by Kurt Bressner
This year Samuel (Sam) Halter will be receiving his 45 Year Service Award as a member of FCCMA.
Sam resides in Tampa with his wife Claire who has been his sweetheart for 51 years. Sam and Clair have one son who resides in the Atlanta area.
I’ve known Sam since the mid-1990’s when we both served on the Board of Directors for the Innovation Groups (now known as the Alliance for Innovation). Sam has extensive Florida City Management experience as Chief Administrative Officer for Tampa (1995-2003), City Manager of Melbourne (1978-1994), two stints as Assistant City Manager or department head in Savannah, Georgia (1964-1968, and 1971-1978) with service as City Administrator, Miami Springs in between (1968-1971). Prior to coming South, Sam served at the City of Philadelphia (1962-1964) Sam has a unique experience pedigree in that he has served in a Strong Mayor Form as CAO. He notes that a distinct advantage of service in this form is that he did not have to “mess with the city council” leaving that sometimes frustrating job to the mayor. This allowed him to focus on service delivery and other work that city managers dream of having the time to perform. In 1994, when he left Melbourne, he had good company that year with Dan Kleman and Howard Tipton, who both transitioned that year as well. All three were “ushered” out of their respective positions that year. Mindful of his experience as MIT, upon retirement from Tampa, Sam was recruited to be Range Rider for FCCMA and ICMA. He has served in this capacity since 1995. Happily, I got the chance to work with Sam again in his capacity as Range Rider. He has maintained a keen interest in the profession and loves to coach younger colleagues being a valuable member of the Florida Range Rider Program. Thank you Sam for your wonderful contributions to our profession.
