Bruce Maples named director of engineering, planning in Albany city reorganization

ALBANY — This isn’t Wes Smith’s first rodeo. He’s been in the position he found himself in with the city of Albany before, and it didn’t end well.

So when City Manager Sharon Subadan started talking about reorganizing the city hierarchy, Smith did what he thought was in his and his family’s best interest. He sat down and talked about a settlement offer.

“When talk surfaced about reorganization, I was concerned where I fit in,” the assistant Albany city manager said. “After talking with Sharon, I decided it was in my family’s best interest to leave on my terms.”

So Smith, who’s been with the city for 19 years — nine as assistant city manager — reached an early retirement agreement that will see him leave his position with the city on July 8. The city’s pension board approved the settlement offer Thursday morning.

Subadan said she agreed to the early retirement package with Smith because she was looking to build an executive leadership team better suited to “fulfilling our mission, vision and strategic priorities.”

“There are areas where I feel we need more focus, and foremost among those priorities is creating an atmosphere where businesses can thrive,” Subadan said. “In reorganizing our leadership team, I felt that we needed to look for someone (to serve as assistant city manager) who has expertise in specific areas that deal with business, public affairs and affordable housing.”

Subadan took a first step in the reorganization process when she increased the responsibilities of the city’s current Engineering director, Bruce Maples. Adjusting his title to managing director of engineering and planning, the city manager said Maples will have oversight of engineering, planning and permitting processes in the city.

“The city took the first step (in its efforts to be more business friendly) by combining utility engineering with city engineering, providing a one-stop shop for plan review,” Subadan said. “However, business customers are still required to go to various locations and deal with numerous staff members through the remainder of the process.

“The move (of placing engineering, planning and permitting oversight under one person) puts this process under the control of one leader. It’s part of our commitment to creating a process where customers have a clear and concise understanding of the requirements to do business with the city.”

In his new position, Maples will continue to report directly to Assistant City Manager Phil Roberson.

Subadan said she is still working on elements of her leadership reorganization, but part of the process will include Planning Services Manager Paul Forgey, whose division will now report to Maples rather than directly to an assistant city manager as it currently does.

“Part of our emphasis now is on downtown redevelopment, and that’s an area where I believe we need to use Paul’s expertise better,” Subadan said. “There are things that he does well in areas where (downtown manager) Latoya (Cutts) and I have little expertise. I want to see more collaboration between the downtown manager and planning services.

“What this collaboration is going to look like, I’ll let Paul and Latoya figure out. There are some planning-intensive areas that I think will allow Paul to have more of an impact on downtown. But that’s something I’ll let them work out together. That’s an important part of management, putting the right people in place and letting them do their job.”

Smith, meanwhile, said he hopes to find a position in the area.

“I’ll be here until July 1, but I’ll be looking at positions in this area,” Smith said. “There’s a job close by that I’m really interested in. I’d like to stay close, but I’ll throw my line out.

“I’m not exactly happy with the way things turned out (with the city), but I’m not unhappy. It was better for me, I think, to have more say in my future.”