• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
MENUMENU
MENUMENU
  • Home
  • About
    • Contact Us
    • FlaglerLive Board of Directors
    • Comment Policy
    • Mission Statement
    • Our Values
    • Privacy Policy
  • Live Calendar
  • Submit Obituary
  • Submit an Event
  • Support FlaglerLive
  • Advertise on FlaglerLive (386) 503-3808
  • Search Results

FlaglerLive

No Bull, no Fluff, No Smudges

MENUMENU
  • Flagler
    • Flagler County Commission
    • Beverly Beach
    • Economic Development Council
    • Flagler History
    • Mondex/Daytona North
    • The Hammock
    • Tourist Development Council
  • Palm Coast
    • Palm Coast City Council
    • Palm Coast Crime
  • Bunnell
    • Bunnell City Commission
    • Bunnell Crime
  • Flagler Beach
    • Flagler Beach City Commission
    • Flagler Beach Crime
  • Cops/Courts
    • Circuit & County Court
    • Florida Supreme Court
    • Federal Courts
    • Flagler 911
    • Fire House
    • Flagler County Sheriff
    • Flagler Jail Bookings
    • Traffic Accidents
  • Rights & Liberties
    • Fourth Amendment
    • First Amendment
    • Privacy
    • Second Amendment
    • Seventh Amendment
    • Sixth Amendment
    • Sunshine Law
    • Third Amendment
    • Religion & Beliefs
    • Human Rights
    • Immigration
    • Labor Rights
    • 14th Amendment
    • Civil Rights
  • Schools
    • Adult Education
    • Belle Terre Elementary
    • Buddy Taylor Middle
    • Bunnell Elementary
    • Charter Schools
    • Daytona State College
    • Flagler County School Board
    • Flagler Palm Coast High School
    • Higher Education
    • Imagine School
    • Indian Trails Middle
    • Matanzas High School
    • Old Kings Elementary
    • Rymfire Elementary
    • Stetson University
    • Wadsworth Elementary
    • University of Florida/Florida State
  • Economy
    • Jobs & Unemployment
    • Business & Economy
    • Development & Sprawl
    • Leisure & Tourism
    • Local Business
    • Local Media
    • Real Estate & Development
    • Taxes
  • Commentary
    • The Conversation
    • Pierre Tristam
    • Diane Roberts
    • Guest Columns
    • Byblos
    • Editor's Blog
  • Culture
    • African American Cultural Society
    • Arts in Palm Coast & Flagler
    • Books
    • City Repertory Theatre
    • Flagler Auditorium
    • Flagler Playhouse
    • Flagler Youth Orchestra
    • Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra
    • Palm Coast Arts Foundation
    • Special Events
  • Elections 2024
    • Amendments and Referendums
    • Presidential Election
    • Campaign Finance
    • City Elections
    • Congressional
    • Constitutionals
    • Courts
    • Governor
    • Polls
    • Voting Rights
  • Florida
    • Federal Politics
    • Florida History
    • Florida Legislature
    • Florida Legislature
    • Ron DeSantis
  • Health & Society
    • Flagler County Health Department
    • Ask the Doctor Column
    • Health Care
    • Health Care Business
    • Covid-19
    • Children and Families
    • Medicaid and Medicare
    • Mental Health
    • Poverty
    • Violence
  • All Else
    • Daily Briefing
    • Americana
    • Obituaries
    • News Briefs
    • Weather and Climate
    • Wildlife

If You Think Palm Coast’s City Manager Search Is a Shrill Show, You Should See Sarasota’s

April 19, 2025 | FlaglerLive | 4 Comments

sarasota city manager search
“I’m thinking about the potential candidates,” Sarasota Vice Mayor Debbie Trice said, “who are saying, Look, how–if we throw out the process right now and start over–look how disorganized that commission is, that city is. I want no parts of it. I’m not going to pick up my family and move to this crazy city where the commissioners can’t make a decision.” (© FlaglerLive via Sarasota video)

The Palm Coast City Council holds interviews with prospective city managers on April 24, at least the last two still standing at last check. The city’s process, facilitated by Strategic Government Resources, a recruiting company, drew just 38 applicants, had to be reopened in attempt to draw more, ended up with five short-listed candidates, three of whom swiftly bailed in the face of an unsettled council and a mercurial mayor seemingly at war with the city. Palm Coast appears not to be an exception.

