West Palm's assistant city manager earns his stripes in stadium gigs and hopes to work his way up

Published Oct. 19, 2010 10:11 a.m. ET

foxsports

Eduardo Balbis doesn't need a side job.

The assistant city manager is one of West Palm Beach's highest-ranking officials, and Gov. Charlie Crist recently appointed him to serve on the state's Public Service Commission.

But while Balbis is passionate about utilities, natural gas and water treatment, he can't forget his love for football. It's why, after a busy week at city hall, he hops on a plane and travels to cities such as Monroe, La., and Denton, Texas, to referee games.

The pay is minimal, Balbis said, but the onetime linebacker at Palm Beach Gardens High loves the experience.

"Most people have hobbies that take as much time, but also cost a lot more money," Balbis said. "Here I'm actually doing something I like and getting paid to do it. It keeps me involved in the sport, and I like dealing with the kids."

The job is anything but glamorous. Balbis arrives at a city on Friday night and spends up to three hours with his crew, reviewing film of their game from the previous week.

The next morning he wakes up at 6 for four hours of preparation, evaluating every phase of the game. He arrives at the stadium two hours before kickoff for pre-game duties and stays for more than an hour after the game.

Balbis is evaluated on each of the calls he makes during a game. He believes the attention to detail and preparation serves him well in city hall, and he made that point to Crist when he interviewed for the Public Service Commission job.

"You have to maintain a level of professionalism and calm to maintain control of the game and to maintain your focus on the next play, series or whatever it may be," Balbis said. "The skills I've learned the last 15 years of doing that have translated professionally and personally. You're in a situation (at city hall) dealing with a number of issues where tensions are high, stress level is high."

West Palm City Administrator Ed Mitchell believes Balbis' side gig enhances his supervisory skills.

"You have to make split-second decisions on the football field, study rules and regulations and have some discretion," Mitchell said. "Things happen so quickly out there."

Although reffing is a hobby, Balbis said he takes it with the utmost seriousness. After graduating from the University of Florida in 1995, he began reffing high school and youth football games, working his way up to the college ranks. Now he refs Sun Belt Conference games (the conference of Florida Atlantic University and Florida International University) and games for smaller colleges in the Southeast.

Balbis' dream is to ref in the Southeastern Conference, college football's top conference in recent years and the home of his alma mater. Refs are barred from working games involving the school they attended, so he could not ref Gators games.

He did receive a small taste of the Gators in the spring, when he was asked to ref the school's annual Orange and Blue game, a intra-squad scrimmage that draws more than 50,000 fans to the Swamp each year.

"That's my long-term goal," Balbis said of reffing in the SEC. "My short-term goal is to worry about the things I can control, which are to prepare, have a good game, get the calls right and let everything else take care of it itself."

Balbis will leave his full-time job in West Palm next year when he begins his four-year term on the Public Service Commission in Tallahassee. But he will continue to ref.

Mitchell is confident Balbis will succeed.

"I think Eduardo's climbing the ladder," Mitchell said. "Hopefully someday he'll be in a bigger conference and even the NFL."

~ andrew_abramson@pbpost.com