‘Change agent’ Subadan lauds Albany accomplishments

ALBANY — Sharon Subadan chuckles as she’s offered a reminder of a statistic she knows all too well: The average tenure — “life expectancy,” if you will — of a government administrator on the local level is somewhere around three years.

Some 2 1/2 years into her tenure in Albany, Subadan said she still utilizes the social media hashtag #bestjobever.

“God brought me here to do a job,” Subadan says. “When He’s ready for me to move on, He’ll let me know. Until then, I’m going to keep working to make Albany the best city it can be.

“Certainly my time here has not been without challenges, both personally and professionally. But through those challenges, we’ve done some pretty remarkable things. And we’ve done them as a team, from the management staff all the way down to the individual employees.”

The Albany City Commission, that seven-member elected board of disparate personalities that generally gets the final say on what projects in the city move forward and how long its chosen managers remain in their positions, has proved to be an ally of Subadan’s during her two-plus years in office. The city manager acknowledges that the commission has been supportive, but she says the board members are no pushovers.

“People can say what they want about our board — and they generally do, because these people had to go through the election process to be a part of the commission — but I truly believe they have at heart the best interest of the people of this community,” Subadan said. “Every elected body has its own personality, and when you have seven people on a board, you’ll have seven very distinct personalities.

“I think that, like any group of elected officials, we’re still a work in progress. But because these commissioners have the best interest of their constituents at heart, they’ve come a long way in working together to make the best decisions for the community.”

Subadan prepared recently a brochure that outlines the city’s accomplishments over the past 2 1/2 years. It’s an impressive list, one whose elements are often forgotten by a short-attention-span public or are, as Subadan says, “not front page news.” But the city manager admits that most of the work over the past 11 months has been impacted by billion-dollar storms that tore through every part of the community on Jan. 2 and Jan. 22.

“For pretty much this whole year, we’ve been through a period of what we call ‘The storm ate my homework,’” Subadan said. “Everything we’d planned going into the new year was put on the backburner. You look at people like Phil Roberson and Jimmy Norman — and so many other of our employees — for the first few months of the year it seemed like everything they did was related to storm recovery.

“The only problem is, the city doesn’t stop for a storm or a flood or a tornado or any other kind of natural disaster. The wheels keep turning.”

A large part of Subadan’s brochure outlines steps taken to facilitate recovery from the January storms that claimed five lives, left tens of thousands in the community without power, some for months, and forced utilities crews to completely redesign and rebuild infrastructure that was destroyed by 85 mph straight-line winds and a massive EF3 tornado whose path carried it across the entirety of the county.

“We’ve seen strong recovery, but we acknowledge that there are many who are still struggling, emotionally, physically and financially,” the city manager said. “We’ve stepped up to the plate in the recovery process, done the things we need to do to claim reimbursement funds (from the federal and Georgia emergency management agencies) that will allow us to rebuild our community.

“I think when you look at our recovery efforts, one of the most important elements that many people overlook is that we had funds in reserve to pay for the recovery work, removing the trees that were blown down, getting utilities back up and running. People seem to think FEMA just comes into an area, does an evaluation and writes you a check. No, you have to pay for the recovery, document every penny you spend, and submit paperwork that shows where the money was spent.”

The city submitted reimbursement requests for $14.4 million, $13.8 million of which has already been obligated. So far, FEMA and GEMA have OK’d $3.9 million in reimbursements.

Other initiatives mentioned by Subadan as she discusses the accomplishments of the city over the past two years-plus include the development of a Fight Albany Blight program whose stated purpose is using the collaborative efforts of city agencies to target specific areas of blight in the city; implementing Phase 1 of the joint city/Dougherty County/Lee County/Grady County/Thomasville/Thomas County P25 radio system that will enhance public safety communications; hiring 62 new police officers and improving the Albany Police Department’s retention rate by 67 percent, and fostering downtown development that has brought signature projects such as the Pretoria Fields craft brewery and the Flats at 249 mixed-use housing development to the inner city.

The city has also begun the conversion of its Transportation and Public Works vehicles to less expensive compressed natural gas; created a “town-and-gown” transportation program through which city Transit buses transport Albany State University students to and from the university’s East and West campuses; helped facilitate — with the state government and the Dougherty County Commission — the move of the Albany-based National Guard armory onboard Marine Corps Logistics Base-Albany; purchased a facility that will centralize the currently “scattered” Fleet Maintenance department; secured funding to redesign and repair the antiquated Holloway Basin stormwater and other sewer projects; installed 9.3 miles of gas line along the Rails-to-Trails property purchased to increase utilities services outside the city.

The list is an extensive one, and it touches pretty much all aspects of city governance: fire services, telecommunications, air services at the Southwest Georgia Regional Airport, employee health insurance, recreational opportunities and improvements, lighting, SPLOST passage, street resurfacing, blight eradication.

The city also completed the purchase, redesign and remodel of property at 401 Pine Ave., which now houses the city’s Utilities department and provides office space for managers and other city agencies. Subadan has drawn fire for the cost of the 401 project, which eventually surpassed $3.5 million.

“We make decisions on projects like this thoughtfully,” she said. “And while the decision to move the Utilities department from the (aging) Roddeman Building (at 207 Pine Ave.) was made before I got here — was a project recommended by (Subadan’s predecessor) Tom Berry — we evaluated the needs of our employees and made the decision to provide a safe and pleasant environment for them to work in.

“Look, those folks face the giants every day in their jobs. They’d been working in a building that sometimes was freezing in the winter and sweltering in the summer. We’d reached a point where we had to either spend a lot of money to renovate 207 Pine — which would have cost significantly more (than the 401 Pine project) — or make the move. I think it’s going to turn out to be a great project for the city.”

Subadan acknowledged that she’s heard the complaints about the 401 Pine project.

“I’m human, and I certainly try to learn from constructive criticism,” she said. “But for some people, it’s not about offering constructive advice, it’s just about the criticism. I equate the decision we made on this building to the one people make every day when they have an aging automobile. At some point, there is a level of diminishing returns, where it costs more to repair the old car than it does to make a payment on a new one.

“I’m a change agent; that’s why I was brought here. I’m driven toward producing results. I told the members of the commission when they interviewed me: ‘If you don’t want change, don’t hire me.’ I think it’s clear that I’ve been true to my word.”