34 Apply So Far for Flagler Beach Manager, 13 of Them Unemployed

One of them is a flight attendant. Another is a pastor. One is a part-time truck delivery man, though he was formerly the public works director in Bunnell. Many have at least a master’s degree in business or public administration, most have worked or are still working in city or county administrations, and 13 are currently unemployed, not counting one who’s applying from retirement.

In all, 34 people — 27 men, seven women — have applied so far for the county manager’s position in Flagler Beach. Bernie Murphy is leaving the post after serving almost four years as an “interim” manager–longer than most managers, interim or not, in the city’s recent memory.

The thickening pile of resumes will thicken further: resumes are being taken until the end of July.

The list breaks down further this way: So far, exactly half of the applicants are from out of state. Of the 17 from Florida, five are from Flagler County, including Catherine Brewer of Palm Coast, Eric Crandall of Bunnell (he’s the former Bunnell public works director), and Bruce Campbell, Tom Garris and Leah Sebag of Flagler Beach. Sheri Barrow lists a Valdosta, Ga., address on her resume, but says in her cover letter that she lives in Flagler Beach. John Tahlier lives in Daytona Beach, but he’s a bookkeeper with the city of Flagler Beach.

Other than Tahlier, Volusia is offering up four other candidates. Two are from Jacksonville, one each from Orlando, Apopka, Tequesta, Sarasota and Winter Haven. The 17 other candidates are spread around 11 states, four of them from Georgia, three from Texas, two from Virginia, and the rest from elsewhere around the Union.

Remarkably, some applicants did not list their education. Just as remarkably, some applicants seemed to have an unusual idea of what it takes to run a city. “I suspect you’ll find very few candidates with a background such as mine, and it’s one I’d like to put to work for the City of Flagler Beach,” Christopher Johnson of Portland, Ore., wrote in his cover letter. My experience with the executive-level administration of a large network of paid staff and volunteers is something the city would profit from greatly in your next city manager.” But he’s been a pastor at two churches, a delivery truck driver, a teller, and an after-school worker.

Michael Kane of Snellville, Ga., a flight attendant with Delta with an MBA from Columbia Southern University, wrote: “I’m currently in the airline business partly as a sabbatical, but also to experience the vagaries of a business that’s in constant flux be it from fuel prices, schedule adjustments, or weather. The ability to direct decision making to alter track and respond to these forces is not unlike dealing with the economic and political forces at work on a municipality.”

A minority of commissioners didn’t want to take on the entire stack of resumes, preferring that the first cut be done either by a consultant or by an independent group. But other commissioners prevailed, saying they wanted to be involved at every step of the hiring process.

Whether it’s as wide-open a process as it appears is open to question: The Flagler Beach candidates may have an inside track, based on the number of commissioners who said they want a candidate closer to home who won’t use the city as a stepping stone to bigger markets. But their worry that the recession would generate a large number of stellar, overqualified candidates appears, so far, to be misplaced.

Flagler Beach City Manager Applicants