The ongoing search for a Flagler County administrator has drawn 30 applicants in a week, with several weeks to go before the application window closes.
On Monday, the commission established a timeline that would end with an appointed manager by mid-August. But the commissioners did not have the applications available for their–or for public–inspection. The administration did not make those accessible. The commissioners have asked for a running batch of qualified applicants weekly. (The list will not include applicants who don’t meet the minimum requirements of the job).
Commissioners may also choose to wait: they’ve have tasked a committee of the Florida Association of County Managers to study, shortlist and rank the applicants according to Flagler County’s job description. That’ll be done by mid-July.
The three-member association committee includes Sumter County Administrator Bradley Arnold. He’s been the administrator in Sumter County, home of The Villages, for 20 years. Michelle Lieberman has been the Alachua County administrator for eight years. Taco Pope has been serving for six years as Nassau County’s manager.
“So we think that some of those experiences that we have, specifically Taco and I can help review those applicants on who might be comparable for a good fit to serve the board,” Arnold told commissioners at a Monday workshop, when he held the lectern for half an hour. The committee’s shortlisting will give it substantial influence on the outcome. The shortlist won’t preclude Flagler’s commissioners from adding candidates of their own from the pool of applicants, assuming they get their colleagues’ consensus.
The county’s Human Resources Department will screen the complete pool of applicants starting at the end of June, turning over applications to the three-member committee to review the applications and shortlist them. Lieberman will present the tentative shortlist to the commission on July 13. The candidates will be backgrounded the following week. Depending on whether the commission wants to take up the rest of the search from there on, or still rely on the three-member committee, the finalists would be presented on July 24.
Being formed of county managers or administrators, the committee is prickly about any negative remarks regarding any of the candidates, which may constrain the commissioners’ freedom to discuss candidates’ liabilities openly and weigh potential negatives in the candidates’ histories–most candidates have baggage–against the benefits they may bring to the job in Flagler. Twice Arnold cautioned against negativity.
“The intent of the presentation is not to go through or why candidates were not selected, because we’re certainly not trying to disparage anyone,” Arnold said. “It would really be focusing on those shortlisted candidates and again, trying to emphasize how they fit the criteria that you’re looking for to be able to serve you.”
The commission would then conduct its interviews with the candidates. In the first two weeks of August.
In the meantime, Arnold cautioned commissioners against interacting with potential candidates should local commissioners attend association meetings (one such meeting is scheduled in early June). “I would not view that as favorable. There’s a due process that you established. Somebody is moving outside the due process, then that is being unfavorably viewed,” Arnold said. “It’s very possible that an applicant may approach you, and they may hit you up for–we’ll call it insider information.”
Arnold was also dismissive of Commissioner Andy Dance’s suggestion that candidates who are not aware of Florida’s Sunshine Law should be informed that their names and applications would be public records, and that their current employers could find out that they’re looking. “Having a good idea of what the laws are in Florida is, again, one of those indicators,” Arnold said.
He then spoke inaccurately. “Sometimes there’s this reason why some counties will use an executive search firm, because they, on their side, will take the applications,” he said. “They keep that hidden to be able to protect that information from getting out to press until such time as you get to the short list.”
In fact, even if Flagler County–or any local government–were to delegate to an executive search firm to conduct the process, the applications generated by the search would all be public records (as was the case in 2018 and 2024 searches by the Palm Coast City Council, when it hired one such firm.)
Dance subtly cautioned his colleagues to guard against the sort of behavior that has repeatedly given the commission black eyes over the past couple of years. “Not only are we interviewing applicants, they’re interviewing us on a day to day basis, so they’re watching the meetings,” Dance said. “I think it’s important that during this process, we’re on our best behavior as well.” Candidates, of course, can google and watch previous meetings.
Heidi Petito’s five-year tenure as county administrator ended last month following a series of public meetings when the commission did not rise to Dance’s standards of exemplary behavior. Adam Mengle, the county’s growth management director, has been the acting administrator.
Candidates, Arnold said, “may do their own homework, not just looking at the videos, but they may interact with some of the existing employees to get a feel for what’s happening behind the scenes, to make sure that the board is representing themselves as a policy board solely.”
Leave a Reply