When anything goes wrong in City government, Sam Mousa, the City’s chief administrative officer, is in the crosshairs. When top administrators of the Better Jacksonville Plan quit, they told friends — and alluded to it in a letter — that Mousa was meddling in the Plan’s work.
Mousa met recently with Jeff Brooks and Fred Seely, Realty/Builder Connection staff writers, to discuss his role in Mayor John Delaney’s administration, his reputation, why people enjoy taking shots at him.
Question: Does government need a guy that stands out there and delivers the bad news and takes all the heat? Is that your role?
Answer: It is my role. There needs to be a balance in government. I think the taxpayers want that balance. They want somebody who assures production takes place, budgets are adjusted, are organized. They need the comfort that someone is ensuring this is going on. And, if that’s my role, that’s my role. I do what I have to do to give the taxpayers the most we can give them. I feel very strong about that.
Q: Will Sam Mousa remain in the line of fire?
A: This isn’t the first time folks have shot at me. It just hurts. It hurts when that happens because I work very hard and I give it the best that I have to do the best job that I can. But, that’s the game and I’m a big boy and I can handle it. I’ve worked for three mayors, which is unusual. I’ve been promoted where others have been fired. I’ve been retained, one out of 12 to be retained. That speaks in spades. I have to be doing something correctly. I’ve never been accused of any criminal wrongdoing or corruptions. I never will. I will adhere to the law. I’m a stickler for the law and I’ll do the best that I can.
Q: When Derek Morse resigned, the rumbling started again that Sam Mousa is a bad guy, that he has tried to be heavy-handed in dealings with the JTA. What’s the deal?
A: I wish I knew. Let’s get some background, if we can. The JTA job was mine for the asking. Mayor Delaney approached me when Lex passed away, unfortunately. He said, ‘Sam, I know I would be probably holding you back. It’s probably more money. It’s probably a longer career working for a board. Less headaches, less problems. You work for a board of seven, not necessarily a Council of 19. But I really need you to stay and I feel awfully guilty about bringing this up. I need someone to help me run government for the rest of my term. Help me run Better Jax. And I feel guilty asking you to do this, but I want you to consider staying.’ My position is that my loyalty is to John Delaney. And I’m going to do whatever the mayor asks me to do.
Q: You said the JTA job was yours for the asking. Did you have the votes on the board?
A: I believe I did. In fact, I was encouraged by [retiring director] Miles [Francis] to apply. Miles and I had talked. Miles had talked to his board and I’ll never forget the day that Miles and I had lunch at the old Worman’s on San Jose. It was the first time I mentioned it to Miles and I said, ‘Miles, you can stay at the JTA as long as you want. But I feel I owe it to you [to tell you] firsthand I have an interest in your job.’ He said, ‘Sam, that is the greatest news I’ve ever heard.’ Regardless, I made a decision to stay with Mayor Delaney. I don’t want the JTA job, never considered it once I made my commitment to John. When you make a commitment to run government, that’s a big commitment. It’s a big job and you don’t play with that. You say yes sir, you do it and you get it over with. I don’t know why folks are shooting at me the way they are.
Q: We’re talking especially about JTA?
A: Yes. I don’t understand it.
Q: One hypothesis is that it is political season and bullets are going to be flying everywhere.
A: If I speculate, and I’m just speculating because I have no factual information, I believe it is the three or four board members who supported Derek Morse — this is purely speculation on Sam Mousa’s part — who are perhaps a little embarrassed with Mr. Morse’s tenure and are deciding to shoot at Sam rather than shoot at John. Now, did Sam assist the mayor in his charge when it came to the JTA issue? Yes, he did. Was John looking to help Michael Blaylock [who was Francis’ No. 2 man and who was passed over in favor of Morse]? On one hand he was, at one time. Did he ask me to call folks and help? Yes, I did.
Q: To help Morse or Blaylock?
A: Blaylock.
Q: So you were for Blaylock
A: The mayor felt Michael, at the time, was within the system, had a knowledge of the system, had a good working relationship with City government. Morse — quite frankly, and I’ve told many people this and I’ll tell you guys this — is very competent, very sharp, well-organized, knows his business and I feel we had an extremely good working relationship. I have no idea why Morse decided to back off or to go elsewhere. I hear speculation, but that’s strictly speculation.
