection program, plat review, anything having to do with development," he said.

The group has been looking at best practices and how to streamline the development review process.

"We are looking at ways to improve our existing systems in order to be more customer-friendly," Lewis said. "Good development review processes require a good working relationship ... between the owners, the applicants within the process, with the city and then with the design professionals and by that I mean the local architects and engineers who represent these applicants. So we've been looking at the whole process and where we can improve."

He said the city needs to do a better job of explaining current rules and requirements and provide checklists to applicants, so that everybody knows up front what is needed.

"You want to build a meeting of the minds early in a project's life. And if you've got that meeting of the minds between the applicant and the city, and the applicant's engineer or the architect, projects go much smoother," Lewis said. "So we've really felt that working on our processes will help people have a better experience."

Another challenge is keeping the Robinson Street underpass project on track. Environmental approvals have been received from the state and federal government.

"I know that people in the community are saying, we voted on that project some years ago, now let's see some construction. We did just this past summer really pass a key phase when we received all our environmental clearances from both the state and the feds," he said.

The City is working to acquire right-of-way required for the project and provide relocation assistance to affected residents and business owners. They will also begin moving utilities in the area.

"Another project that we'll continue to work on is reacting to the failed library proposition. Obviously, when I first came here, one of the projects I was assigned was to work with the Pioneer Library System in order to see if we could bring forth a proposal to the citizens to consider a new library," Lewis said.

The $49.5 million referendum failed May 13 by 280 votes out of 12,544 votes cast.

"We're really in a listening process to determine what the city could do to listen and to learn about what the voters' reaction was to the previous attempt," he said. "... I think that what I think I hear most from citizens is that citizens want some more specificity of the location of the future library."

Lewis said they are also working on plans for two new fire stations and increased community policing from the successful public safety sales tax.

"We're focused on identifying sites for the new fire stations. We've got one in the northwest part of the city in the general part where the hospital is being constructed and in the east part of the city," he said. "The other thing that I really want to see happen is what the voters told us that they obviously have great concerns about safety in the community. We are a very safe community, but I think what the voters were telling us is that we want to continue to be a safe community, but we want to enhance our efforts in community policing."

He said the University North Park Tax Increment Financing District No. 2 is doing well, but is slowed somewhat by the national retail atmosphere.

"I think that our existing TIF project is fundamentally structured very appropriately," Lewis said. "And frankly, I think what's happened has been that what a lot of our major retail players are sitting out on the east and west coasts and are seeing the dire economy there and they are not realizing how strong the Oklahoma economy is. ... I think people are going to figure it out that we are alive and well and we're doing very well."

He said he believes the UNP developers are doing all the right things.

"They are going to the right trade shows to talk about these projects and they are constantly trying to attract that retail to Norman," Lewis said.

And other challenges have gotten Lewis' attention, including implementing Norman's curbside recycling program and working on future water supplies.

But for now, he's settled into the job and is looking forward to his second year.

"My commitment is the City of Norman. I have loved being in Norman. ... We have a super, very forward-thinking city council," Lewis said. "I just enjoy every minute of doing my job."

        

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