The Flagler Beach City Commission’s co-dependent relationship with its city manager took yet another twist Thursday evening as the commission “told” Bruce Campbell that he would be staying on at least through December.
The city commission voted 4-0 (Kim Carney was absent) to keep Campbell on a month-to-month basis as it conducts a search for a replacement. The commission doesn’t want to have an interim manager, fearing a return to the years when it employed one—Bernie Murphy—for five years.
Less than a month ago, Campbell was ordering the commissioners to “get on with it” and find his replacement, and telling them that he’d had enough, and that the end of September would be his drop-dead date to leave. It’s not clear what convinced him to change his mind.
“I was approached this week and asked if I would consider staying until the replacement was found, so I told the commissioners that I did say that I would help them in any way I could and if they believe I needed to hang around a couple of months until they got this hiring process completed, I would do that,” Campbell said in an interview this morning. “It’s not going to be five years.” He said that resumes have started coming in, so it should not be a dragged-out process. “I think they’ll get numerous confident. There’s probably going to be more resumes than the last time.” There were 140 resumes five years ago.
Thursday evening, as commissioners again discussed his fate, he sat at his usual desk He leaned his head on his folded hands, fiddled with his paperwork, held his head in his hands and straightened his tie. He said nothing. It’s been almost a year since Campbell announced his intended resignation.
An internal want-ad for the position drew just one applicant earlier this month. A broader ad in trade journals has drawn a dozen applicants so far. That ad is open-ended, but the commission wants to term-limit it, too.
The decision to retain Campbell was prompted by Commission Chairman Marshall Shupe, who’d tried similar maneuvers several times in the past few months with less success. This time he implied that Campbell himself had previously given his word that he’d stay as long as the commission needed him. And now the commission needs him.
“I think I’ve done this a couple of times but now we’re getting close to the point where we need to look at resumes and things like that with the city manager,” Shupe said. “I know Bruce said he wanted to turn in his keys if you will at the end of September. At the same time, probably a year or so ago, he said at the request of the commission that he’d stay on month to month until we didn’t need him anymore. I personally think that with some of the things that are going on, it would be in our best interest, meaning the residents and everybody in town, it would be a little tough to have somebody come in on an interim basis” and try to get up to speed with what’s going on.
“We should tell him that we would like him to stay on, on a month-to-month basis, same pay, same whatever, until we’ve got a new manager selected,” Shupe said.
Commissioner Steve Settle was surprised by the turn-around. “I honestly believed that Bruce would be leaving at the end of September. I’ve been talking to some of our staff people about the possibility of choosing an acting,” Settle said. His worry is a repeat of the prolonged, often embarrassing process that eventually led to Campbell’s appointment five years ago. The process took a year and innumerable commission votes to break stalemate after stalemate.
“One of the flaws in our laws, it takes four votes to choose a new city manager, which means there’s a reluctance—if you’ve got a couple of people reluctant to go forward and choose somebody new, you end up in a stalemate and it could last five years,” Settle said. “I think we’ve learned that. I’ve got no problem with Bruce, I believe I’ve been his biggest supporter over the past five years, but I would like to avoid creating any incentive for us to drag our feet in filling this job.”
Commissioner Jane Mealy agreed with Settle and Shupe, but proposed an end date to Campbell’s month-to-month renewals: Dec. 31.
There’s a possibility that it may not drag out that long. Shupe wants to start looking at resumes soon. “I don’t want to be deluged at the end of October with starting the process,” he said. “I want this process started, but I think he’s the person who needs to be here for the next two or three or four months.” He was referring to Campbell.
The commission will likely hold either a workshop or a special meeting to go through its first batch of resumes next month.
Campbell said he doesn’t know what he plans to do after his city commission job. “I’m going to look for something. I don’t know what that is yet,” he said. Most likely, he’ll stay in the area.
FB Insider says
“His worry is a repeat of the prolonged, often embarrassing process that eventually led to Campbell’s appointment five years ago.”
It was only embarrassing because it became a circus and he was more or less elected by a popularity contest and petitions. The commission had other better, more qualified candidates but turned the other cheek to please the south end of town cheer team that all rallied around Campbell.
Footballen says
What an incredibly awkward position to be in. Did he sell his soul to Satan at some point?
Rick Belhumeur says
I was bewildered how the commission reached a consensus on how long they wanted to keep Bruce around without a single one of them even asking Bruce if he was acceptable to their terms. I would think they would be inviting him to stay as an acting City Manager, not arguing about how long they were going to keep him without even asking him if was acceptable to the proposal.
Anon says
The commission needs to get their crap together and let the man go and stop torchering him.
THE VOICE OF REASON says
Bruce, Bruce, Bruce. I was your biggest supporter when you came on. Wrote a letter to Steve Settle on your behalf — that should tell you who I am — and I have this to say to you:
Don’t let these buffoons drag you into a month-to-month, until-we-find-a-suitable-replacement deal. They’ll waffle, and quibble, nit-pick and reverse their field until you fall over in that chair and they have to carry you out of that commission room.
Set a date. Then get a ticket to Vegas for the day after that date. Then catch that plane.
Gia says
These are the kind of yoyo’s who cannot make a good decision. Bad management.
Flagler Citizen says
Lol, while it’s a little unprofessional, I like how you describe “The Flagler Beach City Commission’s co-dependent relationship with its city manager.”
Personally, I suspect that if the City Manager really wanted to retire, he would simply turn his letter of resignation in, and then pack his office up on the appointed day, and leave his keys on someone’s desk on the way out the door.
Rick Belhumeur says
Bruce has been month to month since last November when his contract expired. He told the commission last year that he didn’t wish to renew his contract. His reason at that time was that he continually felt fatigued and thought it was the stress of the job. Very soon after that Bruce had bypass heart surgery. In February, after he returned from medical leave (knowing now the real cause of his fatigue) he expressed his wish to sign another contract with the city and the commission did not offer him one. Last month during a commission meeting, the subject of getting the Flagler Beach City Manager on contract was brought up by commissioner Shupe. The commission once again offered him nothing beyond his current month to month job. That is what prompted Bruce to make his impromptu announcement that he would be leaving at the end of September. He now regrets making that declaration to the commission because Bruce likes his job and really doesn’t want to leave.
Anonymous says
Either you’re in or you’re out…make up your mind. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result.
Algernon says
One would think that with the Sea Ray situation that Mr. Campbell would want to be on the first boat, train, or plane out of town. With a dozen or so Freedom of Information Act requests, as precursors to some heavy law suits, and the tax hikes to pay for them, that moving to Tahiti might not be such a bad idea.
Swizz says
The last thing we need is a City Manager that can’t decide if he wants to stay or go. We need to move on and hire a professional city manager with experience. This back and forth crap is silly.