Longtime Wellington employee Jim Barnes has been promoted to assistant village manager, formally making him second in command to Village Manager Paul Schofield.
“Technically, he has been that for over a year now,” Schofield told the Town-Crier on Wednesday. “We finally did that formally, and it’s well earned on his part.”
Barnes’ most recent title was director of operations. He has been with the village for 12 years and has served in positions including deputy director of community services, deputy director of environmental and engineering services, and parks and recreation director.
As director of operations, he oversaw a number of village departments, including parks and recreation; public works; engineering; planning, zoning and building; and community services.
“Five years ago, we made him director of operations, and he became in charge of all the operational departments,” Schofield said. “He has management responsibilities, and when I am gone, he acts in my stead.”
In his new role, all departments will report through Barnes, Schofield said.
“The structure of the departments hasn’t really changed, but it just gives him a more formal role in the management structure,” Schofield said. “I will continue to do what I’ve always done. I’m responsible for the overall operation and the direction of staff, but my predecessors have had a direct hand in managing the individual departments. I make sure that the managers are working together, and I make sure they stay online with the budget and make sure what the council is asking for continues to be done.”
Barnes said the biggest change is that he will be in charge whenever Schofield is not present.
“The job delineation is going to be basically the same as what I’ve done previously, which is to have responsibility for the handful of departments that I’ve been responsible for,” Barnes said.
In previous roles, Barnes has led successful workshops to gain information from the public on projects that the village has proposed. “I did the K-Park workshops most recently,” he said.
Prior to that, he had done advance work on the community center project. “I was also involved when I was parks and rec director dealing with the Parks & Recreation Advisory Board, and the other user groups when we were dealing with sports providers,” Barnes said.
Before that, Barnes was Schofield’s assistant when Schofield was community services director, before his promotion to village manager. He also worked closely with former Village Engineer Gary Clough.
“I ended up working on those projects as well, whether it was related to annexations that we were completing at the time or, in some cases, some projects specific to other improvements,” he said. “It has been kind of varied over time.”
Barnes said that most of his projects have involved doing outreach to the community and providing that information to staff. “That will continue to be a big portion of what I do,” he said.
His experience before Wellington includes work in both the public and private sector.
“I worked with Palm Beach County in a couple of different capacities, both in facilities, which involved planning, design and construction of county facilities, whether it be parks, fire stations or libraries, and I was also a planner for the county,” he said.
In the private sector, he worked as a consultant handling environmental permitting and planning projects.
Barnes’ promotion comes just one week after Schofield signed a new five-year contract to stay on as village manager.
ABOVE: Assistant Village Manager Jim Barnes.
