Anderson City Manager John Moore received his annual report card from the Anderson City Council Monday.

The 17-year veteran city manager received strong marks in financial management, organizational skills, communication, professionalism and positive attitude — and showed a marked improvement from his review given the year before.

In 2007, the nine-member council listed six areas that needed “further development” while this year those areas were cut in half.

Moore, who served as the city’s finance director for 15 years prior to taking the manager position, received top marks in financial management on both reviews.

The areas still on his list of areas needing improvement were communication with council, management style and following up on requests from council members. However, both years, he received an overall “good” grade.

Out of 320 questions in his review this year, the eight council members gave Moore 90 excellent ratings, 155 good ratings, 73 satisfactory ratings and two unsatisfactory ratings.

One council member did not complete the review. However, because the reviews are anonymous it was not known which council member did not finish the review.

“I think we have a wonderful management team,” Council member Tom Dunaway said. “John doesn’t take sides and he is fair in addressing individual council’s concerns and he doesn’t sue us. He is very non-political.”

The comment on suing may have been a reference to the recent lawsuit filed by Anderson County Administrator Joey Preston against Council members Cindy Wilson and Bob Waldrep.

Dunaway said Moore and the city’s assistant manager, Linda McConnell, are improving on the issue of finding innovative funding for low-income housing.

“One of the weaknesses I pointed out was the lack of understanding housing issues,” Dunaway said. “But I will congratulate Linda and John in getting quickly up to speed on that issue when it was brought to them. We named that as our No. 1 goal for the city at our February retreat.”

“And Ireally think by the end of the year, I really think you are going to see a great deal of leadership out of his office on the housing issue.”

As for Moore’s communication with council, Dunaway said he has no complaints.

Dunaway, fellow council member Tony Stewart and Anderson Mayor Terence Roberts each cited Moore’s financial management when asked about his review in-depth on Friday. They all mentioned the fact that while the city has raised some fees — often because of state mandates — they haven’t raised overall taxes in at least eight years.

“I think John has done a good job for the city of Anderson,” Stewart said. “He always ensures that the city is in good financial standing.”

Stewart said he believes Moore is also going to work on improving communication with regular city employees and with council members. Another area Moore is addressing after the most recent review is making sure that either he or Assistant City Manager Linda McConnell are in the office.

“They will make sure they coordinate their vacation schedules,” Stewart said. “But overall, I think that the citizens of the city of Anderson need to know that John has done a very good job of maintaining the city’s finances.”

“He has my vote of confidence,” Stewart said.

Mayor Roberts said when he took office, Moore had only had three reviews in the course of his then 15 years in the position of city manager. Since Roberts took office, Moore has received a review each year.

“The process was, I am used to reviewing people in my business. So we created a process,” Roberts said.