As Cumberland County Manager, there’s a lot in Jim Gailey’s purview — the Cumberland County Jail, Cross Insurance Arena, and Community Development Block Grant program, just to name a few. In this installment of Ask Me Another, Gailey explains what’s involved with overseeing myriad services — to the tune of $43 million — for Cumberland County’s nearly 300,000 residents.

Jim Gailey

What’s in your portfolio as County Manager?

Never in my wildest dreams when I was coming up through the ranks of government did I think I would be part of overseeing a jail or an arena. The county jail is the largest in the state, with a maximum capacity of around 700, but typically has around 400 inmates at any one time. It’s our biggest county government operation at a cost of $19 million. We have a $43 million dollar budget and 405 employees, which includes the District Attorney’s Office, Register of Probate, Registry of Deeds and Assessing. We run 9-1-1 dispatching services for 18 communities. We also run emergency management that’s focused on natural disaster preparation and response. Right now, we are working with several towns now on a federal declaration related to the October 30 wind storm. We have the Community Development Block Grant program that has, over the last 11 years, brought in $16.4 million in federal grants for low- to moderate-income individuals, neighborhoods and communities. That funding can be used for economic development, to rehabilitate housing or to build or enhance all types of community infrastructure.

What services do you suspect are most visible?

In Cumberland County, some of our most noticeable services come from our Sheriff’s Office that provides law enforcement services for those communities who don’t have or cannot afford their own police departments. For these communities, the county will either provide contract services for a specific level of support or a rural patrol. And as of November 1, I also have the Cross Insurance Arena under my purview. We have a new arena football team coming into the arena this April, the Maine Mammoths that will play there from late April to August. Then in October 2018, we will have a new hockey team coming to town, the Maine Mariners of the East Coast Hockey League.

Are you responsible for booking concerts?

At the end of February I became the contract administrator, in addition to my county manager duties. I now have a small hand in considering events at the Cross Insurance Arena, mostly weighing how much risk we want to take in bringing an event to town. I will also oversee the Spectra Management contract and leases with the Mariners and Mammoths.

That’s huge. How did you manage to gain competence with and enjoy the kind of success you have had with so many programs and responsibilities that are new to you?

You have to immerse yourself into it, but you also have to suck up a lot of pride and reach out to people and ask questions. Then you just work yourself through it. If you try to do it all yourself or in a vacuum, you are going to fail. You have to rely on people and ask people and not be afraid of doing some hard work to train yourself up.

What is a good example of how you marshal communities to work together?

We identify areas where more good can be done by collaborating with one another versus everyone doing their thing. One of the more recent examples relates to EPA ratcheting up stormwater laws and standards for stormwater quality. That’s putting a significant burden on the larger cities and towns right now, but it’s going to spread to the smaller towns very soon. Instead of everyone doing their own work, developing their own ordinances and regulations, we brought people together to create a stormwater group to work through it together, rather than individually. It’s more efficient and more effective.

What’s your background? How did you get from there to here?

I started off in Education at UMF, moved to History, and then found a home in Geography. I played baseball at UMF, but didn’t play my senior year to do an internship with the Town of Farmington under Steve Kaiser, the code enforcement officer, that lasted the spring semester. I had graduated, but still needed to earn three credits, so I completed a final internship with the City of South Portland Planning Office.

And from there?

That Planning Office internship got my foot in the door, but I had done a number of jobs for the city before that. At age 16, I started as a recreation counselor, and then I went to the Parks Department and worked there summers through college. From the Planning Office internship, I moved into the Finance Office for two years. I was collection agent, which meant I got to chase people down for their taxes. Then the site planner’s position opened up in the Planning Office and in that position, I oversaw all the residential and commercial development of South Portland for seven-and-a-half years. Then I went and developed the city’s first Community Development Block Grant program, because we had just qualified for federal funds to come to South Portland for the first time. That turned into the city manager bringing me up as the assistant city manager, and then four months later he left. I did two stints as interim city manager and ultimately became city manager. Eighteen months ago, I left the city and became the Assistant County Manager for Cumberland County. Eight months later the County Manager leaves for another job and I find myself back in the manager’s seat, this time in county government.

So since the age of 16 you’ve been working in government services?

Yeah. I think it was 30 years in city government and now one-and-half years in county government. It doesn’t seem possible.

What was in your purview as city manager in South Portland?

As city manager, I was responsible for the operations of the city and working with seven city councilors on policy direction and budgeting. The planner in me liked the community projects — a $12 million three-phased sewer project or half million-dollar park enhancement, or building a $16 million public works facility. When I was city manager of South Portland, I thought of the job as running 11 small businesses. Each department, in a sense, was a small business with a budget that could run from $400,000 to as much as $6 million annually.   

What are some things you were most proud of or were the most significant accomplishments during your tenure as city manager of South Portland?

There were so many projects I was fortunate to have my hands in that made South Portland better today — the extension of the Greenbelt Walkway that ties neighborhoods and towns together through South Portland, a $16 million Public Works facility and a lot of internal reorganization that involved stripping down barriers between departments to make them work better together. My goal was to leave the city better off than when I got there, and it really came down to having a terrific experience as a kid growing up in South Portland. I wanted to strengthen those opportunities for the next generation.

There are people who are deeply sensitive about using taxpayer dollars to provide certain services and perhaps even of government itself. You are a public servant. How do you address those concerns?

First, there is a reason why the public sector doesn’t provide government services — there is no money to be made, with the exception of possibly trash collection and ambulance services. I always like having the conversations with those folks. Once we break it all down, they understand a little bit better, though they still might be upset because they are paying X amount for a service they do not use. So then, I might ask, “Do you use the community center or the pool? Do you use this or that?” Once they say yes, I will point out there are people who don’t use the pool but pay taxes to support the services that they enjoy. Then there is the reality that people do like being able to pick up the phone and have an ambulance, or police or fire there in three minutes. I think the biggest thing is, you sit down and listen to them and then you give the government side on how it all works, and why it works the way, it does. Paying taxes is not an à la cartetype funding system.

What do you do outside of your day job?

Always trying to stay busy. Golf in the summer and skiing in the winter are my two focuses these days. Family is important and we do a lot together. My better-half, Stephanie Netto ’93, and my sons, Max, who is 16, and Sam, who is 13, are always looking for the next adventure.