City manager David Corliss is shown at his City Hall office overlooking Massachusetts Streets.

City Manager David Corliss has one of the better views in Lawrence.

His fourth-floor, corner office in City Hall gives him a clear line of sight over downtown – the historic and cultural center that long has been the drawing card for tourists, day-shoppers and others who have pumped money into the Lawrence economy by paying for a quaint experience.

A quick swivel of the desk chair also allows Corliss to gaze westward – the direction that once was so reliable for producing new buildings and homes that added tax dollars to the city’s coffers.

Today, though, the view is different. Sales tax revenues are stagnant, and property valuations have taken their sharpest downturn in recent memory.

Now, Corliss – entering his second year as the city’s top executive – arguably has the best view of the symbolic storm clouds gathering on the horizon. But what he doesn’t see from his high ground is an easy solution.

Instead, Corliss said increased prosperity in the city will come from a step-by-step process of the community having one success and using it to build upon another.

“Nothing succeeds like success,” Corliss said. “We need to be able to point to successfully executed projects and then use those projects to help create other success stories.

“I don’t know if we need to be trying to hit home runs or singles or what, but I know at the end of the day it needs to add up to a win.”

Economic development

When city leaders talk of wins and losses, more often than not, they’re alluding to economic development. Corliss – who was promoted from his assistant city manager position to the city’s top spot following the forced resignation of longtime city manager Mike Wildgen in March 2006 – has been blunt about the city’s economic development efforts.

He said the community had become complacent in economic development, and he echoed concerns by development leaders who said the city was running dangerously low on new industrial space.

The past two years have been full of economic development efforts but hasn’t yet produced all the results leaders are hoping for.

The highest-profile deal was an effort to convince startup company Deciphera Pharmaceuticals to keep its promising company in Lawrence. The company has growth plans that could add 200 high-paying technical jobs to the city. The city, county, chamber and state economic development leaders put together a package of more than a million dollars’ worth of incentives to keep the company in Lawrence. The deal, however, met public opposition after it was learned many of the details were never publicly discussed in an open city commission meeting, but rather were vetted in a closed-door executive session that later was ruled to be a violation of the state’s open meetings law.

Corliss has said the project shows the need for the community to have a significant discussion on the use of public incentives, such as tax abatements and more unique incentives that were proposed as part of the Deciphera deal.

“We have clearly identified that we have to have a stronger consensus on the use of public incentives,” Corliss said. “But we have to recognize that other communities use them. We are probably going to have to be intelligently aggressive in the use of public incentives.”

Corliss hopes that the city’s work on the Oread Inn project, a hotel-condo project on the edge of the Kansas University campus, is sending a positive economic development message to both developers and the community.

Corliss ultimately hopes that the $37 million project is a success story that the community can build upon. The city is being asked to use special tax increment financing to help the developer build the necessary parking and infrastructure surrounding the hotel.

“We feel like we have really gone the extra step in analyzing the project, and to the credit of the developer, he has really talked to the neighbors,” Corliss said. “We feel like we’re going to get a multimillion dollar success in the community.”

Corliss and his staff also have been working to help the commission acquire the former Farmland Industries fertilizer plant, which is envisioned to become a new employment center.

That process has been moving slowly as the commission struggles with whether it wants to assume the legal liabilities related to cleaning up the environmentally damage site that is now controlled by a bankruptcy trust.

Commissioners, though, say they’re confident that Corliss is taking the necessary steps to improve the city’s economic development efforts.

“We’re certainly not where we would like to be yet,” Hack said. “That’s not news to anybody. But we’re working with our partners, and David is fully cognizant that we have to make the turnaround with economic development.”

Even some commissioners who haven’t always supported all of Corliss’ recommendations are confident that he’s working hard to meet the city’s goals.

City commissioner Mike Amyx – who differed sharply with Corliss’ recommendation to delay work on the city’s proposed $88 million sewer plant – said Corliss is a hard worker for hard times.

“I have been amazed at the number of hours he puts into the position,” Amyx said. “There are times I don’t always agree with the information, but he does a good job of getting us the information we need in a timely manner.”

Infrastructure

When city leaders aren’t talking about economic development issues, they often are pondering questions about the city’s streets, sewers, sidewalks or other infrastructure issues.

Figuring out how to deal with aging infrastructure has been a major issue facing Corliss from Day One. Wildgen – Corliss’ longtime boss – was forced out of City Hall in part because the community had growing concerns that its infrastructure was quickly becoming inadequate.

Corliss said a top-to-bottom review he conducted of major city departments has put the city in a better position to respond to infrastructure issues.

The city’s public works department was reorganized to create two new assistant director positions, with one of them largely focused on street maintenance. Corliss also has hired two new assistant city manager positions, both with experience in dealing with infrastructure in other communities.

Hack said bringing the new staff members on board has been among Corliss’ top accomplishments thus far.

“He’s hired some really good people,” Hack said. “I think that is one of Dave’s strengths. He understands the difference between being a manager and a leader. He hires people he can trust and gives them the power to do their jobs.”

The city’s budget also has included more funding for street maintenance, but Corliss concedes that the amount of money still is not enough for the city to get ahead of the city’s deteriorating streets.

“I feel like our efforts have helped identify the problems,” Corliss said. “We know where the problems are, but we still don’t have enough asphalt on the streets.”

Commissioners have discussed the possibility of asking voters to approve a new sales tax that could be used to pay for street maintenance. Commissioners, though, haven’t been able to reach a consensus on the subject.

Corliss keeps reminding them of the subject, however. He recently noted that Overland Park, a community far newer than Lawrence, recently renewed a sales tax for streets, and Lenexa is putting a similar tax on the ballot.

“Our peer communities are ahead of us, and they may soon be lapping us,” Corliss said.