City Manager Mark Wendling decided to promote Mann, effective today because of his “deep history” with the department “and more importantly he really understands the department and the city’s infrastructure.”
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“He’s earned the position,” he said.
Mann’s annual salary in the new job will be $113,672, Wendling said.
Mann said he appreciates the trust Wendling has placed in him, calling it “a big honor.” He wanted to expand his role with the city, and “expand my usefulness.” Mann earned a master’s in public administration from Indiana Wesleyan and a bachelor’s degree from the Ohio State University.
Public Works deals with the city’s infrastructure, from roads to traffic signals, and works hand-in-hand with other departments, namely the Public Utilities and Parks and Recreation.
Some of the more recent projects Mann’s either led include the city’s Ohio 4 repaving project in 2018 and the construction of the city’s first modern roundabout at Gray and River roads in 2019, and has worked on water line projects with Public Utilities and FurField dog park with Parks and Recreation.
As the city engineer, Mann spent much of his time on project development and engineering. But in the director’s role, he said he’ll need to focus more time developing his understanding of the maintenance side of Public Works.
“With the existing economic climate and the current status of things, I think the time is for focusing on maintaining what we have and maintaining our existing services, and keeping the operation running as well as can be expected.”
There are only two employees with a professional engineers license, Mann and Nick Dill, who will assume city engineer duties.
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“He’s never been given the title of assistant city engineer but that’s been his de facto role,” Mann said. “He’s taken on more and more responsibilities over the years.”
Mann said he inherits a crew he calls “a really good group of people.”
“I already know I got a really good group of foremen and laborers and staff that I don’t have a lot of concerns,” Mann said. “There’s a lot of people there that keep the city running, and they’ll continue to do that.”
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