GALVESTON
Marty Miles isn’t sure exactly what the adjective preceding his title means in practice, he said Thursday.
Everybody he talks to seems to have a different idea about what the “interim” CEO of Galveston’s Park Board of Trustees might do and for how long, he said.
Miles also is unsure about exactly how long.
“Some people say seven to nine months,” Miles said. “I think nine to 12. It won’t be anything like 90 days, though.”
But Miles, who July 3 took over an organization suffering from decapitation, has precise ideas about what needs to be done and no intention of just holding down a chair and onto the status quo until a permanent chief executive can be found, he said.
A 40-year veteran of the hospitality industry and president of the Galveston Hotel & Lodging Association, Miles, 69, agreed to temporarily replace former CEO Kimberly Danesi, who resigned in May, one in an exodus of senior park board leaders.
He will earn $250,000 a year plus benefits to head an organization that now has a $52 million budget, more than 130 full-time employees and another 200 or so part-time and seasonal workers that is responsible for managing essential tourism services such as marketing, beach cleaning, lifeguarding and collecting hotel occupancy tax revenue.
A lot of that is going to change, however, as the park board’s roles change and its staff gets smaller, Miles said.
He stepped into the top job during a time of conflict between the park board and the city of Galveston, which essentially is its parent company, over spending and control over almost $30 million in local hotel occupancy tax revenue and as city leaders move to fundamentally change the relationship between the two organizations.
Jason Hardcastle, chairman of the nine-member board of trustees that sets park board policy and hired Miles, said one of many pluses he saw in his candidacy was the fact Miles didn’t want the permanent post.
Miles, who came out retirement to take the job, confirmed that and said it puts him in a position of strength in a political dog fight that has claimed two park board chief executives in three years.
“I’m not trying to build a career,” Miles said. “I’m going to do what I think is right and if people don’t like it, I can go.”
Miles has a plan to reform and rebrand the park board and a detailed list of near-term goals he argues must be accomplish before the organization’s appointed board can even start looking for a permanent CEO.
“The board won’t even know who it needs until these things are settled,” he said.
These things include:
• Completing the negotiation of an interlocal agreement that spells out the specific terms of the operational and financial relationship between the city and park board, and of particular interest, the millions of hotel tax dollars Galveston’s lodging sector generates each year.
• Drafting a new park board budget and getting it approved.
• Ensuring the smooth transition of hotel occupancy tax collection and oversight of short-term rentals to the city.
• Ensuring the smooth transition of Dellanera RV Park and Sea Wolf Park back to the city.
It won’t be clear what the park board’s exact role or funding will be, or how many people it will need or can afford, until some of those tasks are completed, Miles said.
And until those questions are answered, it won’t be clear what skills and experience a permanent CEO will need, he said.
The park board’s staff would be getting smaller, although mostly through transferring positions to the city as it assumes park board tasks, rather than by layoffs, Miles said.
Both he and City Manager Brian Maxwell were committed to avoiding layoffs as much as possible, he said.
Miles also has a list of broader immediate goals, he said.
• Reestablish the park board as a transparent and vital governmental entity that contributes to the island’s economy, quality of life and safety by implementing changes that instill openness, accountability and responsible to improve the resident and visitor experience.
• Strengthen communication, cohesion and relationships between the park board, city council and staff, partners, residents and other stakeholders and use our role as Galveston’s tourism experts to help sustain the city’s economy.
• Regain public trust and increase knowledge of park board operations in the community by increasing frequency and transparency of park board communications to the public.
• Look for operational efficiencies across all areas to ensure hotel occupancy tax funds are used as effectively and responsibly as possible, while providing outstanding destination marketing and recreation opportunities to our residents and visitors.
Along with implementing a forward-looking agenda, Miles has had to deal with some of the park board’s controversial recent past.
Most recently that was the July 8 firing of Peter Davis, the former Beach Patrol chief and a 40-year employee of the life-guarding service.
That decision inevitably will mean some blowback for Miles because Davis was a highly regarded public employee with ardent constituency and the cause of his termination hasn’t been well defined.
Even so, he declined to elaborate Thursday.
“I just can’t say much about it,” Miles said.
“It was absolutely the right thing to do, even though he’s a remarkable human being.”
