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With four Marco Island City Council candidates running on a promise to change how the city does business, you might expect it to worry the people in City Hall who do business.

But the employees of the City of Marco Island are staying mum for a staff that has been the object of much criticism by residents during a contentious sewer installation, long-standing road construction and a highly-publicized problem with asbestos dumped on a city-owned lot.

Add to that the departure of former City Manager Bill Moss, who officially left for the same position in Naples starting after the new year. Moss was Marco Island’s first and only city manager in its 10-year history, and any employees he didn’t recruit basically started at the same time as him.

Take, for example, Laura Litzan, who started working in the city on the same day as Moss in 1997.

Litzan is adamant, though, that changes in the city’s representative government would not equate to big changes at City Hall.

“The only people we’re here for are the citizens,” Litzan said. “Those dots don’t connect for me that just because we’re getting a new city manager, we are losing staff.”

Council candidate Frank Recker took the same line. He said he has only heard good things about the city staff, partly through communications to Interim City Manager Tony Shoemaker with the current council.

“I’m not concerned about (staff leaving),” Recker said. “I think people in city government know changes occur.”

Incumbent Councilor Bill Trotter also said he doesn’t get a sense that elections will cause an exodus from City Hall.

“I think we have a group of great, dedicated people focused on getting the job done, and I hope they will stay the course and work with the new city manager,” Trotter said. “I don’t get the sense that there’s a level of panic.”

There were whisperings, though, after Naples Public Works Director Dan Mercer retired in December, that Moss would turn to his old colleagues on Marco to fill the position. However, Moss said, no one from Marco Island has applied for the job.

“And there is no reason that I should believe that would happen,” he said.

Marco Island Public Works Director Rony Joel would have been the most obvious candidate, but he said he is not eyeing any other positions.

“I think it’s an open potential,” Joel said of the lure of other jobs. “I really love working for the City of Marco Island, and the community has been great to me so far.”

But, he added, “One faction has indicated significant displeasure with my performance.”

Joel said he will be watching the election as something of a litmus test for how deep that displeasure runs. He won’t go so far as to say the vote will tell him whether to stay or go, but he is also not ruling out the possibility of seeking opportunity elsewhere.

City Council candidate Butch Neylon has sparred with Joel in the past, heatedly accusing Joel of calling him a “liar” for contradicting his comments as a resident at a City Council meeting.

But Neylon indicated no loss of love between he and Joel, saying only that he believes the public works director is “stretched too thin” overseeing both the city’s water utility and its work on the island’s roads, bridges and drainage infrastructure.

Marco Police Chief Roger Reinke — who in the last few years has been a frontrunner for seven other jobs steering police departments outside Marco — also denies having any designs on a new job, particularly in Naples. The fate of Naples Police Chief Victor Morales was in question in mid-2007 when police union leaders in Naples called for him to step down.

Moss voiced confidence in Morales, though, and said he has had conversations with Reinke about his career, but not as it might pertain to Naples.

No former Marco employees have contacted him to seek employment in Naples, he maintains, though he said that on his way out of Marco he told every department head he hoped to work with them again in the future.

Still, some employees grant that Marco Island’s heated political environment makes for a challenging work environment.

“It sometimes is very difficult because as an employee of the city, a lot of pressure is being placed upon us to remain neutral,” said City Public Information Coordinator Lisa Douglass. “But, even though we are doing that, we are accused of a lot of things

Naples does not have a position comparable to the one held by Lisa Douglass, but then again, neither did Marco Island until Moss hired Douglass away from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection in 2006.

She was a particular target of criticism in the fall of 2007 when the city was dealing with widespread allegations that sewer construction was releasing potentially harmful hydrogen sulfide gas into the city’s air. Some residents wrote to City Hall accusing her of downplaying the health threat presented by the gas.

However, she said, the oft-vocal contention is not pushing her to look for employment elsewhere — even if it would be with her former boss.

“I have not asked to go to the City of Naples, I have not looked to go to the City of Naples,” she said. “If that time comes, I would be privileged to work with Bill Moss again.”

That doesn’t mean she has not heard discussion of other employees looking to make a move if the election results are not what they desire.

“I would be lying if I told you I hadn’t heard that, but I don’t even want to talk about that,” she said. “Worrying about something that isn’t today is not fair to what my job is.”

None of the candidates for City Council are pledging to do away with departments or get rid of staff, but a handful of candidates have persistently advocated putting a stop to “runaway spending.”

Candidate Roger Hall has spoken often about curtailing the city’s spending, but said he has no specific agenda for dealing with the city staff. On the contrary, he said, that would not be his job as a City Councilor.

“I think the city manager sets the tone and sets the marching orders and directs the band,” he said. “We’ve got competent people doing a good job. Philosophical differences are irrelevant.”

On that count though, some of the City Council hopefuls say they are hoping to find a city manager that more closely fits the profile they have in mind than the one established by current councilors.

Joe Batte has expressed dismay over the decision of the current council to begin the search process for a manager to replace Moss. He said he is concerned that the candidates found through the search will reflect the values of a different council entirely, even though the newly elected council will be in charge of narrowing the field of candidates and selecting Moss’ successor.

“The new council, whomever it might be, is going to get 12 to 18 candidates based on the values of other people that might not be there,” he said. “Their values is what created these 18. I haven’t had any input whatsoever.”

With a council seeking to shape a different set of values, it begs the question of how a work environment might be equally changed from the one established under the management of a man who was in place for 10 years.

Candidate Wayne Waldack said he is concerned about city staff leaving, which he said might be a symptom of some of his opponents being elected. Waldack blames the criticism Moss endured as the reason he left for Naples.

Moss maintained throughout the process, though, that the move was merely a matter of seizing better opportunity.

And if anyone leaves their post in Marco Island City Hall, Batte said he believes it would be for the same reason.

“In order for them to leave I don’t think it’s going to be because there’s a new group in town,” Batte said. “I think they’re just a committed bunch of folks. If they leave it’s going to be because there’s another opportunity elsewhere.”