A chat about public interactions with City Manager Glenn Steckman

In mid-February, a press release posted on ChooseCambridge.com announced that City Manager Glenn Steckman would be available to meet with interested citizens at his City Hall office on Saturday the 15th. People were invited to bring their concerns or just introduce themselves. Another release was later posted for a similar “open house” on March 8th.

The Spy recently sat down with Steckman to discuss these meetings, including what concerns were brought forward and what could be done to address them. (The text has been edited for length and clarity.)

You’ve held meetings on February 15 and March 8 for people to come in and talk to you. Were there any dates before that?

STECKMAN: After the 8th meeting, someone called and asked if they could come in and see me on a Saturday. So, I went ahead, and someone else called and I said “Come on in.” So, we ended up, though it wasn’t publicized, I had two city constituents come in and talk. Okay with me. So overall, in the three times that I’ve been in here on Saturdays in the last month, we’ve had six people come in and speak.

What was the impetus for your open-door meetings?

STECKMAN: Well, actually, I’ve done this a lot during my career. I think it helps. You know, we need to remember that not everybody can come in and speak to the city manager if they wish to from 8 to 5. And recognizing that, that people work and they want to come in and talk with the city manager on any issue, I started making time on Saturdays. And when I worked in Nome [Alaska], I was working every Saturday, so I didn’t have to announce it. People would see my vehicle parked in the parking lot. And our building was in a different configuration, obviously, from here. So, people would know that I was there and they would just [come in]. Oh, and I would make appointments for people who just couldn’t get in during the week.

What kinds of concerns were discussed?

STECKMAN: Well, you know, concerns about traffic, concerns about [Cambridge Waterfront Development, Inc], where that was going. You know, a lot of traffic and safety complaints. I mean, it’s what I was expecting, things that were impacting people directly. And it also has resulted in a couple meetings to meet with larger groups of people that might be having coffee somewhere and they would like to come in and hear what is going on in the city and getting it from, you know, from the horse’s mouth, in a sense. They’re hearing it from me, and I look at it as a way to build faith and trust in the city operations.

Were any issues a surprise to you?

STECKMAN: Well, there were […] some poles that were still standing around from the street meters, which then I started noticing and seeing more than I have realized. I’ve been doing this for 25 years. I’ve managed cities that were going in bankruptcy, managed cities to go out of bankruptcy. So not a lot surprises me. I’ve built a career in helping municipalities move forward in a more positive light.

What were your responses to some of these issues?

STECKMAN: Well, a lot of these issues can’t be addressed immediately. It’ll be addressed as we get into this later, into the spring and to the summer, because it requires removing poles and putting up new signage. And we’re going to be doing three miles of paving this summer, this late spring/summer. So that’s also going to require, you know, where they were concerned about crosswalks and everything else, all that will be addressed at that time. It just gave them the knowledge that it was going to occur, and they knew their concerns were heard. I mean, a lot of this is making sure people hear their concerns are heard and to see where we can get them addressed in a timely fashion.

Where’s the paving going to be taking place?

STECKMAN: Paving is taking place all through the town and in portions of the downtown. And that’s where, when people have raised that, that’s where the crosswalks and all of those safety [things are]. Now, the other aspect of the paving, when the bids went out, proposals went out this past summer, the staff was not aware that there had to be some ADA improvements. So, this Monday night, the council will be asked to do ADA improvements on all the intersections where the paving has occurred. While we had ADA improvements there, they were done years ago, and ADA has since done another upgrade of the standards. So, what you’re supposed to do is, when you’re paving through the intersection, you need to improve the crosswalks areas.

 

Did you get the impression the people who came in [on Saturday] were satisfied with the discussions?

STECKMAN: They thanked me for being here on a Saturday and being willing for them to come in and talk with me. I’ve gotten a couple letters on that. … People like to be heard, and I want to let people know they can be heard. Not that we’re always going to be able to solve problems. Some of these, you know, I’m sure we’re going to have concerns raised that are more on a county level or state level. I do meet with the county manager once a month, and if I hear of any of these issues, I do take it to him to discuss.

I assume you’ve received emails and phone calls from citizens with concerns, also. Can you tell me anything about those?

STECKMAN: Well, in some ways it’s around the same issue. You know, senior citizens concerns. Some people will make an appointment to come in and see me to talk to the issue directly. That’s what I prefer. I’m more of a one-on-one or one with a group of people. I’m not a big, huge fan of emails because sometimes feelings don’t get conveyed, and I just want the people to know that they’re being heard. And we’re going to try to address these issues. And some of this has resulted in having monthly meetings with certain kinds of groups, senior citizens in particular, so they can voice their concerns.

