Three of Five Finalists for Palm Coast City Manager Drop Out as Council’s Instability Takes a Toll

Last Updated: 6:42 p.m.

The shortlist of Palm Coast city manager candidates who were to interview with the City Council at the end of April is down to two, from five. The last two were among the somewhat less favored of the five when the council ranked them on March 11. 

Today, Sonia Alves-Viveiros, the Edison, N.J. city manager, withdrew, citing the lack of stability on the City Council as a reason. 




Last week the city’s recruiter informed the administration that William Lee Smith and Michael Reese had also withdrawn, leaving only Paul Trombino and Richard Hough. Neither has managed a city or a county, though Trombino has extensive local and state government experience, and Hough has seven years in public works leadership.

Interviews are scheduled for April 24-25, but Doug Thomas, the city’s recruiter and vice president of SGR, the consulting firm, will join the council meeting by zoom Tuesday to gauge what the council wants to do next. Its options are limited: come up with a new shortlist, reopen the application window, or stick with the last two candidates even as one or both may yet drop out. 

There appears to be little question that controversies swirling around the council have limited the number of candidates who applied, then quickly eroded the shortlist. 




“I did go through several articles and there was some concern I had. I had to reflect a lot on it,” Alves-Vivieros told FlaglerLive today. “I do remain honored that some [council] folks held me in high regard. I think from a professional standpoint it’s essential that any leadership occur with a stable and cohesive environment.” 

Alves-Vivieros has two young children. She has been the city manager/business administrator in the Edison Township since 2022. Risking a move to Palm Coast in an uncertain environment would be too risky. “I don’t think it’s the right fit,”  she said. 

Alves-Viveiros had also been taken aback by a council member questioning her ethics. “Altogether the information that was stated by him was completely false,” Alves-Viveiros said. (Doug Thomas, the city’s recruiter, said an ethics complaint was filed but was found to be groundless.) 

“You always want to come into a place and be welcome,” Alves-Viveiros said. Alves-Viveiros had been top-ranked by the four council members in an initial round. She had briefly withdrawn then re-activated her application, which caused Council member Charles Gambaro to see it as “flip-flopping.” In a second round, she was top ranked by Council members Ty Miller and Theresa Pontieri. But she got the lowest ranking (3 on a three-point scale) from Mayor Mike Norris and Gambaro. 




She’d been a finalist for the city manager job in Palm Bay, a city of 135,000. Palm Bay ended up last week voting to hire Matt Morton, the former Palm Coast city manager, who resigned in May 2021, amid turmoil that doesn’t seem to have abated since. 

The withdrawal of Smith and Reese was first reported by the Observer. Smith had been the top-ranked choice among council members and appeared to be their consensus choice as well. He was the only candidate who got near that distinction. 

The Observer reported that Smith was named city manager in Nome, Alaska, a coastal town the size of Bunnell, on the Bering Sea, 2.4 miles from Russia (or a few more miles if you don’t count islands)–an unusual shift for Smith, who’s spent a career managing cities and counties in North Carolina and Georgia. 




An assistant in the Nome city manager’s office would not confirm the hire today. “We don’t have anything to discuss about it right now. Maybe try calling another time,” she said. Smith was a finalist, along with Rober Evans, for the Nome job, according to a Nome press release.

Smith in early evening, after this article initially appeared, confirmed that he’s the choice in Nome, and said he’d been looking to relocate with several states in mind–Alaska, California, Colorado, Florida and Vermont, in that order. “Alaska was number one,” he said. “This community is so welcoming,” he said of Nome before describing its challenges from climate change to jobs to housing, and the fact that it is accessible only by air or water. “I’m the happiest and the most at peace than I’ve been in many, many years.”

Asked if the turmoil in Palm Coast played into his decision, Smith said: “Not so much.” He said he sees the Palm Coast job as an opportunity for a seasoned manager to help a new board. “I would have been fine with it, I feel that I absolutely could have been successful there.” He added: “They have so much opportunity, and what I hope for them is they will come together as a board and as the administrative team but really bring in the community to be part of their decisions. The community will not stand for not knowing.”

Reese did not cite a new job as the reason for dropping out. 

Trombino is the director of public works in Greeley, Colo., and has been a director of homeland security for the state of Iowa and a department head in the Wisconsin Department of Transportation. He was top ranked by Gambaro and Miller. Pontieri gave him a 2, Norris a 3, making him still a potential consensus candidate. 

His last seven years leading a Wisconsin county’s public works department aside, Hough spent a career in the military, which drew Gambaro’s attention: the council member gave him his top ranking. But other council members were less impressed, giving him 2, 2 and 3. 

“The two gentlemen we are interviewing really have some positives about them, so we’ll have to interview them and see if they’re the right fit,” Pontieri said. “If after the interviews we don’t feel comfortable with moving forward with either of them, I feel good with keeping Lauren Johnston in the position” as the council continues to look for a permanent city manager.