What started as a routine city manager search unraveled into a public spectacle recently at Sarasota’s City Commission. The breakdown on April 11 played out over two separate meetings—a morning workshop and an afternoon special session—where commissioners openly admitted to confusion, mistrust, and having no clear path forward.

Commissioners contradicted each other, the search firm hired to oversee the process struggled to provide basic materials and information, and the public was left in the dark—literally and figuratively—about how the process would move forward.




At the center of the disarray: 47 applicants for the city manager position and no coherent process for narrowing the list.

“I feel like we’re floundering here,” said Mayor Liz Alpert. Elected officials seemed paralyzed by indecision and embarrassed by the process unraveling in real time. “It’s a terrible look,” she said.

The saga began in October 2024 when Marlon Brown retired after more than three decades in government service throughout Florida, including 15 years with the City of Sarasota, the last four as city manager.

At the outset, the city hired national search firm Colin Baenziger & Associates of Daytona Beach to lead the city manager recruitment [the firm has recruited for Flagler Beach previously]. But by last Friday’s meeting, it was clear several commissioners were unsure who had controlled the process all along.

Commissioners pointed to one-on-one meetings with staff and the search firm where commissioners had privately shared ideas about what they wanted in a city manager. But that behind-the-scenes approach ultimately spilled into public view, exposing the fractures in a process that lacked structure from the start.

There was no clear agreement on evaluation criteria, no collective discussion of priorities, and no plan for incorporating public input or community participation. Commissioners openly admitted they had never clearly defined what they were looking for in a candidate—a vacuum that helped fuel the disarray.




More troubling was that commissioners submitted their preferred candidates from the pool of 47 via a spreadsheet—outside of a public meeting. A 2023 opinion from the Florida Attorney General made clear the Sunshine Law prohibits ranking candidates in an executive search outside of a publicly noticed meeting.

Christine Robinson, speaking on behalf of the Argus Foundation, put it plainly: “The public doesn’t have access to the materials you’re talking about today.”

Robinson wasn’t alone in raising concerns. Commissioner Kyle Battie echoed the concern: “We almost seem as though we don’t have a clue as to what we’re doing. That doesn’t bode well for the public and their confidence in us.”

Battie likened the events to “trying to change a tire on a bike while we’re riding it.”

Commissioner Jen Ahearn-Koch declared bluntly, “We did not direct any of this. This is coming at us.”

Vice Mayor Debbie Trice tried to salvage the process by proposing a hybrid approach: preserve the current applicant pool but publish all materials to give the public a window into future deliberations. But even that compromise couldn’t paper over the commission’s lack of a coherent plan.

A suggestion that candidates submit five-minute introductory videos—aimed at humanizing resumes—was dismissed by some as potentially discriminatory, despite the fact that public interviews would eventually reveal the same information.




By the afternoon meeting, the dysfunction reached a climax. Ahearn-Koch introduced a motion to scrap the entire process and start anew— publicly, transparently, and on the Commission’s own terms.

The motion failed 4–1, but not before exposing deep fractures. Commissioners admitted they didn’t know which materials were public, why some candidates were recommended over others, or how five additional names landed on their list without a formal vote or directive. Basic documents such as resumes and background packets were not included in the meeting agenda and only presented after complaints from the public.

Several commissioners worried starting over would waste months and cost Sarasota its most promising candidates. Others argued the entire process was tainted by disorganization, and pushing forward would only deepen public mistrust.

“If I were a potential candidate, I would think twice about applying,” said Vice Mayor Trice. She questioned why a candidate would “move to this crazy city where the commission can’t make a decision.”​

“It was chaos,” said Martin Hyde, a frequent critic of city government. “There’s no consistency in the processes. The only thing that is predictable is that they take hours at every meeting to demonstrate their incompetence.”

What Comes Next?

City Attorney Joe Polzak recommended the city “reboot” the search process.  But in the end, the commission did not agree on a clear timeline or leadership direction. Commissioners agreed to hold a follow-up meeting where they’ll begin—again—by publicly naming their top candidates and requesting additional background materials from the search firm.

But with some commissioners already second-guessing their picks and others visibly frustrated with the entire process, it’s unclear whether the future meeting will resolve anything or simply repeat last Friday’s display in a slightly more polished form.

