BY MARK J. CRAWFORD
Jimmy Crosby’s retirement was more like a short hiatus. While no longer serving in an elected position, Crosby has rejoined city employment as director of operations.
City Manager Drew Mullins, who has worked closely with Crosby, named him operations director about two weeks ago,
Mullins said Crosby’s job description closely matches that of former Project Director Scott Anaheim, but Crosby won’t have oversight of the utility departments.
Instead, Mullins said Crosby would continue being active in areas like finance, grant writing, building and zoning, and economic development.
“A lot of the reason I wanted to do this was because of how much work that he did already as city clerk,” Mullins said. “I did not want any of that to go to waste. We just need to keep moving forward.”
The compensation package includes an annual salary of $79,000.
“I didn’t anticipate this happening when I resigned, but I was excited when I was contacted and offered to come back and see through the projects that we’ve gotten started, some of the things that have happened in the past two years that are still ongoing,” Crosby said.
Those projects include CityWalk, the annexation and development at the bypass and others — projects that have drawn millions of dollars of support from the state. Other potential grants have been identified, like the funding that built the new pickleball courts. Crosby said if anything besides the corrections and improvements made in city finance makes him excited, it is work on Starke’s future development.
“I didn’t anticipate it, but I feel very blessed the opportunity came,” Crosby said. “And it’s easy to work with Drew. We’ve been working together for two and a half years. There’s a lot going on, and we’re having to staff it to meet to meet the demand. And I’m very fortunate that a majority of the commission has been very responsive to do that. They want to keep moving forward. They didn’t want it to slow down.”
“I can tell you, it is something that is greatly needed to have Jimmy’s skill level and Drew’s skill level working together,” Mayor Scott Roberts said. “We do have a lot going and a lot we want to get going on.”
In addition to projects downtown, including the purchase and eventual repurposing of the Jarmon building, Roberts said there are other projects being discussed in the background. While the public doesn’t see it all, some efforts like code enforcement and cleaning the city up are underway.
“We just want to keep this going, and I can’t overemphasize the fact that Jimmy and Drew working together is making all this happen,” Roberts said. “I think we’ve had some issues, but right now it’s all working out, and it’s really exciting some of the stuff we’re trying to get done.”
Crosby ran unopposed to become city clerk in 2021 but resigned recently over a question about whether he properly qualified. Mullins was appointed to fulfill the city clerk’s duties on an interim basis.
Roberts indicated when some of the dust clears, the city will take on a long overdue charter review. That 150-year-old charter is out of step with how many other municipalities operate, according to the mayor.
“We’re not trying to rewrite the book here,” Roberts said. “If you look at other towns — Live Oak, Newberry, High Springs — we’re trying to move more to that type of government, which is efficient. That’s really what we’re doing. We have a charter that’s 150 years old. It has some holes in it. We’re trying to shore it up a little bit.”
The mayor said the charter review could begin later this year. Generally, charter revies are undertaken on a regular basis by a commission-appointed committee that reviews the documents in public meetings and recommens amendments, which are then voted upon by the public.
