OCEAN CITY — After a nationwide search that stretched five months, there’s a new city manager in Ocean City.
Doug Miller was the Mayor and City Council’s unanimous choice to assume the position as the town’s essential chief executive officer, and The Dispatch sat down with the self-proclaimed “worrier” to talk about his past experiences as a city manager in Maryland (La Plata, Aberdeen, and Snow Hill), the type of leadership he plans to bring to town, and why the Ocean City post was an opportunity he couldn’t pass up.
Q: Talk about your time in Snow Hill, and how that time there solidified a love for the region and a willingness and a desire to come back now. Does it feel “full circle” in your career coming back here?
A: Absolutely, but more personally we have very dear friends in Snow Hill. We came there at the start of my career not knowing very much about city management. As a kid, we spent a great deal of time either in Ocean City or camping at Milburn landing, which is part of the Pocomoke River state forest. So, I was very familiar with the area and loved Snow Hill. So, when I started trying to break into the position, I never thought I would find it in Maryland because there weren’t a lot of city manager or town manager jobs, but Snow Hill became available and of all the jobs I was looking at, it was the least or worst paying, but it was the one I really wanted. I was lucky to get the job, and we were instantly welcomed into the community there and maintained very close friendships.
Q: How did your time in Snow Hill help you become the leader that you are today?
A: You quickly learn that town managers and city managers are generalists. You have people that really know the technical aspects of what needs to be done, and you learn how to empower them. I think ever since, I’ve tried to surround myself with good people and let them get started and do their job.
Q: If you look at Snow Hill, or Aberdeen or any of the other places you’ve been throughout your career, this community is definitely different. Any time, you meet a new city manager or someone coming into a high ranking position in Ocean City, they often talk about coming in and feeling like they have a new challenge because of the huge population swell that we have four months out of the year. Talk about that how you expect that challenge to be and your plan to approach it?
A: First off, from a professional standpoint, Ocean City is one of the most unique municipalities in the country and that, for me, made it very appealing to try and become the next city manager here. But, with any jurisdiction, you are going to have two constituencies: the residents or citizens and the people who own businesses there and make their money there. Of course, those two constituencies are here, but we also have a third and a fourth group in the non-resident property owners and the people who show up on July 4th and swell us to the second largest city in Maryland. Knowing that you have four constituencies and that sometimes, their interests do conflict, it’s going to be one of those balancing acts that I’m looking forward to.
Q: You are coming in at a time when Ocean City has enjoyed and worked hard for a pretty decent amount of success, even during times of economic recession. So, with that being said, some may feel that there don’t need to be a lot of changes that need to be made. Obviously, you did your homework and looked at this town, and you’ve spent some time looking at the city’s strategic plan in the early days that you’ve been here. Are there any changes outright that really need to be addressed on the “front foot” of your administration?
A: First off, the city has done itself a tremendous service by having a professionally facilitated strategic plan done. Strategic plans do a lot of things. They are long and arduous to put together, and the elected body and the staff have to do a lot of input and its time consuming and expensive. But, when it’s done, you have the ability then to say, ‘these are the priorities,’ and the staff can focus on those and incrementally, you can start knocking some of the ‘to-do’ tasks off your plate and you make progress. And then two years later you can come back and ask ‘what have we done well and what do we have to do in the future?’ I would think what concerns me, and I have a lot of concerns because I’m a worrier Bryan, and at three in the morning I’m up thinking about things. But, one of those things that I do worry about and we have to think about is that we have a certain geography that we can’t go beyond. So, to finance everything that we want to do, we are going to need to know what are assessable base is going to be in five years and ten years out so we can create sustainable budgets and know what our parameters are.
Q: During the time where there was a vacancy in this office, Mayor Rick Meehan had assumed the position of city manager. During an interview I had with him, he said this about your predecessor, David Recor: ‘David’s management style was a little different than some wanted to see. David was more of a planner and a thinker and less hands-on in some situations. Most of the council members are small business owners or come from private enterprise and are used to a different type of management. It didn’t work out as well as it could have. It was unfortunate?’ So, I mention that because I certainly sense a lot of excitement about your arrival in Ocean City, but I think the obvious question that people have is what type of leader is this guy going to be? So, describe what type of leader you are and the style of management that they can expect?
