Greg Dunham is retiring after nearly nine years as town manager, effective Jan. 30. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star
By Steve Plunkett
Gulf Stream Town Manager Greg Dunham is calling it quits after almost nine years at the helm of town government.
“This is a great town to retire from. It’s been a great ride,” said Dunham, whose last Town Commission meeting will be Jan. 9, with his last day on the job coming Jan. 30.
Dunham, who became Gulf Stream’s town manager on May 1, 2017, told commissioners and town employees of his imminent departure at Mayor Scott Morgan’s annual Christmas party for the Town Hall staff on Dec. 19.
When he was hired, he told commissioners he jogged 3 miles a day, six days a week and hoped to keep working until he turned 75, depending on “how my knees do.”
He almost made it. Now 73, he had one knee replaced two years ago and the other one last year.
Under his watch, Gulf Stream finished the second phase of its long-drawn-out project to bury electric, telephone and cable TV lines and remove all the utility poles. It also embarked on an ambitious 10-year capital improvement plan to upgrade its stormwater drainage system, replace its water mains and repave its streets.
The town is now in the eighth year of the project, with work in the Core District expected to finish in April before moving on to Place Au Soleil.
“I have thoroughly enjoyed being here because we accomplished a lot,” Dunham said.
And while he accepted the job in 2017 with enthusiasm, he admitted he almost didn’t come to Gulf Stream. At the time, the town was still battling resident and twice unsuccessful commission candidate Martin O’Boyle in court over his hundreds of public records requests. Gulf Stream and O’Boyle settled the last of 44 lawsuits the following year.
“I said, ‘I’m not going to do this.’ And then the mayor got on the phone,” Dunham said. “He was very convincing.”
Morgan called Dunham “a great town manager.”
“He not only brings decades of experience, which gives him the judgment to handle almost every issue that can come up,” the mayor said. “The most significant thing about Greg I think is his personality. He is a genuinely kind and considerate and smart manager.
“And what always impressed me was not only the way he could manage staff, but whenever a resident had an issue, they would call him. He didn’t want to talk to them on the phone about it; he always wanted to go meet them in person at their home.
“And that was a striking and demonstrative element of (his) managerial skill. (He) would resolve things directly with our residents, and I really appreciated it,” Morgan said.
Dunham started out as a police officer and assistant city manager in Texas, then moved to Florida State University to finish a master’s degree in public administration. With diploma in hand, he got work as an assistant city manager in Palm Beach Gardens, then was town manager in Ocean Ridge from 1998 to 2002 and in Manalapan from 2002 to 2010. After a break from government jobs, he served as town manager of Kenly, North Carolina, for five years before coming to Gulf Stream.
He plans to travel in retirement. His first trip will be to Vietnam with his older brother, who was badly wounded there when Dunham was still in high school.
And he’s looking forward to the birth of a grandchild in May.
“I don’t think I have any regrets,” said Dunham, who just received a plaque from the International City/County Management Association for his 45 years of public service.
“I wouldn’t trade any of my career in local government service for anything,” he said.
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