2. SCHNEIGER: City officials give manager thumbs .uP for first year performance
FROM PAGEl
manager in October 2000, a
public works director and city
engineer have been hired. The
city is also in the process of
hiring a community develop-ment
director and a human re-source
director.
Before taking over as city
manager in Montrose,
Schneiger managed the city of
Fruita for eight years, where
he was responsible for manag-ing
35 full-time employees and
a $6 million budget. In Mon-trose
the responsibility is .
greater with a 165-person staff
and a $38 million budget.
"It's a fairly large organiza-tion,
so if we are going to get
everyone going in the same di-rection
and if we're going to
work to improve and upgrade
city services to residents we
have to do some strategic plan-ning,"
Carlos Guara i,~Q!!trR~e~aY!f'
~)A' ~,
----~-~~--~~----~~~~--~--~------~~~~--
he said .
. Now that his first year has
come to a close, Schneiger
said he feels the city is moving
in a more unified direction.
The city has started to reor-ganize
its operation, which
will position it to better han-dle
things in the future, partie-ularlyas
Montrose grows, he
said.
.Last Monday the city coun-cil
held an executive session to
discuss Schneiger's review
and he was given a 5 percent
pay increase, bringing his
salary to about $81,000,Mayor
Carlos Guara said.
"Council is very pleased
with his job performance and
management of the day-to-day
city affairs," Guara said.
Any time a new manager is
hired there is a certain level of
adjustment that needs to take
place, Guara said.
"It did take about six
'Council is very
pleased with his job
performance and
management of the ,
day-to-day city affairs!
months to adjust to things, but
now we're on the same page,"
he said.
"I feel good about my rela-tionship
with the city coun-cil,"
Schneiger said, adding
that over the last three or four
months he feels that a strong
relationship has begun to de-velop.
"Every community operates
differently and you have to get
used to it," Schneiger said.
"There have been things I
needed to adjust to and other
things I was confident enough
to push for."
The city council is responsi-ble
for the hiring of only three
positions: municipal judge,
city attorney and city manag-er,
Councilor Noelle Hagan
said.
"For council, hiring the city
manager was a really impor-tant
job,' she said.
The city council has been
very pleased with Schneiger's
performance so far and thinks
he has done very well over the
past year, she said.
"He certainly has brought
and is bringing new talent in-to
the city that we need," Ba-gan
said. "We're not reaping
all of the fruits of this labor
yet, but we will in the future."
Because Schneiger worked
in Fruita he had some knowl-edge
of Montrose and the gov-ernmental
constraints that
cities in Colorado must work
under, Hagan said. As city
manager he has also been
willing to bring new ideas to
the table.
Once a month Schneiger
holds his morning doughnut
discussions at area restau-rants
or coffee shops. While
manager in Fruita, Schneiger
said he implemented the pro-gram
with some success.
Since he has been doing it in
Montrose the response has
been overwhelmingly posi-tive.
"He has done very well to be
accessible to citizens," Guara
said.
About 30 people attend each
meeting, Schneiger said. "I've
learned a lot from it, and I've
had some people come that
I've been able to help."
He started the program last
-December. It has allowed hJm
to help residents with con-
'I feel good about my
relationship with the
,city council!
John Schneiger
Montrose city manager
£.
cerns or questions and to
learn more about the commu-nity;
he said. _
"I think he's done a tremen-dous
job," Assistant City
Manager June Chandler said.
"I've enjoyed working with
him and what he's doing."
Since the 1980s, Chandler
has worked as an assistant to
the city manager. She has
seen many managers come
and go and has learned to ad-just
to each one, she said.
As a result of the organiza-tional
changes Schneiger has
instituted, Chandler's role
and title has changed. She
was upgraded to assistant city
manager, a position that has
given her increased responsi-bility.
"It's really an opportunity
to learn new things and in-crease
my knowledge," she
said.
The relationship Schneiger
has with the various city de-partments
is good, Chandler
said. Regularly they meet
with department heads to talk
about any problems that need
to be addressed.
One of Schneiger's
strengths has been that he is
fiscally conservative, Hagan
said. "He really scrutinizes
expenditures. "
Through the budget process
Schneiger has mapped out
capital improvement projects
for the next six years. By map-ping
out the projects it will
help the city to better plan for
the future.
"I do feel strongly that we
need to be accountable to the
public," Schneiger said. "De-partment
heads need to be
held accountable and council
holds me accountable."
Schneiger wants to "tighten
up" the city finances and
would like to create a flill: •
~- scaleircll'.icy on'finaifCe's;~~'
which he said becomes more
important as the city grows.
The reorganization going
on within the city is also
meant to get the most out of
the city's employees, he said.
"With an $8 million or $9
million payroll you want the
people to work the best they
can while at the same time
providing good service to the
residents of Montrose. Those
are the people who pay for our .
jobs and allow us to live in
such a nice and beautiful
place," he said.
To that end the city created
a new compensation plan and
has tried to bring salaries up
to market rate. He said that it
is an important part of at-tracting
and retaining quality
employees.
One issue that concerns
Schneiger is getting growth
talks going again with the
Montrose Board of County
Commissioners, he said.
"It's critical that we work to-gether
to expand the IGA (in-tergovernmental
agreement).
If there are ways to work to-gether
to save taxpayers mon-ey;
I think we need to work to-gether
to overcome the obsta-cles
of the past," he said.
And although the past year
has gone pretty smoothly; it
has had its difficult points, he
said.
"The hardest thing work-wise
is trying to get everyone
going in the same direction
and implementing processes
that will do that," he said.
"When I came in I figured it
would take a year or two to get
things where I would feel com-fortable
with them."
With year one gone,
Schneiger looks forward to
year two and getting involved
with more "fun" projects,
such as creating an urban de-sign
plan and working on
downtown to help make it
more appealing, Changes in
lighting, new medians and
making downtown more
pedestrian friendly will hope-fully
help create more interest
and support for downtown
business, he said.
"It's been a good year. There
have been some great things
and in other ways its peen,
'cllallengil}-g," he said, ;'It's ~_ :
been'a good year,-andTfu glad "':;
to have it under my belt."