“Likely, I would come up with the same list I have,” said Alpert.




The number of potential candidates is likely to be less after last Friday’s week’s debacle. One candidate withdrew from consideration after watching the spectacle. “I can’t imagine anyone who would want to work in that environment,” the former candidate told the Florida Trident.

As of Thursday, April 17, city hall could not provide consistent information on the number of candidates who had dropped out. One official told the Trident in an email that none had withdrawn. Another official confirmed that four had dropped out.

Jan Thornburgh, the City’s Communication Manager, has subsequently stated that two additional candidates had withdrawn: Kathy Blonski and Mike Graese. Blonski was one of two candidates preferred by all 5 commissioners.

–Michael Barfield, Florida Trident

Support FlaglerLive's End of Year Fundraiser
Thank you readers for getting us to--and past--our year-end fund-raising goal yet again. It’s a bracing way to mark our 15th year at FlaglerLive. Our donors are just a fraction of the 25,000 readers who seek us out for the best-reported, most timely, trustworthy, and independent local news site anywhere, without paywall. FlaglerLive is free. Fighting misinformation and keeping democracy in the sunshine 365/7/24 isn’t free. Take a brief moment, become a champion of fearless, enlightening journalism. Any amount helps. We’re a 501(c)(3) non-profit news organization. Donations are tax deductible.  
You may donate openly or anonymously.
We like Zeffy (no fees), but if you prefer to use PayPal, click here.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Paulette says

    April 19, 2025 at 11:50 am

    On a more positive note, Ft Myers Beach hired a new Town Manager on Friday. Their staff ran Town staff ran the search and vetted over 45 candidates. The Town Council whittled the group down to five finalists who were interviewed by both Beach Talk Radio and the Town Council in public. William McCannay, the former Army Commander of Ft Davis, Kansas, is in contract negotiations with the Town Council presently. It was an efficient and civil process.
    Let’s hope our City Council has the same success in the weeks to come.

  2. Paulette says

    April 19, 2025 at 11:53 am

    Correction:
    William McCannay is the former Army Commander in Ft Riley, Kansas.

  3. James says

    April 19, 2025 at 1:28 pm

    “…I’m not going to pick up my family and move to this crazy city …”

    Hum… yeah. I think Mayor Trice is missing something here.

    It’s not now a question of moving to a particular city in Florida, it’s a question of whether to move to Florida, period.

    Just an opinion.

  4. Dennis C Rathsam says

    April 19, 2025 at 8:29 pm

    WHY NOT STEAL ONE FROM ANOTHER CITY? THERES NO HONER AMONG THIEVES!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • Conner Bosch law attorneys lawyers offices palm coast flagler county
  • grand living realty
  • politis matovina attorneys for justice personal injury law auto truck accidents

Primary Sidebar

  • grand living realty
  • politis matovina attorneys for justice personal injury law auto truck accidents

Recent Comments

  • Pierre Tristam on The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, May 12, 2025
  • marlee on NOAA Cuts Are Putting Our Coastal Communities At Risk
  • BrentJ on DeSantis Stands By Attorney General’s Defiance of Federal Court Order Halting Cops’ Arrests of Migrants
  • Deborah Coffey on To Protect Florida’s Environment, Conservation Is Cheaper Than Restoration
  • Dennis C Rathsam on The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, May 12, 2025
  • JimboXYZ on Threatening Diversity Threatens Growth
  • Pogo on County Judge Lauren Peffer Faces Charges Over Fabricated Phone Call
  • Greg on To Protect Florida’s Environment, Conservation Is Cheaper Than Restoration
  • Pogo on Bill to Help Domestic Violence Victims Dies
  • Pogo on The Daily Cartoon and Live Briefing: Monday, May 12, 2025
  • Pogo on Florida Republicans Devour Their Own
  • Paul Larkin on To Protect Florida’s Environment, Conservation Is Cheaper Than Restoration
  • Norm on Flagler Beach Mayor Patti King Questions Palm Coast Mayor Mike Norris’s ‘Authenticity’ on Beach Plan
  • Pogo on To Protect Florida’s Environment, Conservation Is Cheaper Than Restoration
  • Pogo on Threatening Diversity Threatens Growth
  • Norm on Palm Coast Mayor Mike Norris Thinks the FBI or CIA Is Bugging His Phone

Log in