Remarks by David Lowery
340 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 13 of 14
- Play at 3:50:04
“Sam, what's your initial first blush thoughts here as we talk about administrative versus treasurer?”
Commission · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:51:40
“Okay. Thank you for that. Commissioner Pernault.”
Commission · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:51:56
“So we have everybody's initial kind of first blush inputs. What are y'all looking for in terms of filling it? Do y'all want to do an internal, as we've talked about?”
Commission · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:52:30
“So one point of clarification on that, are we looking, and this is one thing I guess we need to give you as staff, Internal or external? Internal saves money, but external, you could do, I guess, cast the net for internal and external. So what are y'all's thoughts?”
Commission · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:53:08
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
Commission · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:58:21
“Thank you. Who else? Anyone else on this? All right. City manager, well, any other discussion amongst the commission? It seems like, and Jamie, I see where you're going with this, the city clerk treasurer. I was operating under the assumption that we could have either an administrative clerk with a financial person under them, or we could have a financial clerk with an administrative person under them that either one, basically like two colonels, you have a wing commander and a group commander, basically one plugs under the other, and can switch either way.”
Commission · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 3:59:32
“Well, this leads into how we staff this, but I see this as the administrative clerk, if you have the finance person under them, they're basically the comptroller, right? But the comptroller clerk, I'm trying to come up with, I guess it would be like an MSG, mission support group commander slash comptroller, if you add the two together, because you're gonna have the clerk doing all of the administrative functions, the record keeping, all of the core, mission support squadron, for lack of a better term, right? But it is a possibility. We have two good applicants, our two good, very strong clerk…”
Commission · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 4:01:31
“than someone subordinate to them and that is topsy-turvy that makes sense and we're not looking to add anything else other than at this time correct me if i'm wrong fellow commissioners but we're basically looking at just the bean counting and just the records we're not looking to add anything else the the clerk duties we're not looking to add anything else to that everything else stays under the city manager except for the I guess you'd say trust but verify, right? The actual authentication. Is there anything else y'all are looking to put duty-wise under the city clerk at this time? Because…”
Commission · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 4:03:05
“So basically this comes down to a grades thing is what you're telling me. Y'all are recommending against a clerk with a treasurer underneath because of the grades disconnect effectively, right?”
Commission · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 4:04:48
“And I hear you, Commissioner Wark, and I understand what you're saying. I don't know, I just, I keep going back to the administrative clerk with a treasurer or a comptroller underneath. But I see your city clerk, I see what you're saying as well. You have two very specialized SMEs, subject matter experts, right? So one's gotta fall under the other regardless. I don't know.”
Commission · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 4:05:54
“Well, along that tonight, and it's been a very long night. It's already almost 940. I don't want to belabor this any more than we have to.”
Commission · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 4:06:12
“In regards to what we're about to vote on?”
Commission · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 4:06:21
“So, yeah, so that'll be a whole separate piece regardless. The first step is, do y'all want to do the admin clerk or do you want to do the... We got a motion.”
Commission · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 4:07:22
“But from a legal perspective, we're talking about grades and that kind. We have two very distinct subject matter experts, and one's going to have to roll under the other if we don't plug in another. We don't bring in an outside person with a new position and Kiki and CJ fall under that person. We've got two subject matter expert superstars. One's going to have to subordinate under the other structurally, organizationally, if we go with an administrative clerk with a treasurer underneath, or if we do this clerk-treasurer combination.”
Commission · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 4:08:34
“So we have a motion and a second. We've had public commentary. We've had additional conversation amongst the commission. I guess now is the time to do the city manager vote. Unless there's any other discussion amongst the commission, we'll go forward with this. Sam, you're not here, so I can't see you, buddy. Is there anything else you want to add?”
Commission · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 4:09:55
“i think it's a lot easier to use the same people because they already understand how the operation is working currently in the city i like kiki i like cj i think either one of them could do a great job it's just a matter of which way are we going to go and the only reason i hesitate a lot on the clerk treasure and i don't want to belabor it because we got other stuff to do is i actually got to talk with uh mayor branch from panama city this past week at the league of cities and they're actually moving away from that model it didn't really work for them anymore. That's the whole reason I…”
Commission · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 4:10:42
“Yeah, copy. But they're moving away from the clerk treasurer, and that was the example that you and I referenced as trying to look for a model to model after. So that's what caused me to back up and go, An administrative makes more sense to me. Why don't we, so we've given direction of 3-2 to... No, sir. What else do you need?”
Commission · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 4:11:10
“You'll bring it up at the next one. okay so we're three two on number fourteen um fifteen approve and amend restated municipal legal services agreement between the city of lynnhaven and dunlap and shipment llc uh one aspect of that i'm gonna for this obviously i'm not representing the city related to 15. i think the city has kayla platt that's reviewed this on that respect but i am here”
Commission · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 4:11:44
“No, no, you're fine. This is brief and this was for one item only. So did everybody get a chance to look over the revised legal services? I used the metaphor of wax on a newly washed car and kind of refinement. Did everybody get a chance to look at it? It's 20 pages. Yeah. Any issues or concerns with it as presented?”
Commission · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 4:13:11
“Okay, copy that. So most of these changes for the few of our diehards still in the audience, it was adding the city clerk, I think in three places. It added reference to coordinating with the city manager and the new city clerk when that person gets hired on. And there was one or two other minor word changes like happy to glad, puppy to small dog kind of stuff. They were not significant edits at all, but it just added a little bit more clarification, which was, I believe, my colleague, Commissioner Wark's intent to begin with. So we have the amended proposal, a good faith amendment, and I…”
Commission · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 4:14:02
“Second. I have a motion and a second. Anything from our few diehards left? I know it's pushing 10 o'clock. Any questions or comments on this? City Manager?”
Commission · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 4:14:25
“Yes, so 4-1. All right, as we wrap up here, these last few should go quickly. We've got a first reading of three different ordinances that we worked recently with our Charter Review Committee workshop. And so city manager, if you want to, do we need to, they're just first reading, so do you want to just plow through 16?”
Commission · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 4:16:21
“Yeah, so sanitation for one can goes from 2486 to 36, and two cans goes from 2808 to 42. And this will be the first increase in how many years?”
Commission · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 4:16:46
“The only feedback I've gotten from the public on the fee schedule was the gym, actually, and it was like, why do you have three lines? It's $900, I think, for one day, $1,800 for two days, and $2,700 for three days on a Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Yes, sir. It's like, why not just $900 a day and be done?”
Commission · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 4:17:08
“That is literally the only constructive feedback I've received was that question on the fee schedule. The rest of it, let's see, sports and recs changes, you were adding youth volleyball and you were adjusting some like flag football for youth. There were a couple of minor adjustments there, but nothing really controversial. So.”
Commission · Sep 8, 2026