After 16 years, the "Help Wanted" sign is hanging at New Port Richey City Hall. Gerald Seeber - who arrived as a 30-something from Brown Deer, Wisc., and leaves middle-aged for Oviedo in Central Florida - is departing as the city manager of Pasco's largest municipality.
Define Seeber in one term and it is this: underappreciated.
His council bosses know his strengths and appreciate that he provides information and then gets out of the way and lets the elected officeholders define public policy.
Yet, ignoring his recommendations became routine in one matter. Each year, he warned that the city needed to do a better job of increasing its cash flow instead of relying on its reserves to balance the budget. Almost annually, the council declined.
But many members of the public at large in this city are oblivious to Seeber's steady hand. The critics complained about pedestrian benches downtown and labeled them pink coffins. They failed to realize that a new Sims Park amphitheater could lure musical acts and fans with disposable income to this relatively remote locale. They griped about the cost of street repavings. Mostly, they thought Seeber served too long, a 16-year tenure magnified by the revolving door on the council as mandated by the charter's six-year term limits.
Instead, the critics should take stock. The city's downtown is refurbished, the parks are expanded and improved, and New Port Richey snagged additional property tax revenue from citywide redevelopment. His accomplishments don't gain him fame because Seeber operates behind the scenes without seeking headlines for himself. Contrast that with the now-suspended city manager in Port Richey who called a news conference to announce a half-baked idea to partner with gambling cruises to raise public revenue.
"He's going to be sorely missed," said Pasco County Commissioner Peter Altman, who served as council member and mayor with Seeber.
That is not to say Seeber is without his occasional faults. Most notably, he allowed or ordered his former police chief to duck public questions when circumstances demanded accountability. At least that didn't happen when complaints about the city Building Department resurfaced during the recent city elections. Seeber began his own investigation; and shortly after, the head of the city building department resigned, citing poor health.
Seeber's greatest attribute may be his consensus-building skills. Long before government visioning sessions became vogue, he scheduled town hall meetings to chew over council priorities, measure public desire to acquire what is now called the James E. Grey Preserve, and identify and figure out how to capitalize on the city's strengths.
Even when he interviewed for the New Port Richey job in 1988, he asked his soon-to-be bosses what direction the council wanted the city to take and how the city manager's role fit into the plan. The answer to both is easy to see now: progressive.
Seeber does not operate in a vacuum. A year ago, at a Saint Leo University forum dubbed the Future of Pasco, Seeber spoke eloquently about the need to invest in education and the prospects of a new sales tax to help fund schools. It would have been easy to let the schools worry about their own concerns, but Seeber's view had been shaped, in part, by his time on a public school's advisory council. That task, in turn, helped him understand the transient nature of his city's population because he had firsthand accounts of the school's mobility rates. It's a view those outside of public service might not appreciate: Quality schools and desirable housing stock go hand in hand.
The next city manger will jump into a fluid situation. The city is still in the early stages of a 30-year redevelopment, its top employer and property taxpayer plans to move outside the city, and its operating budgets are strained in the short term because of strings attached to new revenue attributable to higher property values.
There are significant challenges ahead. Finding an accomplished city manager to fill Seeber's role is at the top of the list.
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