LESLIE WILLIAMS / Staff

Before there was Elkcam Circle on Marco Island there was Elkcam Boulevard in Deltona. It is just one street in roughly 450 miles of roads winding through the vast suburb of Deltona, many of which share names with Marco Island streets. Though Deltona is the largest city in Volusia County, it lacks a physiological center. A feeling of being without a sense of place was identified as a major concern when residents were surveyed during Thompson's tenure, said West Volusia Chamber of Commerce President Linda White. His efforts to foster economic development within the community were meant to remedy that, White said.

LESLIE WILLIAMS / Staff

One of Deltona's ongoing infrastructure projects, meant to support the growing business sector in the city: a road-widening project along a major thoroughfare in the northernmost part of the city. Thompson is credited with helping the city begin its transformation from a bedroom community into a full-service city, though some fear it will backslide without his guidance.

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DELTONA — Call it fate. Call it irony. Call it what you will. There is something eerie about the parallels between Steven Thompson’s former city, Deltona, and his soon-to-be new home, Marco Island.

In May, he will start work in a city that, like his last city, situated in southern Volusia County, incorporated little more than a decade ago. Both were developed as retirement communities in the 1960s by the Deltona Corporation, but are experiencing growth in the young family demographic.

They are similar right down to street names, including Elkcam, an anadrome for Mackle, the name of the three brothers at the helm of the Deltona Corporation.

And the challenges Thompson faced while in Deltona – many of which mirror those in Marco Island’s past and present – will likely inform his work in Marco.

“The city was in a lot of chaos when Steve was hired,” said Linda White, president of the West Volusia Chamber of Commerce.

White was at one time assistant to the first Deltona city manager, and later the interim city manager as the city went through some of its growing pains in the 1990s.

“There was a lot of great hope he would get in and get the city organized,” she said.

While Thompson made great strides toward better structure in Deltona, White said, he entered the city just as a “perfect storm” was brewing.

The push for economic development, the subsequent backlash, a growing movement for reduced taxes and major changes in elected officials all culminated in a highly polarized environment, White said. And, she added, after the last election, things only got worse.

Still, White said Thompson weathered that storm with perfect grace – always the “consummate professional.”

“I think it was a very difficult situation with the fact that he had a change in the commission,” said Volusia County Council Chair Frank Bruno Jr. “That is not always easy for an administration to deal with, but I think he handled it quite well. The only thing I look at as a manager is he follows the policies that the commission sets up. And I think he did an excellent job in following those policies.”

Bruno, like everyone else Thompson worked with, seemed to have nothing but accolades to share about Thompson.

“To me, he was an asset,” said Mary Swiderski.

The 30-year Volusia County resident is executive director of the Volusia Council of Governments. She got her start as an elected official in Deland, the county seat just 30 minutes up the road from Deltona.

“He was one of the finest managers I’ve ever seen,” Swiderski said. “He was a team player, he got along with everybody. He was a super-great guy and I miss him greatly.”

Swiderski, who works with the 16 cities in Volusia County to reach consensus on major issues, said Thompson spearheaded efforts to strengthen Deltona’s relationship with the county.

Bruno said Thompson’s vision made possible a joint planning agreement for an unincorporated area on the outskirts of Deltona.

“That was a major undertaking,” Bruno said. “That was, I think, a testament to his leadership.”

White, too, pounded that point home.

“I think the relationship between the county and the city were the best the area has ever seen,” White said.

Asked if Thompson had any faults, White stopped to pause and think for several moments. When she began to speak again, she chose her words carefully.

“I think maybe – and it wasn’t anything he could’ve done – but I think maybe he thought he could bring the community along,” White said. “And he didn’t understand how deep that polarization was.”

White went on to describe her belief that the division in the community isolated Thompson, as he walked a tightrope between opposing interest groups and constantly tried to play the mediator.

Former Mayor John Masiarczyk, the first and only mayor of Deltona until 2005, has another thought.

“The thing I think that could’ve benefited him more was more involvement in the community,” Masiarczyk said. “He was an absentee manager.”

Thompson kept his home in Virginia Beach, Va., his last city before coming to Florida, while working in Deltona. It was a fact that apparently never became a major topic of public discourse, but Masiarczyk said he thinks perhaps Thompson’s trips back to Virginia distracted him from his job.

“Locating here means your family comes here,” Masiarczyk said. “I never felt like he was a part of our community.”

Masiarczyk prefaced his opinions with a disclaimer, though: he left office due to term limits just before Thompson was hired. The two never worked together, and Masiarczyk said he tried to observe city politics from a distance when he left office.

“I’m not faulting him,” he said. “It’s just something I, as a mayor, would have been concerned about.”