Q: In keeping with the political bullets flying, candidates are reluctant to run against the Delaney administration, so have they turned to you, to fire on you?
A: I believe they have. They know I’m loyal to John. I’m good at what I do. I work hard at what I do. They can shoot at me all they want.
Q: How would you describe your reputation?
A: I’m fair, but firm. I’m fair, but firm. I feel we owe the taxpayers an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay. I came from [the] private [sector] and I know what it’s like to have to make payroll, have to finish work, so I try to bring that corporate principle into government with regards to get it done today if you can and don’t let it wait until Monday.
Q: Let’s switch to the Better Jacksonville Plan. [Director of Public Works] Joe Miller leaves, [baseball park project manager] Wayne Boy leaves, there’s all kind of mumblings that Mousa is meddling. You are the target again.
A: Joe Miller was allowed to hire his own staff. Joe Miller was allowed to put together his own organization. Things weren’t proceeding as expected.
Q: Did you let him put together his own staff?
A: Absolutely. It was his own people. I’m the type that if I have the trust and confidence in people, I let them ride. You must develop the trust and confidence in their work ethic, in their competence and anything else they do on a daily basis. I have many of those in government who have shown me their competence and trust. I know they can do the job and I let them do their job. We had to make some changes in Better Jax.
Q: Were they not doing their job?
A: Guys, let me tell you something. We have a policy here in government that we don’t shoot at anyone. We don’t want to shoot at anyone. We don’t need to shoot at anyone. We needed to make changes for a variety of reasons on the projects. We made those changes. We didn’t ask for anyone’s resignation letter. They made decisions on their own to resign based on the changes we had to make. The buck stops with me. I get to do the fun stuff and I get to do the hard stuff and it’s difficult to do the hard stuff.
Q: If the buck stops with you, what’s the mayor’s job?
A: Well, I say it stops with me. He gives me the directions and I do it.
Q: That’s why you are the target?
A: I guess so. I follow the mayor’s directions.
Q: Are you the target because Mayor Delaney can’t be the target?
A: I don’t know. I’m not very good at politics. I’m not going to get into why it’s me and not John. My job is to make recommendations to the mayor to help him run this government. John reviews my recommendations and says yea or nay. When he says yea or nay, then it is my job to implement it. The buck stops here may not have been the right phrase. But as far as Better Jax, people are looking at me. From the very beginning of the Plan I was identified as the person in charge. That was one of John’s reasons for asking me to stay in government. [He said] ‘Sam, I’ve got a $2.5 billion program on the street, the biggest program the state’s had for a long time and I need someone like you to help me keep it in line and keep it going, keep reviewing it.’ So I agreed to do it.
Q: Are you happy you did?
A: I’m tickled to death that I did. I love my job. I love working for the City of Jacksonville. I go from a variety of projects from day to day. I go from social services on one side to potential stadium expansion on the other side to everything in between. It has really opened my eyes. I think I’ve become a better administrator. It’s opened my eyes to what Jacksonville is and what Jacksonville needs and what Jacksonville can be. I just love working the job.
Q: You’ve got 14 months left on this job. Then what?
A: I don’t know. Either, hopefully, I will go to work for a big engineering firm, or break out my own shingle with regards to what I can offer folks. I really love the area of quality control, planning and review, peer review. I’m a very detail-oriented person and very organized. A lot of that comes from my former career of being a bridge engineer. When you design bridges, you like going to sleep at night knowing it’s still going to be up when you wake up in the morning. I tend to believe that my detail, my organization comes from my engineering career where you had to be pretty detailed and pretty accurate in laying out bridges and working out the geometries and assuring that you don’t have the one cartoon where they build the bridge from both ends and wind up in the center.
Q: How about the Better Jacksonville Plan? Has that calmed down? The media seems to feel everything is in chaos.
A: It’s going nice.
Q. On time, on budget?
A: It’s budgeted correctly. It’s scheduled accurately. It’s proceeding on schedule and on budget. I do take credit for keeping us on schedule and on budget. I worry about stuff. It’s good to be apprehensive about stuff. In my opinion, it makes you do a better job if you are a little bit apprehensive about your work, your duties, your responsibilities. It keeps you on guard.