Longtime Des Moines City Manager Scott Sanders to resign this fall, city officials confirm

Scott Sanders, who has served as Des Moines City Manager for nearly a decade, plans to resign, city officials confirmed Tuesday.

“We have learned that Des Moines City Manager Scott Sanders will be resigning from his position this fall," Mayor Connie Boesen said in an emailed statement to the Des Moines Register. "This is a bittersweet day for us, but we wish him the best in his next chapter, and we look forward to him remaining on staff over the next six months as City Council works on developing a transition plan and begins a recruitment process for his replacement.”

Sanders did not immediately comment on his plans. The news comes about four months after Boesen succeeded Mayor Frank Cownie, who had served a record 20 years as mayor.

The manager is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the city. According to the city's website, Sanders supervises department directors, serves as the primary advisor to the City Council, directs major economic development initiatives, and is the city's chief negotiator.

Cownie described Sanders as "non-stop."

"I mean, I'll drive by the City Hall over the weekend and there will be his car out there," Cownie said. "I was amazed by his dedication to the position, the job, to the city, to the employees."

Cownie pointed to major events such as the floods of 2018 and the 2020 protests where Sanders was in the "throes" of the events, bringing exposure and working with leaders and residents to resolve situations.

It would be well worth Sanders' successor to meet and work with him for a period of time to try to "understand his mindset and how we made it work for our city," Cownie added.

The city hired Sanders as a finance director in 2011 and named him assistant city manager in 2013. His appointment as city manager came the following year.

He previously told the Des Moines Register he was still adjusting to his assistant role when a national search failed to produce a suitable replacement for Rick Clark, who retired after 41 years with the city, the final seven as city manager.

More: Scott Sanders named Des Moines city manager

At the time, City Council members said Sanders showed exceptional abilities with city finances and in other areas, which is why he had moved quickly through the ranks.

It was an "aligned opportunity," Sanders told the Register. Heart-to-heart talks with friends and his wife, Christie, convinced him to take the top job when it was offered.

Sanders' decade at the helm of city government has outlasted the average tenure of a local government lead manager, which is 6.1 years, according to a 2018 survey by the International City and County Managers Association. As of 2021, Sanders' salary was $284,268.

Looking back at Sanders' nearly 10 years in office

Sanders' tenure has included successes such as the purchase of a disused Nationwide insurance office downtown to provide needed office space and a new police headquarters, with a cost that's anticipated to be far less than for new building; the cooperative agreement that led to the establishment a city park on land EMC Insurance had acquired for a headquarters annex it no longer needed; the construction of the downtown Hy-Vee; and neighborhood improvement programs like Invest DSM that's expanding after celebrating what it says are successes in areas like Drake and Franklin.

After the floods in 2018, Sanders led efforts to accelerate the city's sewer work to prepare Des Moines to better withstand severe weather events. And he worked on a major update of city code aimed at encouraging development of more walkable neighborhoods with a variety of housing.

Sanders also encountered some rocky periods, such as during the George Floyd protests, when he came under criticism along with Police Chief Dana Wingert, one of his earliest major appointments.

He also was in the manager's seat amid the failure of two major developments in the city's downtown core. The Fifth, a planned high-rise hotel and condo tower, as well as a cinema and restaurant, ended with a foreclosure and lawsuit and left the city in possession of a $42 million parking garage it didn't need. And Blackbird Investments' plan to construct a high-rise apartment tower floundered after it became embroiled in lawsuits for failing to pay its loans on other projects across the state.

The experience led to reforms in the city's development process, and another developer, the St. Joseph Group LLC, has since taken on what's now called the 515 Walnut project.

Virginia Barreda is the Des Moines city government reporter for the Register. She can be reached at vbarreda@dmreg.com. Follow her on Twitter at @vbarreda2.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Longtime Des Moines City Manager Scott Sanders to resign this fall