A: I believe that a person in this seat has to surround themselves with good people, and Ocean City is blessed to have some really fine staff members. As a leader, you surround yourself with good people and you let them do their jobs. Under the larger umbrella, we believe in strong customer service and that Ocean City has to sparkle every single day. We believe in doing things in a financially sustainable manner. My job is to create that culture.
When I was in La Plata for 18 years, I could physically talk to everyone about four times a week. In Aberdeen, Snow Hill and La Plata, it was very manageable and you could talk to everyone several times a week. That’s obviously an impossibility in Ocean City with an operation our size.
Q: But, I think that speaks to a style of management that sounds much more ‘hands-on’ and ‘in the trenches’ with the people who are doing the work rather than sitting in some sort of glass house in your office. So, how do expect to balance that out, because as you mentioned, Ocean City is a big operation and a big city in the summertime?
A: In the interview, I made a comment and it got a bit of a chuckle from the council members because, it’s not that I don’t like email, but if someone has a question, I’m used to walking down and saying, ‘let’s talk this through.’ So, I was reminded that email is just fine and be sure to respond to those emails when you get them.
Q: Since you are new in town, there are many people who haven’t had the pleasure of meeting you yet, and they are trying to figure out who you are and what you’re all about. There is always a conversation about what Ocean City once was: the quaint fishing village and small family town. Obviously, it’s a much bigger family town now, so there are those two schools of thought. People who want Ocean City to be the like it was back in the “Camelot” days when it was very small versus people who want to see it push forward and become the resort of tomorrow and achieve that ‘how big can you get’ mentality. First off, do you think one is better than the other and do you think there’s a way to achieve both?
A: I think there’s a way to achieve both. The Boardwalk is always going to be a centerpiece. It’s always going to be very unique. I think by the way that we have grown the way we have, it creates spin-off tourism, like the fact that we are now a golf destination. If someone is here after being on the beach for a few days, they can go to Snow Hill and rent a canoe and see the region that way. So, I think there is always going to be plenty to do for people who want to enjoy the region.
Q: Personally, are you a crabcake and beer kind of guy or are you a prime rib and Beaujolais kind of guy?
A: I’m a crabcake and beer kind of guy.
Q: If you look over the course of history, city managers in Ocean City have usually had long tenures. We live in a day and age where people don’t usually work for 30 years in one position anymore. But that said, sometimes large positions open up, people take them, and then in a few years, they decide that they either want to retire or they want to do something else. So, as you enter into this job, how important is it to create that longevity again in Ocean City? Is this a destination for you for the long haul?
A: Good question. In Snow Hill, when I was in the early stages of my career, in those days you stayed in a position for about five years. There’s a lot of movement in city management, so when I came to Snow Hill, I said that I would stay about three to five years, and I ended up there for four years.
I went to La Plata and stayed 18 years, so four years, 18 years, and then 10 years (in Aberdeen). Ocean City was a really unique opportunity. I wasn’t looking to leave Aberdeen but Ocean City was just one of those things that I just had to try to get and I was fortunate enough to. That being said, in this profession, you never say, because a lot of times it’s not your call, that you’ll be here for the next 15 years, but if I have my way, that’s what I want to do.
Q: What are you most looking forward to about this job?
A: All the new services to learn about, and taking a group of very fine professionals and getting them focused on the strategic plan and how we can deliver on it. Personally, I’m happy to be living back here in Worcester County.
Q: Are you thankful that you are coming into this job at this time of year rather than the summertime where you would be essentially dropped into the deep end?
A: Well, in many ways, this time of year is the deep end because we are preparing for the summer. So, a lot of the work that we do is setting it all up, and we are in the middle of the budget. Usually, I would want to be more familiar with the operation than I am so you can make better decisions on budget requests, but we have really good people that are helping me with all of that.
(To listen to the entire conversation, click over to The Dispatch Download at www.mdcoastdispatch.com/podcasts.)