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Tampa Palms manager resigns for more flexible job
By MELIA BOWIE, Times Staff Writer TAMPA PALMS -- The enforcer is moving on. Community manager Maura Lear is leaving Tampa Palms for greener pastures at Greenacre Properties Inc. After five years of code enforcement, controversy, budgets and bidding capital projects Lear is resigning from her position with the Tampa Palms Owners Association. Her last day in Tampa Palms was Friday. She begins work on Monday doing multisite management. Greenacre, a Carrollwood-based management company, employs a staff of licensed community managers and is hired to do work for various neighborhood associations ranging from gated subdivisions to planned communities such as Westchase. "I'm going to be managing smaller communities," said Lear, 40. "Right now I've got five on my portfolio," including West Meadows and Saddlebrook. The move will give Lear, a wife and mother of a small son, a more flexible work schedule and a chance to work from her Temple Terrace home should she choose. "A lot of managers do work out of their home (although) that's not my plan immediately." Members of the TPOA's five-member board said her departure came as "a complete surprise" but Lear leaves the community in good stead. "We're sorry to see her go; she's done an excellent job," said TPOA president Bill Edwards. "She leaves the place in ... considerably better shape than she found it." However, board members said the search for a replacement is proving a challenge. Lear tendered her resignation three weeks ago and Tampa Palms has been advertising for a replacement in the newspaper with little success. "Frankly, there's not much coming in," said Edwards. "It's volume over quality. We've had almost no professionals in the area with their (community management) license." Michelle Kitts, Lear's assistant at the TPOA office in Compton Park and a licensed community manager, is now serving as acting manager. "She's taken over in the meantime (and) maybe longer," he said, adding Tampa Palms could not offer Lear the concessions she will find in her new job, off-site work and more flexibility. Tampa Palms and Hunter's Green remain unique in that the master planned communities employ their own managers who work on site, roughly a 9-to-5 schedule. Most developments contract out or hire an off-site company such as Greenacre to manage their communities. "I'm excited. This is just a really, really good step for me," said Lear, who earned about $46,000 with Tampa Palms and said she felt "blessed" for all she learned there. "This was not strictly a money motivated decision, (but) the potential to take on more properties and make more money is great," she added. Lear declined to reveal her new starting salary but noted "it's more than I'm making." In her new job she will still work in New Tampa, just a little farther north. "I'm not going to Mars," said Lear. "I'll still be available to help."
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From the Times |