What are the concerns that senior citizens have?

STECKMAN: Well, the senior citizens’ concerns I think are like […] the cost of living, the need for additional support, more activities for senior citizens. You know, the Delmarva Community Services does a great job, but they can only afford three days a week of elderly services for the elderly to come in and socialize and receive definitely a good meal. I think personally we should be doing it five days a week. I don’t want to see our elderly isolated in their homes, disconnected. And in other communities where I’ve come from, we’ve offered five days of services. Now, this is typically not a city issue. It was where I was working before because we heavily supported senior services. I’ve brought some of these issues to the county to consider if they could provide additional funding.

But, you know, we have a lot of elderly that live within our community. We want to make sure that they have a good place to live, whether it’s in subsidized or supported housing. And we also want to make sure that they can, for those that own their homes, can stay in their homes, you know, that cost to do some repairs to their homes. We want to work with them if they have sidewalk problems, if they have roof problems. We do have programs here at the city.

What problems can you address on your own, and which will require the involvement of the city council?

STECKMAN: Well, as the CEO of the city, we’re looking at internal issues right now. You know, in terms of what are we spending our money on. Are we getting the maximum return on our revenues? For instance, one of the things that was just done is creating a sweep account so that any of our cash that is not sitting in a CD or somewhere else gains interest. And it’s, you know, we have a large checking account and a couple checking accounts. So, what we’ve done is by moving to a sweep account, it’ll increase at the current interest rates. We estimate an additional $90,000 in revenue to the city.

We’re looking at how we purchase our insurance. We’re looking at potentially implementing deductibles on some of our insurance so that […] we take into consideration risk, too. We’re looking at our workman’s comp. Any way that we can find internal savings there. And obviously going through the budget this year, because this is not my budget per se. I mean, I wasn’t involved in creating it. I think we’re going to be finding some additional savings from a day to day. It’s just, it’s really managing your budget and seeing if you can maximize efficiencies, and that’s pretty much what I do.

Also, we’re looking at getting the grant projects started that have been approved. You’ve seen where we’re looking at moving along on the old City Hall. We’re waiting for a couple easements from the state to be signed so we can get the [request for proposal] out on painting the clock tower and addressing hazmat issues within the building that need to be addressed before we formally go out to any bid process. Now, the council is going to be involved in that.

But the grants were here, but we, you know, we’re trying to push them to get them going and the funds spent [on] the Cannery Park. The RFPs for the first additional phase, I should say Phase 1A, what we’re calling it internally, is to do a cleanup of the site and a dog park. The dog park hopefully will be open by–if everything goes right, the bids come in–what we anticipate will be sometime in late August, early September. And that’s been something we’ve heard a lot about.

My dog will be very happy for that.

STECKMAN: I’m glad. And I have two dogs, too, so I’m a dog lover. But showing folks that projects are getting done is very important from the staff side. Now, obviously this Saturday we’re having a retreat, so we have three new council members. That way we can let them hear what the staff’s goals and objectives to reach those goals are going to be for the next six to 18 months. And I think hopefully the staff and the council will inform the staff of what their goals are.

But I think both sides should be surprised because I have gotten the information from both sides that the staff and the council are very much in alignment on a lot of issues. And that’s important to allow us to go forward. Now, I’m not saying that everybody’s always going to agree on everything, but I think there is a solid commitment. I think Mr. [Tom] Carroll did a good job in hiring a lot of these staff people. It’s my responsibility to make sure we move forward.

How are you liking the job [as] city manager here?

STECKMAN: Well, first of all, I enjoy what I do. I’ve been in several cities with challenges. I will say Nome is going to be hard to–Nome is probably the third best thing I ever did in my life. After marrying my wife and the kids, it was an experience that is like no other. I like it here in Cambridge. I mean, I was a city councilman in Ocean City. I’ve known Cambridge for decades. I was born in Maryland. I was born in Baltimore City at Mercy Hospital.

I was a councilman in Ocean City for 10 years. I started my career in city management on the east end of the county in Vienna, Galestown, El Dorado, Brookview, Church Creek. So, it’s like coming home for me. We sold our house in Salisbury and have bought a house here in Blackwater Landing. So, we’ve bought that within 20 days of coming to work for the city.