Outgoing City Manager Doug Thomas confirmed consulting firm Strategic Government Resources is the Texas-based firm to court him away from Lakeland after 12 years as the city’s chief executive. Thomas’ last day is Sunday.
The Ledger
Published: Thursday, September 10, 2015 at 7:41 p.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, September 10, 2015 at 7:41 p.m.
LAKELAND — Outgoing Lakeland City Manager Doug Thomas will leave one city hall for many as he is put in charge of building the consulting firm Strategic Government Resources’s Southeastern operation.
Thomas confirmed the Texas-based firm to be the one to court him away from Lakeland after 12 years as the city’s chief executive. Thomas’s last day is Sunday.
The company has the largest civic leadership job board in the country and operates in 41 states, Thomas said. The company also hosts strategic retreats for government and runs national searches for executive staffing, among other consulting services.
Thomas will be the company’s Southeastern regional director.
Lakeland hired the company in 2014 to compile and vet a slate of chief of police, human resources director and water utility director candidates. For the bundle, the city paid $72,000.
The company did not return a call Thursday afternoon.
Former Pinellas County Administrator Bob LaSala has been working part time for the firm for slightly more than a year, what he calls his quasi-retirement “encore” after leaving the public sector in 2014.
Among other post-public life ventures, his work as a consultant with the firm has been fulfilling, LaSala said.
Hiring Thomas will enhance the firm’s position in the Southeast, he said.
“The firm has a presence in Florida. This is an effort to step up and expand and intensify and localize the variety of services they offer,” LaSala said.
“I think Doug will be a very valuable addition to SGR and its values-based mentality. I think Doug’s going to get a lot out of this opportunity,” he added.
As a private citizen, Thomas said, he will continue to live in Lakeland, but professionally, “I will more than likely be a road warrior for a while.”
When he announced his resignation one month ago he said his new job offered all the fun of local government without the heartache. At the time he declined to identify the firm.
His final week on the job in Lakeland provided some of both.
The City Commission declared Tuesday Douglas B. Thomas Day with a tongue-in-cheek proclamation.
“Whereas,” the resolution began, “Douglas B. Thomas was hired as City Manager in 2003, on a 4-3 vote after about four ballots, and that lukewarm wave of support never waned during his tenure.”
The resolution mentioned Thomas’s love of “process,” his basketball jump shot and several high-profile hires, including airport manager Gene Conrad, Lakeland Electric manager Joel Ivy, Police Chief Larry Giddens, Assistant City Manager Brad Johnson and “Lisa ?????, well you get the idea,” referring to former Chief of Police Lisa Womack.
The writing bears the marks of City Hall’s gallows-humorist-in-residence, City Attorney Tim McCausland, though no employee would confirm the authorship on the record.
On a more sincere note, the resolution ended saying Thomas will be “forever remembered and cherished.”
Later Tuesday, Commissioner Justin Troller grilled Thomas over the possibility he might stack the government with new agreements for contractual employees and sought support to curtail Thomas’s powers for the remainder of the week.
“Heck of a way to end Douglas B. Thomas Day,” Thomas told The Ledger at the close of his last public meeting as Lakeland’s city manager. “Does that bit of craziness mean I can pick another day of my choosing?”
A more intimate and emotional ceremony in his honor was held in the crowded hallway outside the City Commission’s chambers Thursday. Commissioners, former commissioners, city employees and residents active in civic life packed into the small space and signed a guest book filled with photos from throughout his tenure.
Wiggs thanked Thomas for his service, and Thomas, in turn, thanked city employees for making Lakeland a model city, in his view.
In a brief and emotional speech, Thomas thanked them for the “high-level work” they’ve accomplished.
“We’ve done things here no one else has done,” he said, and the success of those initiatives has been because of them.
— Christopher Guinn can be reached at Christopher.Guinn@theledger.com or 863-802-7592. Follow him on Twitter @CGuinnNews.
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