It’s pure speculation, Masiarczyk said, but he wonders if Thompson’s ties to another area might have made him less invested in the community.

Where Masiarczyk saw an “absentee manager,” however, White saw someone uniquely engaged in the community.

“Steve did something that I thought was pretty special here,” White said. “The (City) Commission didn’t show up a lot in the community, but Steve did. He attended a lot of meetings. He really wanted to give (residents) that sense of leadership.”

For Swiderski, Thompson’s departure was a clear-cut case of mismatched ideals.

“I don’t think Deltona was ready for someone as ethical and progressive as him,” Swiderski said. “He brought them into the 21st century. He brought in key staff members that would be part of the community Deltona wanted to create.”

Current Mayor Dennis Mulder, as well as other Deltona city staffers, referred requests for an interview to Public Information Officer Lee Lopez.

“Sometimes when somebody takes a job, it’s not a good fit,” said Lopez. “And that was the case here.”

Lopez said it would be unfair for him to speculate on the reasons why that might have been the case with Thompson. From Lopez’s end – facilitating communication with the community – things with Thompson were satisfactory, Lopez said.

“Everything seemed to be good as far as his interactions with the public,” Lopez said.

In fact, Thompson was named “Manager of the Year” for 2007 by the Volusia League of Cities. The honor was announced less than one week after the City Commission accepted his resignation. Mulder, part of the majority that voted to in favor of the resignation, was also the man who nominated Thompson for the award.

Without Thompson at the helm, some have said, Deltona is adrift again, caught in another round of growing pains as it attempts to foster commercial development in the midst of an economic downturn.

Deltona, a typical Florida “bedroom community,” is trying to shake the image of sleepy retirement town.

The winding streets are lined with low, modest houses, but most of them are occupied now by young families. Many of those families put food on the table thanks to jobs elsewhere in Volusia County, White said. Even with a meager 1,000 or so businesses occupying the city – including rental homes – Deltona is the county’s largest city, with about 90,000 residents.

White credited Thompson with fostering smart economic growth for the city during his tenure, as well as assembling a staff of department directors who, in some cases, were filling brand new positions. Such was the case with the city’s Assistant City Manager Sally Sherman, who was and still is in charge of economic development.

However, the city has experienced a lot of attrition since Thompson left, as well.

“It seems very shaky inside city hall since Steve left,” White said.

Prior to Thompson’s resignation in January, accepted by a 4-3 vote of the City Commission, the city attorney was ousted. Roland Blossom was fired in November by a 4-3 vote, by the same commissioners who voted to accept Thompson’s resignation.

“There was a lot of talk, a lot of money spent, a lot of restructuring of departments was done,” Masiarczyk said. “His departure and the departure of a lot of other department heads as well probably negates any long-term goals.”

But Masiarczyk is careful to temper his statements about Thompson. As a resident since 1967, he understands the sensitive nature of politics in a young city – his view of the political machinations of Deltona could easily be that of any Marco Island resident.

“I’m not critical of Steve at all,” Masiarczyk said. “He did all of the things he could.”

It is the same line taken by many others: He did all he could. Deltona, like Marco Island, has been through its own cycles of dissension and discord. Many worry, though, about the depth and breadth of a potentially dark period on the horizon for Deltona.

“It was so sad because I had such high hopes for Deltona,” Swiderski said. “They had a class act manager, and now, it has backslid.”

She expressed similar high hopes for Marco Island, which seems right now to be emerging from its own cloudy era. Recent elections put to bed the lingering question of whether the city would finish its city-wide sewering program. A new City Council in power has committed itself to increased public access and openness. The fever pitch of political wrangling just before January’s elections has all but subsided.

Those in Volusia County familiar with Thompson said roundly that he would be a “good fit” with Marco Island.

White painted a picture of him as a great mediator – someone unafraid of bringing opposing groups together in a room to hash out issues.

“I’m happy and thrilled that he is the new city manager of Marco Island; what a prestigious community,” Bruno said.

He added that Thompson was at one point considered for the position of manager of Volusia County. It was before Thompson was hired on in Deltona, Bruno said, and he picked Thompson as his second choice at the time.

“Marco Island got a prince, and they are blessed,” Swiderski said, “because he’s fair, he’s ethical and he looks for the right way of doing things. Managers can get stuck in their way of doing things. He was always willing to look outside the box for solutions.”

Thompson’s contract, approved by Marco Island City Council Monday night, calls for him to start on Marco no later than May 19.

Reached for comment via e-mail, Thompson wrote that his home in Virginia Beach has been on the market since early 2007. With his youngest daughter graduated from high school, he said, he and his wife are still trying to sell the house in order to make the move to Marco.