In September 2006, she was given an $11,000 annual pay raise, bringing her annual salary to over $140,000. In total, Stanton had a career spanning 17 years with the City of Largo and as of 2007, had spent 14 years as city manager where she reportedly received good reviews for her performance. Stanton's posting was made permanent in September 1993, with an 18-month contract and another increase in salary. Both assignments were open-ended, with the commission delaying its decision on a permanent city manager until later that year. City Clerk Henry Schubert was reassigned at the same time to the post of assistant city manager. City commissioners cited their confidence in Stanton, as well as the time and cost of recruiting a replacement for Bonczek, as their reason for hiring in-house. At that point Stanton became interim city manager, and was formally hired as acting city manager in May 1993 (with a consequent rise in salary). Stanton worked under city manager Stephen Bonczek until Apwhen Bonczek resigned under pressure from city commissioners, who were unhappy with Bonczek's poor relationship with city workers and unions. Stanton was hired away from Berea to become assistant city manager in Largo, Florida in August 1990. Stanton received an honorary award from Kentucky governor Wallace Wilkinson, who named Stanton a Kentucky Colonel. The Alcan plant became the largest used aluminum can recycling facility in the world. The industries included Tokico Ltd., which planned to build a $20 million shock absorber and brake assembly plant that would employ 150 people, and Alcan Aluminum, which built a $50 million aluminum recycling plant. Berea, Kentucky Īs city administrator in Berea, Kentucky, a position she held for about four years, Stanton took part in negotiations which brought four manufacturing companies to Berea, representing a total capital investment in the city of $120 million and annual payrolls of $10 million. Career Įarly in her career, Stanton held positions at various times as assistant to the city manager of Newburgh, New York administrative assistant to the borough manager of Ketchikan Gateway Borough, Alaska and assistant to the city manager of Champaign, Illinois. Stanton earned a bachelor's degree in political science and a master's degree in public administration from the University of Florida in Gainesville. In high school she worked cleaning offices at night for 30 hours a week, and she was a typist for the yearbook, her only extracurricular activity. She later recalled being rejected as a drummer in the sixth grade band and, in ninth grade, being told by a coach that at 5 feet 9 she was too short to play on the basketball team. Her public school years were relatively uneventful. Susan Stanton grew up in the Catskill Mountains of New York.