City Manager George Proakis received a high rating from the City Council in his annual review for Fiscal Year 2025, though members of the Council had some constructive criticism, too.
The results of the annual review were presented during the Sept. 9 City Council meeting. Each councilor rated Proakis on a scale of 1 to 5, with five being highest, said City Council President Mark Sideris.
“The evaluations were generally very positive, and across all categories the manager scored a 4.44 which is above average, close to excellent,” he said. “It’s between above average and excellent. So, excellent job.”
The Councilors looked at several areas: general evaluation criteria, relationships with the Council, community engagement, staff and personnel relationships, leadership and professional capability, business and finance, and personal qualities. The evaluations also looked the annual budget, government operations and management, long range, planning and implementation, community health and safety, economic vitality and major capital improvements.
Councilor Comments
Sideris read some of the comments by Councilors.
Under relations with the Council:
“He has kept the council well informed through emails and presentations, community engagement, there are many opportunities for the public to engage in community issues.”
“The manager continues to hold to build a highly qualified and motivated team, and he has done an excellent job to recruit and retain an increasingly diverse and highly qualified workforce under leadership.”
“He has taken the lead on many issues that have not been dealt with for a very long time, like the class and comp study, and appears to have a mastery of all aspects of the City Manager role.”
Under personal qualities:
“His empathy and strong ethics serve as foundation upon which he forms his decisions.”
Under the annual budget:
“His decisions under the annual budget reflects policy guidelines set by the Council in the annual budget.
“His budget presentations have been very helpful under government operations.”
“He worked well, worked with the police on Civil Service, which is helpful in spit filling spots.”
“He makes sure we put the right people in place on boards and commissions and the long range planning,”
Under Economic Development:
“The Watertown Square study with the associated zoning is an example of multifaceted, long range plan that will revitalize and improve the center of the city.”
Under health and safety:
“He worked well with public safety team and made great choices for fire and police chiefs.”
“George showed great leadership in implementing the human services needs by establishing the new department and choosing Jenna Bancroft as the City’s first director of that position.”
Councilors also noted some of the areas Proakis needs to work on:
“Council reminders should be timely.”
“Communication with council is good, but could be better.”
“He hired many new people that do not all seem necessary.”
“He has become too defensive with constructive criticism.”
“Should pick vendors faster.”
“Needs more investment in green spaces and trees.”
“Would like to see the manager pull together a team to consider what can be done with the many properties designed for life sciences but have not been built.”
“Keep working on the admin code, zoning update, noise ordinance, BERDO, and demo delay ordinance.”
Sideris added that the City Charter calls for the City Manager and the Council President to have a strong relationship, and work together.
“The manager and I naturally have had disagreements. That happens. It’s bound to happen,” Sideris said “We always find a way to get through them. We discuss them. He’s very reasonable. He understands that we represent the people of the City, and it’s important for us to be able to do our jobs. And it helps that we can guide him. He does a wonderful job following our budget priority guidelines and other things that the Council sets forth.”
He added: “So, going into another year I’m very pleased that Mr. Proakis is with us. I think he does a wonderful job for us, and I’m looking forward to continuing some of the initiatives that he continues to bring forward and working with the Council on.”
Council Manager’s Comments
Proakis thanks the Council for the review.
“One of the things that I do with that is I read through every single one of them, and every single word,” he said. “I take to heart everything that’s there, and really appreciate that my nine bosses do the best they can every day to represent the community and the residents of Watertown and their needs and interests.”
He told the Council that his goal is to provide good ideas and good suggestions, and then work to implement the Council’s budget policy guidelines and the capital plan recommendations.
“I appreciate the vote of confidence that we’re continuing to work together on making making those things happen,” Proakis said. “I appreciate the feedback. I’ll say that to the extent that there was constructive criticism on a number of these, I took down every single one of those and I’m looking with the staff to see where and how and what we can do to fill each of those gaps. So, even a 4.4 out of five still shows there’s room for improvement, and there are things that we can be doing better and be a bit more responsive.”