Palmetto Bay’s village manager Ron E. Williams will be retiring at the end of March after serving in that position for the past eight years. Williams also served as Public Works director for four years prior to that.
Williams explained in an interview with the Palmetto Bay News that with his contract coming up for renewal he had several reasons for leaving rather than continuing in the job.
“The village is in great shape,” Williams said. “It’s always a good time to hand off to a new administrator a fiscally strong and productive organization. The other reason — that I’ve commented before about — is that with a new majority council with multiple years to go and maybe a second term for at least three of them, I thought it was time they began to think about a transition to a new administration. I had no intention of staying another four to eight years, so it seemed to be a good time to make the move.”
Williams, 64, had served for many years in several positions with the City of Miami, and seven years with the Miami- Dade County Transportation Administration. He has a bachelor’s degree in Management and a master’s degree in Public Administration from the University of West Florida.
When asked what he enjoyed about being a key part of Palmetto Bay’s municipal government he was quick to respond.
“I think that developing the organization has been really good,” Williams said. “Remember that we started this organization from the beginning, and it’s easy to talk about organizations, but we created one, and I’ve seen employees develop, I’ve seen residents grow, being able to address their hometown government directly. So I think it’s developing the service-driven organization that’s close to the residents.”
Williams said that, looking back over the years of service, there was one thing that pleased him the most.
“I think it’s creating the home for the village,” he said. “Development of Village Hall in a community that certainly has and will continue to benefit from this location. We’ve created a symbol of growth for the next 50 years. When you look back at where we started, and now we have a Platinum LEED certified building as the village’s home.”
And as far as challenges that he sees the village facing in the future?
“I think the whole issue we’re working hard on is the diversification of revenue and the building of the commercial portion of the village,” Williams said. “I look at it as more the growing of the quality of life for our residents. Making it so that the services are there so they can work, play and enjoy life right here at home.
“We’ve always had a really strong, vibrant residential community with neighborhoods, outstanding parks and other facilities, but this gives us a chance to diversify that and offer our residents an opportunity to stay at home and still enjoy some of the community-driven activities.”
Williams said that he has definite plans for what he will be doing after retirement —a short-term vacation, a lot of time with his family, and then he will make some professional decisions about the future.
“It’s really an outstanding pleasure and opportunity to be able to work in your hometown,” Williams said. “I’ve been a resident of this community since the ’70s, and to be able to help this community grow to a functioning, service-driven government as we have and be right in my hometown has been both professionally and personally rewarding.”
