Thursday, April 24, 1997
Blagg seeking Florida position
Former Abilene city manager Jim Blagg is a finalist for the
top city hall job in Clearwater, Fla.
For the past three years, Blagg, who now lives in Dallas, has
worked as a vice president for The Toro Company, a turf products
company. According to aconsultant's report prepared for Clearwater
city commissioners, Blagg recently quit to return to municipal
management.
Blagg was Abilene's chief administrator for 10 years before
resigning in 1994.
He was generally praised as an effective city manager. Passage
of the half-cent sales tax, leaner government in the wake of the
oil bust, All America City status, ACT-NOW! and the beginning
of downtown redevelopment were accomplished while he was administrator.
But Blagg's administration was also checkered with questions,
including a library land deal that yielded a grand jury investigation
but no criminal indictments.
The consultant's report said references "spoke highly"
of Blagg and deemed him an "excellent" manager.
Clearwater commissioners have whittled their choices to five
finalists to replace their retiring city manager.
Clearwater is a retirement and tourist community of about 100,000
people on the Gulf coast, west of Tampa.
Though Blagg was selected as a finalist for the Longview city
manager's job two months after leaving Abilene, he withdrew his
name, citing personal reasons.
Send a Letter to the Editor about This
Story | Start or Join A Discussion about This Story
Send the URL (Address) of This Story
to A Friend:
Copyright ©1997,
Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
|
