91 Apply for Palm Coast Manager But Number Deceives: Interim Denise Bevan and Other Qualified Candidates Shun Turmoil

There’s an explanation for the misfire. When the job posting initially went up, it was disseminated–among other sites–through Indeed.com, the job-posting website, and mistakenly key-worded the word “manager” rather than “city manager.” That appeared to have drawn many applications from people who thought they were applying for a mere manager’s job in numerous fields. “They did receive quite a few applications that had the key word ‘manager,'” a city spokesperson said this evening. That key word stayed up for the first 24 to 48 hours. “They figured out what was happening and they fixed it.”

Missing from the applicants’ pool: Denise Bevan, the interim Palm Coast city manager since early June, Jerry Forte, the Palm Coast fire chief and interim assistant city manager since June, or a single other candidate from within the city’s ranks. The absence of those names is as telling as the largely–but not entirely–middling quality of candidates the opening did attract. It suggests that those who have some familiarity with the City Council as currently constituted may be steering away from an environment that has repeatedly proved toxic for the last city manager and interim and continues to be an unpredictable, at times bullying and uncivil environment.

Councilman Victor Barbosa attempted to fire Matt Morton, the previous city manager, in an overt display of slanders and unsupported accusations. Morton soon resigned, accusing Councilman Ed Danko of pressuring him to make false statements against ex-Mayor Milissa Holland. Danko soon threatened to fire Bevan and the city attorney, and continued to make false statements about the ex-mayor, and would fired Bevan if a different mayor had been elected in the special election in July. The council’s temperature has not necessarily ebbed and it remains a deeply divided panel, its balance again in jeopardy as the 2022 election approaches: Barbosa and Council member Eddie Branquinho, one member from each side, will not be running for re-election (Barbosa is aiming for a county commission seat). Unless the next manager is hired with a unanimous vote, that manager will in less than a year answer to a council with a majority of members who would not have voted for her or him.




There were two local candidates of note: Phyllis Edwards, a Palm Coast resident and highly regarded former superintendent of schools in Georgia and assistant superintendent in Flagler, and a previous applicant for that job. But she has no experience in county or city management. And Jim Manfre, a lawyer in private practice and two-time Flagler County sheriff, who’s applied for the Palm Coast and Flagler Beacjh city manager’s jobs previously, never making it to the short-list stage.

The number of candidates who are currently employed as city or county managers is a reflection of the pull, or desirability, of a job opening, since these candidates are willing to have their current employment be jeopardized by the publicity of job-seeking elsewhere. But only six such candidates have applied for the Palm Coast job, and not a single one from a local government anywhere near Palm Coast’s population.

Jan Bagnall, for example, is the city manager of Fort Meade, a city with a population of less than 10,000, but she’s been so only since April, and has no previous city or county managing or assistant manager experience. Raymond Bossert Jr. is the village administrator of Port Edwards, Wis., but Port Edwards has just 37 village employees and a $5 million budget. (Palm Coast’s recently adopted budget, including utilities, is $249 million.) Brian J. Geoghegan, manager of Howell Township, N.J., and Bradley Gotshall, township manager in Lower Paxton, Penn., each are in towns with populations of just over 50,000. Scott Moye has been the Ware County manager in Georgia since 2016; the county has a population of 35,000. Two other candidates still employed as town managers oversee populations of 12,000 and 1,000.




Shawn Henessee was the county manager of Clark County, Washington, a county the size of Seminole County in Florida (480,000 inhabitants). He has an impressive resume. But aside from the irony of his state of origin–the same as that of Morton–Henessee resigned, much as Morton did, “amid recent doubts about his future with the county,” as a local paper reported, much as Morton did. He has not worked since.

So Palm Coast’s fix of the Indeed.com glitch was not necessarily a significant improvement. Only 36 of the 85 candidates have at least some managerial government experience, though that experience varies widely from small departments to departments far afield of the city administration they’d be taking over.

The initial stages of the application process were handled by Renina Fuller, head of human resources at the city. She briefed the city council this morning on the results of the search, saying it had drawn 91 candidates, though not all of them seemed to have submitted actual, complete applications (one candidate submitted a poem).

Fuller’s staff will provide complete binders–with hard copies–of all the applicants to the council members individually on November 9, along with suggested interview questions. The council will hold a special meeting on Nov. 17 at 6 p.m., where the council members will each have weeded down his choices to the top five. So there would be a maximum of 25 candidates. But the council will at that meeting attempt to narrow down those short lists to five. Given the council’s rift, the process is expected to be more contentious than it was, say, in Flagler Beach, whose commission recently hired William Whitson, or in Bunnell, where Alvin Jackson was hired–two choices that were the consensus choices of each commission, and that have proved to be solid fits.




