City of Mountain Brook surprises city manager with special honor

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Sam Gaston walked into the Mountain Brook City Council Chamber the night of Monday, March 14 — just before the council’s regular meeting — and saw his family sitting on the front row.

“What in the world are they doing here?” he remembers thinking. “Am I in trouble?”

Quite the opposite. Gaston, the Mountain Brook city manager for nearly 30 years, has been memorialized in his own time as the City Council Chamber now bears his name.

City Council President Virginia Smith said a great deal of thought went into the decision of how to properly recognize Gaston. She joked that early ideas included the candy and supply closet, inside the elevator, the emergency exit door in the back of the council chamber or perhaps – “my personal favorite” – spray-painting his name on his personal parking spot in the lower parking deck.

“All kidding aside,” Smith said, “our city wins awards and places high municipal polls all the time. Our employees and department heads, many of which are here now, win awards and receive honors and 'thank you' letters all the time. It's all attributable to you to the top of the top of the chain.”

Gaston was visibly puzzled as he walked into the council chamber, the last official to emerge from the just-completed pre-council meeting.

Mayor Stewart H. Welch III announced the dedication as the council meeting commenced. He said his wife described the long-time city manager as “The Rock.”

“That is appropriate,” the mayor said. “Sam is the rock. He is the foundation for which this city has grown for almost 30 years.”

Gaston shared credit for the Mountain Brook’s success with all involved.

“We've just had great support from the citizens, the mayor and council,” he said. “We built a great team here – management team and employees. We've always tried to emphasize public service, dedication, going the extra mile and knowing that we're held to a higher standard here, which I'm glad we are. We always instilled that in our employees. Every new employee, I tell them what we expect of them.”

Pulling the wool over Gaston’s eyes was no easy feat.

“He knows everything so trying to keep this from him was huge,” City Clerk Heather Richards said. “We were trying our very best to make sure he didn't know and Janet did amazing.”

Janet Forbes, Gaston’s assistant, acknowledged it was difficult planning the recognition and getting the design approved by the mayor and council.

“We did everything we could to get him out of the office, to get the letters installed and to get it covered so he wouldn't see it,” Forbes said. “We had to send a lot of emails in secret to make sure that they knew it was a secret and that people could pass it on to others.”

Debby Gaston got her husband to reluctantly take off last Friday. The couple will have been married 41 years in May.

"He enjoys his job. He goes to work and I handle things at home,” she said. “That works well for us.”

The city manager’s wife said her husband was confused as he entered the council chamber.

“We usually don't come to city council meetings and there were lots of other people,” she said. “I think he knew something was going on but I'm not sure he knew what.”