American City & County magazine has named ICMA member Faye Outlaw 2011 County Leader of the Year.
Outlaw is the administrator of St. Lucie County, Florida. In naming her County Leader of the Year, the magazine cited her role in bringing her board and other county leaders together to address economic challenges and reduce unemployment during the recession, as well as position the county for a solid future. In the face of huge losses of operating revenues, under Outlaw’s leadership the county reduced its operations, formed creative partnerships to maintain core services, and instituted new financial policies to bring its recurring expenses in line with recurring revenue.
Outlaw, who says her lifelong dream has always been to be a city, and now county, manager, began her public service career with a two-year internship with the city of Rockville, Maryland. She credits the training she received from Rockville’s then-city manager and assistant city manager, Larry Blick and Dan Hobbs, as one of the formative influences on her career. She had her first contact with ICMA in the second year of her internship when she won the Ann E. Suttles Award for promising city managers.
In 1986, Outlaw went to work for her hometown of West Palm Beach, Florida, on a 90-day project in their personnel department, afterwards entered the city’s internship program and then was offered a job. Over the next 12 years, she moved through various professional and management positions and eventually was appointed the city’s first director of housing and community development. In 1998 she went to work for Ft. Lauderdale, and as assistant county manager for St. Lucie County in 2004. She was appointed county manager in January 2009.
Balancing Strength and Compassion
Outlaw says that her overriding management philosophy, especially in a time of financial challenges, is that she has to be “strong enough to lead the organization through changes but compassionate enough not to kill my staff in the process.” She describes her management style as “participative. I believe in letting my staff do the job they’re capable of doing. I like having everyone at the table giving input. I don’t like managing from behind my desk or in a vacuum. It’s too critical a function not to get input from my staff, since they’re the line experts.”
An ICMA member since 2008, Outlaw has been active with the National Forum for Black Public Administrators (NFBPA) since 1991 and was elected to its Board of Directors last year. Serving on the NFBPA board means she works closely with ICMA. “Both the Forum and ICMA have played a big part in my training and development,” she says. “I’m now getting the benefit of being active in and making a contribution to both organizations.”
A First More Than Once
Outlaw has been a first more than once – West Palm Beach’s first female African-American department director, St. Lucie’s first female and African-American assistant county manager and then county manager – but she pauses thoughtfully when asked whether being a woman or African-American has been a factor in her career.
“The bottom line is that I’m a competent manager with good people skills,” she says emphatically. “That’s what led the board to tap me for the top spot. At this point in history, city and county managers are held to higher standards as we deal with the crisis government finds itself in because of the economy.”
“It’s noteworthy that the county has its first female and African-American administrator,” she adds. “I certainly include that footnote in my speaking engagements -- but the real test as a county administrator is the job I’m doing. That’s what it should be. My effectiveness is imbedded in my training and experience; not in being female and African-American.”
Read American City & County’s full profile of Faye Outlaw.