Alfin, the Palm Coast mayor, today tried to set the stage for a more collegial process. “I’ve been wanting to say this, and whether you all agree or not I’m going to say it anyway,” he said–a preface that spoke as loud, if not louder, than what followed: “It would be a perfect situation if at the end of this process, we were all able to unanimously choose a city manager. I have no person in mind, but I’d just like to instill that thought, if it’s possible, if we could have unanimity in our choice. It would be a great pat on the back for the future of the city of Palm Coast. I just wanted to get that out and say it as well.”

Alfin then immediately summed up the process ahead, not giving his colleagues a chance immediately to react to what he’d said–or perhaps not wanting to risk the silence that might have greeted his statement. At any rate, in what amounted to silence deferred, none of the four other council members referred to the statement when they had a chance moments later.

The table below lists 85 candidates, each name linked to the candidate’s resume and other submitted documents, with a brief overview of each candidate’s origin, current position, and government experience. While Fuller said there were 91 actual submissions, not all included all required papers, and any missing candidates from the list below will be provided by Wednesday.

Palm Coast City Manager Candidates, 2021

The Candidates	Current Position	Location	City or County Manager Experience	Local Government Managerial Experience
James Abeshaus	Daimler AG Corporate Counsel	Stuttgart, Germany	No	No
Angelia Adediran	Assistant City Manager	Deerfield Beach	Yes	Yes
Vince Akhimie	Not employed. Was assistant city manager in Lake City, Fla., until Aug. 2020.	Lakeland, Fla.	Yes	Yes
Samuel Askew	Not employed. Previously, casino manager.	Sumter, S.C.	No	No
Jan Bagnall	City Manager	Fort Meade, Fla.	Yes	Yes
Lynda Bell	Property owner, manager, former town manager, Sneads, Fla.	Tallahassee	Yes	Yes
Raymond Bosseret	Village administrator	Port Edwards, Wis.	Yes	Yes
Barry Brooks	Assistant to the city manager, Albany, Ga.	Tallahassee	No	No
Howard Campbell	Community Services Grant Manager	Forrest Park, Georgia	No	Yes
Anthony Carson	Not employed. City manager, Forney, Texas, until 2021	Forney, Texas	Yes	Yes
Christopher Clemens	Operations director	Gainesville	No	No
David Connors	Branch Manager, Terminix	Palm Coast	No	No
Fernando Cordeiro	Assistant manager, Mercedes Benz, Jacksonville	Palm Coast	No	No
Frank Curnow	Mental health counselor	Daytona Beach	No	No
Michael Custer	Police chief	Middletown, Conn.	No	Yes
Angelo Dipierro
Emmanuel Donaldson	Recreation Coordinator, Polk County government	Bartow	No	No
James Dowdy	Pilot in military support	Williston, Fla.	No	No
Michael Drake	Sales and marketing VP, Gyrodata Inc.	Denver	No	No
Brian Druggan	Police officer	St. Augustine	No	No
Justin Dulgar	City commissioner, tech consultant	Mount Carmel, Ill.	No	No
Christopher Eck	Executive director, archivist, National Historical Publications and Records Commission	Broad Run, Va.	No	No
Elyse Edwards	Property manager	Palm Coast	No	No
Phyllis Edwards	Not employed. Former school superintendent.	Palm Coast	No	Yes
Kate Farmer	Utilities accountant	Gainesville	No	No
Sean Fisher	Military recruiter	Columbus, Ga.	No	No
Brian Georghegan	City manager, Howell Township	Howell Township, N.J.	Yes	Yes
Mark Giblin	Park manager, Anastasia State Park	Flagler Beach	No	Yes
Almut Godette	Online Teacher	Palm Coast	No	No
Brad Gotshall	Township manager	Lower Paxton, Penn.	Yes	Yes
Cody Haag	Not employed. Fleet manager until October 15, 2021.	Wenatchee, Wash.	No	Yes
Richard Haffele	Management and budget chief, Miami-Dade County Seaport	Miami	No	Yes
Fareed Halabi	Head of careers, teacher	Brummana, Lebanon	No	No
Christopher Hardee	Not employed. Was in travel sales until 2018.	Richmond, Texas	No	No
Kenneth Harris	Federal prison supervisory chaplain	St. Augustine	No	No
Leisa Haynes	Not employed. Was city manager of Rio Communities, N.M. until 2020.	Choctaw, Okla.	Yes	Yes
Shawn Henessee	Not employed. Was county manager, Clark County, Wash., until 2020.	Vancouver, Wash.	Yes	Yes
Wil Hersh	Property manager	Ormond Beach	No	No
Terry Hicks	Not employed. Was Leader of Facilities and Security for a utility until March 2020	St. Augustine	No	Yes
