- April 25, 2024
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Matt Morton took over the management of Palm Coast’s government in early April, replacing longtime City Manager Jim Landon. Morton had previously been city administrator of two smaller cities in Washington. The following is an edited transcript of an interview on July 2.
Q: You’ve been here just about three months. What have been some of the challenges and some of the successes in that time?
A: I think the challenges have just been getting acclimated to a little different role. ... I just sent the draft 60-day report to council on what I think we accomplished. Things I had laid out during the interview process that I wanted to accomplish in the first 60 days, versus what I actually accomplished in the first 60 days, lined up. Not only those things, but some extras I didn’t expect to have come up, we got great traction on. Some of the intergovernmental relations with the county, working on the Waste Pro issue ... launching Palm Coast Connect ... some staff changes. ... I think those are all positive changes that came really quickly.
Q: Before you came here, you were the administrator of two cities in Washington. So, how is this different, serving as city manager here?
A: I don’t think there’s that many differences, frankly. As I mentioned in the interview process, any differences are just differences of scale. ... I’ve not not found anything that’s, ‘Wow, I didn’t expect that.’ Its very much local government. It’s’ very much those practices and principles.
Q: What do you think the city can do to change the impression that it isn’t business friendly?
A: I’m going back to something very simple that I’ve said since I’ve been here and during the interviews: What is the value we’re trying to deliver? ... I’ll give an example. We had an inspector go out to a job site and deliver an inspection. ... I said, ‘Why were you on the job site?’ He said, ‘Well, I was there to do an inspection.’ ‘No: Why were you at the job site?’ ‘Well, I was there to correct a deficient inspection.’ ... I said, ‘OK stop, you’re not understanding. You were there to help a resident of this community complete their project. That’s what that homeowner expected of us. ... So we get back to the very basic question, I call it Question Zero — what are we doing? That, in essence, is the heart of that thinking.
Q: What are some things you can envision that the city might be able to do to ameliorate homelessness?
A: That I don’t know yet. ... We have a council member working on that; Councilman Jack Howell’s been working regionally with the homelessness coalition and the group of leadership the county put together. ... We’ve investigated, early on, our potential contribution to the county for that issue in terms of funding from the Community Development Block Grant Program. But I would say as a high-level perspective, we’re looking to the county as a social service provider to lead that charge, and we’re trying to figure out how and where it makes the most sense for us to come support their role.
Q: We had a meeting a number of weeks ago in which there was a presentation on Florida Park Drive, and the mayor was dissatisfied that one of the options presented (by staff) was the ‘do-nothing option.’ ... What was your take-away from that conversation?
A: ... The takeaway I got is that the council is wanting to address Florida Park Drive not necessarily on its pure technical merits, but on the reality of what the residents are experiencing every day. ... I think they were just signaling to us, ‘Hey, we get it, we understand the technical pieces ... What we’re saying to you is, this transcends this to some degree; we want you to come back and tell us what the real workable solutions are.’ ... That’s the approach we took.
Q: It seems like you could have a philosophy that it makes sense to always present a do-nothing option, in the sense of, ‘Here’s what happens if you don’t do anything.’ ... Do you feel like the fact that the council was not happy with having that explained in this particular scenario means that you are less likely to present that in the future?
A: No, absolutely not. That’s the great part about this system of local government we have — where we have the mayor, we have the city council, we have a manager, we have staff — is that it’s incumbent on us to do the best work we think we can do to present to the council solutions to policy decisions — council makes policy, and we execute — and when we miss it, we need to understand that and come back and try it again. ... Always getting a pat on the back, you never learn anything and you never grow. It’s those times where we miss the mark -— if we do it with sincerity and we’re humble and we’re really trying to achieve a goal — when you miss the mark and you learn and grow from it, that’s when amazing things are going to happen. ... If anything, I think it just solidifies that approach; we’re going to bring things to the council as far as we can, the best we can do. And when they’re feeling comfortable enough to tell us, ‘No, we don’t like this,’ ... that communication is good.
Q: At this point, looking toward the end of the year, what do you have in terms of priorities; what are you looking to get done?
A: Right now is budget ... and that’s a huge lift. ... And then I think we’re really in building mode right now. We’re trying to rebuild our community development department; we’re trying to launch and build the FiberNet and CIO (chief innovation officer) position; we’re trying to train up and see success in our new directors. ... So a lot of my focus is going to be on making sure I’ve got the right team members doing the right thing. ... We’re growing again; the economy’s strong. How do we reconcile that, what are our advantages, how do we create living-wage jobs — that’s going to be a question we’re going to be asking ourselves a lot. ... So we’re trying to get our heads around those things and of course deal with the day-to-day.
Q: What else would you like to say to the residents that I have not asked you about?
A: ... The whole genesis behind Palm Coast Connect was that there was a sense that the council was hearing, the mayor was hearing, that we don’t listen, we don’t care, the citizens are not important to us, you’re an afterthought. And I came up with the philosophy of: People are the purpose of our work, not a distraction to it. And Palm Coast Connect from that standpoint really is that tool. We are getting communications 24/7 from people. ... I think that, right now, is the best engagement tool that we have, because it allows us to be everywhere all the time. ... We need that conversation, we need those discussions, we need that interaction though the Palm Coast Connect portal.
