Crystal City has promoted Public Works Director Dan Turner to being the Public Works director and assistant city administrator.
As Public Works director, Turner oversaw street, water, levee and garbage services, said City Administrator Jason Eisenbeis. The promotion expands Turner’s leadership responsibilities to also oversee the Building and Planning Department and Animal Control under Eisenbeis’s direction.
Turner started his new role on Oct. 8. He will be paid $95,000, an increase from the $84,156 he was paid as Public Works director.
Eisenbeis said the city decided to do some restructuring after the recent departure of Mandy La Brier, who started the Building and Planning Director position in April, and eliminate the Building and Planning director position entirely.
Along with promoting Turner, the city plans to hire additional building inspection and code enforcement staff to have more “boots on the ground” to respond to residents’ concerns, conduct inspections and help property owners navigate city requirements.
“We’ll have more people out trying to clean up the town, getting them out in the community talking to the people, visiting with people on their grass notices or property maintenance issues, things of that nature,” Eisenbeis said.
Eisenbeis said that he hopes to eventually create a team lead or a code manager position in the department to manage day-to-day operations.
“We’re going to rely on the expertise of the people that we hire, so we’re hopeful that they just need some direction, but they’ll be able to do what they need to do as far as inspections and building and planning-type stuff. There will be more heads together versus just the way it was set up previously where you had a Building and Planning director who basically did plan review and then would go on some inspections, and you had one other person doing inspections, grass notices, everything else. So, we think that transferring this workload between 2 1/2 people instead of just one person will certainly make things a lot easier and more responsive to the citizens, and just a better overall experience.”
Eisenbeis said the city also plans on hiring an outside independent company to do a complete code review for building and planning and planning and zoning to make sure that all the city’s codes are up to date. The company will also provide employee training and technical assistance for inspections and plan review. Eisenbeis said this will support clearer requirements, more consistent code application and stronger staff capabilities.
“It’ll be a complete overhaul of the planning departments,” he said. “We recognize that changes need to be made.”
Eisenbeis said the city also hopes to eventually modernize other processes, such as allowing for the electronic submission of building plans and online payments.
Preparing for the job
Eisenbeis said Turner came to him several years ago and expressed his interest in progressing in his career with city government.
“When Dan got promoted to supervisor over the street department, he came to me and asked me what he needs to do to improve himself and continuing moving up in the city, and I told him you go back to school, get your bachelor’s degree, you continue your training, education, get certificates, and he’s lived up to it. He’s done everything he’s been asked to do.”
Eisenbeis also recommended for Turner to start pursuing the Credentialed Manager process through the International City/County Management Association (ICMA). Turner’s new designation of assistant city administrator will allow him to begin that process, which takes about nine years to complete.
Turner said he’s excited about his new role.
“It’s something that I’ve been working towards for the past three years,” he said. “I didn’t know what direction I wanted to go, whether it be on the Public Works side or the administration side, and this is a mix of both. I’ll get the best of both worlds.”
Turner said he’s also eager to learn more about building and economic development.
“It’s really piqued my interested,” he said. “While taking some UMSL courses, I found a passion for economic development, and this gives me a chance to pursue that side of things.”
Eisenbeis said he believes Turner is going to be a great fit for this role.
“He was born and raised here,” Eisenbeis said. “He’s vested, and he’s doing everything he can to ensure that he knows all there is to know to continue moving Crystal City forward and be a good leader. Homegrown talent is good to have.”