Thomas Hutka	Not employed. Was Broward County director of public works until 2020.	Pompano Beach, Fla.	Yes	Yes
Andrew Hyatt	Surfside town manager	Ponte Vedra Beach	Yes	Yes
Anna Kinsella	Office manager, St. Johns Family Dentistry	Palm Coast	No	No
Ashley Kirby	Dance instructor	Possibly in West Virginia	No	No
Wayne Klotzbach	National Guard "Force Integrator"	Palm Coast	No	No
Mark Kutney	Not employed. Was City Manager of Brooksville, Fla., until June 2021	Wellington, Fla.	Yes	Yes
Brent Lemond	Adult education director, Nassau County schools	Yulee, Fla.	No	Yes
Carlos Leyva	Elementary school business manager	North Versailles, Penn.	No	No
Katherine Lopez	Economic development specialist	Pomona, N.Y.	No	No
Dominique Mack	Executive director, Family Connections	Brunswick, Ga.	No	Yes
Eric Maldonado	Not employed. Was a Census worker.	Palm Bay	No	No
Jim Manfre	Lawyer in private practice, former Flagler County Sheriff	Palm Coast	No	Yes
John Mangeri	Not employed. Was a police administrator and home inspector, Fishkill, N.Y.	Palm Coast	No	No
Patrick Marsh	Consultant; was city administrator, Fitchburg, Wis., until January 2021	Rochester, Minn.	Yes	Yes
Steve Martelli	Foreign Service Officer, deputy chief of citizen services	Arlington, Va.	No	No
Evalin McClain	Not employed. Was a grant manager, Kansas City Housing Authority	Kansas City, Mo.	No	No
Kevin McCraney	Operations director, Koppel Building & Construction Co.	Louisville, Ky.	No	No
Stephanie McDonald	Park manager, Alfred B Maclay Garden State Park	Tallahassee	No	No
Richardo Mendez	Not employed. Was assistant city manager, West Palm Beach, from 2020 to 2021.	Miami	No	Yes
Brent Moran	Project manager, Accenture	Tampa	No	No
Scott Moye	County Manager, Ware County, Ga.	Waycross, Ga.	Yes	Yes
Brandon Nielsen	Deputy supervisor, Blooming Grove Town Board	Washingtonville, N.Y.	No	Yes
Larry Nochowicz	Sales, Cisco Systems	St. Augustine	No	No
Jeffrey Oris	Municipal government consultant	North Palm Beach	No	Yes
Mark Raley	Security Manager, Pilgrim's Pride	Ridgeley, W.Va.	No	No
Jennifer Roberts	Not employed. Was a baker at Island Donuts, St. Augustine	Palm Coast	No	No
Christian Rodriguez	Manager at Houligans, Palm Coast	Palm Coast	No	No
Timothy Rryter	Shopping mall operations manager	Lindenhurst, Ill.	No	No
Justin Shoemate	FEMA systems intergration and reports chief	Fredericksburg, Va.	No	No
Joseph Sinnott	Lawyer in private practice (previously served as elected mayor)	Erie, Penn.	No	No
Gregory Smith	Education consultant	Daytona Beach	No	No
Leonard Sossamon	Current employment not clear. Former Hernando County administrator and Port Richey interim manager	Myrtle Beach, S.C.	Yes	Yes
D.W. Stark	Community gardens plots manager, transportation specialist	Frederick, Colo.	Yes	Yes
Bronce Stephenson	Planning and transportation director, Winter Park	Winter Park, Fla.	No	Yes
Wesley Stovall	Educational assistant, food service worker	Clarksville, Tennessee	No	No
David Strahl	Interim village manager, Schiller Park, Ill.	Darien, Ill.	Yes	Yes
Ron Succarotte	Construction field supervisor, Waterside Pools, Palm Coast	Palm Coast	No	No
John Swan	Consultant, business and technology	Not provided (New York State)	No	No
Rami Sweidan	Building department head	Lathrup Village, Mich.	No	No
Anthony Trotta	General manager, Best Western, Palm Coast	Daytona Beach	No	No
Adriana Trujillo Villa	Operations Manager/Interim Public Works Director, Haines City	Davenport, Fla.	No	Yes
Jason Weeks	Assistant city manager	La Porte, Texas	No	Yes
Teresa Weinschenk	City administrator, Preston, Iowa	Bellevue, Iowa	Yes	Yes
Cody West	Credit analyst, United Bank	Merritt Island, Fla.	No	No
Paul White	Assistant Superintendent for Operations, Alachua County schools	Gainesville	No	Yes
Adam Wilson	Senior project manager, Plymouth, Mass.	Leesburg, Fla.	Yes	Yes

Notes: In addition to the 85 candidates in the chart, Mark DeCola, Kimberly Dinh and Christopher Pike appeared as if they were intending to apply but submitted no documents beyond an initial form. Raymond Regaliaq submitted only a poem about veterans.


Candidates submitted their resumes, recommendation letters, salary histories and other supporting documents in the full knowledge of Florida's public record law, which makes all the documents presented here public records. These records will be archived and maintained as presented here.