Amarillo City Council appoints Floyd Hartman as interim city manager

The city of Amarillo officially named assistant city manager Floyd Hartman as the new interim city manager on Tuesday, following the deputy city manager's recent resignation.

For the past two decades, Hartman has served in multiple roles and is the longest-tenured assistant city manager. This new role follows conflicts over realignment within the city staff by Andrew Freeman and is looked upon to stabilize the staff until a new city manager is hired.

In a city news release, Mayor Cole Stanley enthusiastically supported Hartman for the appointment.

"After meeting with Floyd, I am confident that the City Council and City Management are aligned in our priorities and functions for Amarillo,” he said. “Service to our city and its residents remains our utmost priority, and I believe Floyd's leadership as Interim City Manager will be instrumental in guiding us through this transition period."

Hartman said he is glad to step into the position until a permanent city manager is selected.

"I am deeply honored to serve the City of Amarillo and its residents as the interim city manager,” he said. "The city has identified a strong path forward, and I am confident in our collective ability to continue advancing our community's interests. Together, with the support of our talented city staff and leadership, we will maintain our commitment to excellence and service."

By a unanimous 4-0, the Amarillo City Council voted to appoint Hartman, with Stanley absent from Tuesday's meeting. While the council opposed Freeman's restaffing plan, feeling that there had not been proper notice and consultation, Hartman said the council could still decide to act on some suggested changes.

“The goals and objectives will be to deal with existing structures as they are, and we do not anticipate making any significant staff changes,” Hartman added.

Hartman said that, according to the resolution, he will return to his former role at the behest of the newly hired city manager.

Asked if there would be any possible issues with the change in roles, especially with the deputy city manager no longer taking the reins, Hartman said that he was confident that the strength of the staff would allow for a smooth transition.

“Our management team is really strong and diverse, and we are proud of that,” he said. “Each and every one of the management team that we have could serve as city manager. Right now, it is just an opportunity for me to use my expertise and experience to serve the citizens the best that I can. I am amazed at the professionalism of our team in serving the city.”

With the question of what level of decision the city manager needs to bring to the city council, Hartman stressed that there is always an ongoing discussion with the city manager and the council about staffing.

"We are in alignment going forward with the city council and myself where those will be," Hartman added.

Mayor Pro Tem Don Tipps spoke about the council's decision to make this appointment.

“Floyd had put his name out there and has a lot of experience with the city; we need a caretaker who will continue to manage the city who has experience and relationships with staff so that it was an easy transition,” Tipps said. “We were very comfortable with him taking on that role in this circumstance.”

Tipps said that the current policies will be used to examine future decisions by city management and council to ensure that they align with governance and the city charter. He feels that this will be a lengthy process to ensure that there is no confusion about roles and what needs to come to council.

"There is a matrix that we want to follow with anybody in that position,” he said. “We met as council today and made sure that the role of interim city manager is well defined, including what the council wants and does not want from a city manager. There have obviously been some miscommunications.”

At the previous city council meeting, Tipps said he was more than willing to examine a new structure for city staff to consider. For now, the council feels confident it has defined the position of interim manager.

“Our interim city manager knew this organization well, and it would still be potentially good to look at those changes to see if they create greater efficiencies,” Tipps said. “For me, I felt like it was worth entertaining the idea while not accepting it all or throwing it all away but looking at the processes to run the city. Given what happened with our previous interim manager, I feel like some miscommunication was a problem with both parties that brought us to this point.”

For the community and staff, Tipps emphasized that the city and staff want what is best for the community by working well together with better communication. He felt that a communication breakdown resulted in this change after months of great service from Freeman.

“I think we could have done a better job of defining roles on both of our parts,” he said. "I think as council, we just assumed at a certain level that there would be decisions that we would want to know about. It was never clearly defined, and defining it will make for better outcomes. As city managers, they are here to run the organization, and we need to make sure that the lines of communication and expectations are clear with our city manager.”

Tipps said that with such substantial changes and the council not being aware of the moves, it just created an issue with what power the city manager has without consent. He said the council will look at Freeman’s performance to see if any additional pay is due for his time as city manager. He also said that there will be some adjustments for staff in these decisions.

“The staff is all human, so I do not think there is any way it does not affect them in some way,” Tipps said, “We probably have the best team we can have in the city manager's office. On a human side, absolutely, I think it will rock a little, but on a professional side, I think they will get past it and move forward.”

This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Amarillo City Council names Floyd Hartman as next interim manager