Council gives Thomas high six-month marks

At just more than six months on the job, City Manager Ned Thomas does not need to be worried about keeping the gig as city council members gathered Wednesday morning for an earlier-than-normal performance evaluation and every comment from every member present (Councilwoman Sherri Jorgensen was absent) could be fairly characterized as stellar.

Councilman Steve Walton outed himself in his comments as the person who had pushed for a six-month performance review when the contract for Thomas was being drawn up. In the past, the city manager, as well as the city attorney and city clerk (the three city positions hired directly by the council) have had a public performance review annually, a process that also serves as their shot to argue for more money.

This evaluation was unlike the formal reviews that come every year which include council members filling out a form where they rate the executive staff on a numerical scale in a variety of areas. Those forms are then tallied and averaged and a number rating is issued. While council members quizzed Thomas on some of those areas, the actual rating process will wait for the normal annual review process.

Thomas does not actually live in Boulder City quite yet. The council gave him a year to make the move from Henderson and he reported that the process is ongoing. “If you don’t see me around on weekends as often as I would like, it’s because I am at home packing,” he said.

Joking aside, when Thomas was asked about the challenges facing Boulder City, high cost of living and especially high cost of housing was one of just a few large issues he noted. Others included the ongoing historic drought and the pressures that puts on everything from tourism revenue to infrastructure.

One interesting note was that Thomas brought up the solar development in the Eldorado Valley as both a strength and a challenge.

“We are fortunate to have a large amount of publicly owned land that sits right in the path of electrical transmission lines, which has allowed us to lease that land out for solar development,” he noted. Then flipping the coin, he said, “Those leases account for 33% of city revenue. That has allowed us to keep property taxes down and lower taxes are a good thing. But we also have to be aware of having too many eggs in one basket.” Noting that technology can change and a time may eventually come when solar energy generation is no longer a thing, Thomas briefly mentioned data centers. In a recent interview about city budgets, Thomas mentioned the same idea as a possible alternate way to bring in revenue from land leases in the Eldorado Valley.

Multiple council members touted Thomas as an excellent listener and observer, with Councilwoman Denise Ashurst thanking him for having the guts to show up at her weekly Tuesday morning meeting for residents and Councilwoman Cokie Booth calling out his willingness to listen to the business community.

Thomas, who has from day one talked about a “three-legged stool” approach to management that includes listening and observing, learning about the people and community and then establishing a foundation for future success, said that even after six month he is still learning things. Talking about a recent meeting with energy efficiency experts he said, “I now know where the Christmas decorations are kept and where the pool bubble is stored.”