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."