
Newberry City Manager Mike New has turned in his resignation from the city of Newberry after 10½ years, promising to help in the transition to a new manager.
The Newberry City Commission discussed the first steps to finding an interim city manager at its regular meeting on Monday and approved the first reading of an ordinance that may help the city secure a loan from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) for a new wastewater treatment plant.
Upon New’s recommendation, the commission asked staff to begin working on a job description, looking at market baselines for a city manager’s salary, and working with the city attorney to draft a broad contract for an interim city manager in case it is needed.
Though the city has two assistant city managers who could fill the role on an interim basis, Mayor Jordan Marlowe said that would not be his preference.
“Newberry is blessed with two extremely strong assistant city managers, but Newberry is also in the middle of a whole lot of complex projects right now, and those assistant city managers are perfectly placed right where they’re at,” Marlowe said at the meeting.
Commissioners also asked Marlowe to reach out to former staff members who were involved in the large projects to see if they might be interested in stepping in.
Though Marlowe did most of the talking about what staff needed to do, basing direction on head nods from commissioners, the commissioners themselves expressed gratitude for New’s years of service.
“I know this is not an easy decision for you to make, but you know, seasons happen in life and we’re going to turn a page here,” Commissioner Tim Marden told New at the meeting. “Newberry couldn’t be a more exciting place to be here, and that’s a testament to you and your team. So I would wear it on your chest with a big, huge medal.”
New submitted his resignation letter on Jan. 24, after individual calls to commissioners to alert them it was coming.
“Thank you for the opportunity to lead this organization,” New wrote in his resignation letter. “I often say that I view my position as a daily opportunity to test long-held theories for developing a peerless local government organization. While we may not have achieved ‘best ever’, we have certainly taken tremendous strides in the right direction. Newberry has been an incredible professional and personal journey for me, and I am grateful for the experiences and the friendships I made here.”
New’s resignation is effective Feb. 24, complying with the 30-day notice required by his contract. In his letter of resignation, he lauds the city’s team and offers his help training his replacement and completing any outstanding projects.
One of the larger projects underway in Newberry was on the agenda for Monday night’s meeting: funding a new wastewater treatment facility.
The city had been planning to expand its wastewater treatment facilities since 2020, but new state regulations and the pace of Newberry’s growth required that the new wastewater facility handle an increased capacity and meet stricter requirements on reduction of nutrients and biosolids.
The expansion project, to bump the city from a capacity of 0.56 million gallons per day (mgd), to 1.2 mgd, is expected to cost about $80 million, up from the $50 million estimate in January 2024 when it entered an interlocal agreement with the city of Archer, promising the smaller municipality up to 175,000 gallons of daily capacity in the new facility.
The planned expansion also includes 0.7 mgd of capacity for new development.
Newberry plans to fund the facility with a loan from the state of Florida’s State Revolving Fund (SRF) loan program, overseen by FDEP.
New said the difference in interest rates between the SRF loan and a private lender is “tremendous,” and it also offers the potential for debt forgiveness and other incentives.
However, FDEP also requires that Newberry secure debt repayment surety for capacity intended for new developments, meaning that Newberry would need developers to guarantee that they will build enough to fill that capacity.
Last month, the commission considered options for how developers could commit to paying charges on the capacity, and New said Monday that those agreements are nearly finalized and will be presented to the commission soon, but FDEP has now advised city staff that it will not have funds available until August at the earliest.
New said the pushed-back timeline took some time pressure off of city staff, and the goal is to make sure FDEP has no reason to turn Newberry down when August comes around.
One of the complications staff has been working on is that if every gallon of capacity is promised to a development group to remove risk from ratepayers, there will be no flexibility. New used examples of if a young couple wanted to build a house, or if a company wanted to place its corporate headquarters in Newberry, but there was no capacity available.
New said the city intends to get enough surety to guarantee the revenue stream for at least the first 10 years of the loan, but also proposed language to FDEP that the state agency did not affirm, but did not turn down.
New said the proposed language, which puts ratepayers on the hook with the same language FDEP uses in its SRFs, would be added as a city ordinance as a backup to the developers.
According to New, the city’s commitment to raise its rates if needed to make a debt service payment has been in every loan agreement Newberry takes out.
“It’s implied, and it’s understood when you take out debt service, but it’s not codified in our ordinances,” New said. “So we took a condition that this commission and all the previous commissions had already agreed to, and we codified it, hoping to check a box and get us across the finish line with DEP… to move forward with construction and still have some gallons that are available for development that we didn’t know about when we signed the agreement.”
Marlowe said the commission’s policy is that developers pay for initial capital outlay and ratepayers pay for operations.
“What [New] is talking about right now is a backstop,” Marlowe said. “That’s really what it is, a backstop. If something bad happens… that that would always be the backstop, which is why it’s in all the loan agreements.”
The ordinance, which the commission approved unanimously on first reading, is as follows:
Sec. 98-98. Water and Wastewater rates.
The City shall maintain water and wastewater rates and charges for services furnished by the Water and Wastewater System which is sufficient to provide, in each Fiscal Year, pledged revenue equal to or exceeding 1.15 times the sum of the City’s water and wastewater debt. In addition, the City shall satisfy the coverage requirements of all senior and parity debt obligations.
Sec. 98-98. Maintenance of the Water and Wastewater System.
The City shall operate and maintain the water and wastewater system in a proper, sound, and economical manner and shall make repairs, renewals, and replacements.