THE ART PIZZANO FILE
Family: Married 42 years to his wife, Sandy, and have two adult children, Christine Bell and Andrew Pizzano
Current employment: Fairfield City Manager since 1998
Education: Rutgers University, Master of City and Regional Planning and Bachelor's of Arts with an emphasis in City Planning and Geography; University of Colorado, Master of Business Administration
Past employment: West Des Moines, Iowa city manager; multiple planning and economic development positions, including in Thornton, Colorado and East Orange, New Jersey
Community involvement: In addition to local involvement in previous employment stops, Leadership Cincinnati, Leadership Fairfield, former chair of the Cincinnati Area Manager's Association
Honors: National Public/Private Partnerships Award from the International City/County Management Association; Ohio City/County Management Association's Career Achievement Award; Fort Hamilton District of the Boy Scouts of America with the Spirit in Scouting Award.
Fairfield’s serendipitous hiring of City Manager Art Pizzano in 1998 was probably the best move that City Council made, according to some of those who hired him.
In the late 1990s, Pizzano — with 25 years city management, planning and economic development experience — was looking for a management position where he could fully exercise community building experience. The city of Fairfield needed someone to take the burgeoning city to the next level from a development, financial and organizational standpoint — and help provide them with an identifiable downtown, which is now the city’s Village Green.
But he faced several challenges in his time, most notably the 2003 Father’s Day floods when the Pleasant Run Creek flooded and damaged homes in the area of Crystal and Banker drives. The aftermath that took years to resolve resulted in the city receiving Federal Emergency Management Agency money four times, which equated to millions of dollars in federal funds to be used to purchase dozens of damaged homes and upgrades in the flood plain map.
Then the fiscal double whammy of the Great Recession beginning in 2008 and the significant cuts of local government funds by the state that started in 2011.
Pizzano will retire next month, ending a 17-year tenure with the city and a four-decade city management career. City council is expected to promote Assistant City Manager Mark Wendling at its meeting Monday.
“I felt very, very blessed that I came here when there was an appetite to be building stuff,” Pizzano said.
The man from East Orange, N.J., ascribes to Athenian Oath — a code that originated in Greece two millenniums ago — and is the origin of a saying adopted by the Scouting community: “Leave this world a little better than you found it.”
The former Eagle Scout believes he has done just that with Fairfield.
Two ways Green Twp. Administrator Kevin Celarek describes Fairfield are “prominent” and “ forward-looking,” and says Pizzano is “one of the models in city management.”
And not counting the city of Cincinnati and Hamilton, he said Fairfield is one of four communities they look at when considering projects because “if it works there, it can likely work in our community.”
“I believe he’s an excellent model of an astute city administrator that is progressive and responsive to his elected officials and residents,” said Celarek, the past chairman of the Cincinnati Area Manager’s Association.
Amberley Village Administrator Scot Lahrmer, and current chairman of the Cincinnati Area Manager’s Association, said when Pizzano arrived in Fairfield, the city “just flourished.”
“It’s a combination of things,” he said of Pizzano’s success. “His style — he’s very personable, very talented with management skills — his way of managing the city and how he brings his management team to the table. That is all recognized by other managers.”
Lahrmer, who was Mason’s city manager when Pizzano arrived in Fairfield from Des Moines, Iowa, talked with him regularly about city management.
“It was certainly a different time and he was able to embrace the strength of Fairfield and provide what was needed,” he said.
Wendling, the man who is expected to take over for Pizzano pending Monday night’s City Council vote, said he’s known him for as long as he’s been in Ohio. And over the years, he said, “I truly got to know him as a really great city manager, one of the best in the field.”
Wendling — who’s been the city manager for Silverton and the assistant township administrator in Delhi Twp. in Hamilton County and the city administrator for Independence in Northern Kentucky — said Pizzano “is really big at empowering his people.” But Pizzano has high expectations from his people, and when they do good work, “he’ll let you know.”
And while off-duty, Pizzano is “very much a family man” — as he and his wife, Sandy, are heavily involved in their church. Wendling said “he’s always had the community in mind.”
“I don’t think Art is ever off duty,” he said “This is kind of a 24/7 job.”
Pizzano is quick to deflect any praise, and concede any projects led by him were done so with his staff. However, according to others, Pizzano’s marquee accomplishment is arguably the Village Green Park & Amphitheater, which opened in 2000. That quality of life amenity provided the city with a much-needed identity, as well as being the domino that led to the construction of other amenities: the Fairfield Lane Library (2001), the Fairfield Community Art Center (2005) and the city’s Justice Center (2006).
And all have received high praise and honors from trade publications and those in the industry.
“I think he made a huge difference because of his eye for detail,” said Fairfield Mayor Steve Miller. “Art is a detail guy, right down to the sculptures. He’ll tell you that there were others involved, and there were, but he put a lot of time and effort into them.”
Before Village Green, and before Pizzano, Fairfield was developed “but not to the level of what it is now,” said Miller, who was on the 1998 city council that hired Pizzano.
“We’ve had some good growth over the past 17 years … there’s been some changes, but Village Green was a concept and that’s all it was,” he said.
There were also a lot of opportunities for residential and commercial growth, as well as for quality of life amenities.
Former Fairfield councilman Mark Scharringhausen, who sat on the same council that hired Pizzano, said his vote to hire him was “the best vote I ever cast.”
“I say we’d be hard pressed to find someone to have the level of expertise of city management than Art,” he said. “It’s very rare to find one person to have that development and vision, but to find one with execution skills — Art was the complete package.”
Scharringhausen said in addition to developing a city center for Fairfield, Art’s other greatest accomplishment was economic development and his contributions to developing and expanding the city’s tax base, which “has seen us through good times and bad.”
“Nothing is doable in municipal government without a good income stream,” said Scharringhausen. “We’re not reliant on individual homeowners as we are on the vast corporate tax base.”
“Jungle” Jim Bonaminio, owner of Jungle Jim’s International Market, said “actions speak louder than words” and Fairfield’s actions with Pizzano at the helm have been obvious.
“You don’t need a sign to tell you’re leaving Fairfield,” he said. “Just look at the roads. Other cities have potholes and the snow is never cleaned.”
But that is just one example, said Bonaminio, who’s been a business owner in Fairfield since the 1970s.
“He’s been great for Fairfield, he’s been great for the business community,” he said. “He’s been pro- business, pro-people and very balanced. He looked at all angles and all people. Actions speak louder than words.”
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