It's back to the drawing board for Port St. Lucie's city attorney search process

PORT ST. LUCIE — The City Council is going back to the drawing board in its search for a new permanent city attorney, after members said Monday they were unhappy with the presented candidates.

Port St. Lucie is looking for its fifth city attorney in the last 10 years, after former City Attorney James Stokes stepped down in October. Deputy City Attorney Richard Berrios was elevated to interim city attorney and was one of four finalists for the permanent job.

In the decade since longtime City Attorney Roger Orr retired in 2014, amid a Sunshine Law violation scandal, the office has been plagued by turnover and further scandals.

'Less than thrilled' with candidates

Council members and Mayor Shannon Martin on Monday voiced their displeasure with the 12 candidates for the job, and the four-person shortlist.

"In looking at the candidates that were whittled down to four, and in reviewing all of the information that we received, I'll just say I'm less than thrilled," Martin said. "For me, I think that we need a do-over, completely."

However, council members made clear that they were not speaking against all of the candidates, or the job done by a search firm S. Renée Narloch and Associates. Their main concern was a belief that there should have been a greater number of qualified candidates to choose from.

"I would think that for a city of our size that we would get better candidates," Councilman David Pickett said. "I don't want to rush this process, because hiring a city attorney is expensive, but hiring the wrong city attorney is really expensive."

Pickett noted that Berrios is "doing the job," so the council should not feel pressured to move too quickly.

Continue with interviews or cancel?

Though she agreed that she wished the list was better, only Vice Mayor Jolien Caraballo opposed starting over, with interviews for the top four already scheduled next week.

"I would like to at least interview and meet them first," Caraballo said.

Now, after the decision to start the search over, those interviews will not take place.

Caraballo also repeatedly said that the frustrations of the council should not reflect on the search, led by Renée Narloch.

"Renée has done a good job," Caraballo said.

Was the search rushed?

Later in the meeting, Councilwoman Stephanie Morgan asked Narloch if she felt rushed by the council. The lack of quality candidates could be a reflection of the council's instructions to move quickly, Morgan said.

"I do think that it falls on us," Morgan said, attending the meeting via Zoom.

However, Narloch said, she did not feel rushed. Rather, she said, it generally is difficult to recruit good candidates right now. The council wanted a five-candidate shortlist, but Narloch only recommended four of the 12.

Narloch also warned that restarting the process may result in some desirable candidates not applying again. The applicants' current employers know they are seeking the position, Narloch pointed out.

"I think you can only handle that for so long as a candidate," Narloch said.

The council ultimately instructed Narloch not to exclude anyone from the new search.

"Will we have other candidates? Yes," said Narloch. "Will we lose candidates? Yes."

Who were the candidates?

The 12 candidates considered for the job this round were:

• Shaun Amarnani, managing attorney and consultant at Amarnani Law, of Boca Raton

• John Anastasio, CEO of the Law Offices of John J. Anastasio, of Stuart

• Manny Anon, Melbourne city attorney

• Richard Appicello, Lincoln City, Oregon, city attorney

• Richard Berrios, Port St. Lucie interim city attorney

• Carl Brody, Tampa assistant city attorney

• Milton Collins, partner at Weiss Serota Helfman Cole & Bierman, of Boca Raton

• Rodney Edwards, Palm Bay deputy city attorney

• Rhonda Montoya Hasan, Ft. Lauderdale assistant city attorney

• Maureen Sikora, Volusia County assistant county attorney

• Camille Wallace, deputy director of Neighborhood Services Department, city of Port St. Lucie

• Carlos Zaldivar, general counsel and chief ethics officer, Miami-Dade Expressway Authority

The top four, as selected by Narloch, were Collins, Edwards, Montoya Hasan and Berrios.

What the council wants in a new city attorney

As the sixth-largest city in Florida, Port St. Lucie should hire someone with previous experience as a city attorney, Martin said. Additionally, she would like the successful candidate to have management experience.

"What has been some of our biggest issues? It's the people-management side," Martin said.

There is one person who did not make the top four this time whom she does not want on any future shortlist, but she would not name them.

"There is an individual that I do not want to see," Martin said. "They did not make the top four, but I definitely do not want to see that person."

Later in the meeting, Martin said there were two candidates whom she could not support, again refusing to name either in order not to "disparage anyone."

"There are two people that are in the top 12 that I will never consider, in any shape or form, for city attorney," Martin said.

Clarifying the process

Councilman Anthony Bonna initially had the topic added to Monday's agenda to discuss the process. Bonna was frustrated by the fact that a Jan. 22 public meeting, where the council was set to discuss the candidates before Narloch created the shortlist, was canceled due to scheduling conflicts. Bonna felt the meeting still should have taken place.

"I think that's a very important step of the city attorney search process," Bonna said.

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Additionally, in multiple emails provided by Bonna, he voiced interest to Narloch in interviewing candidates who did not make the four-person shortlist. Interviews were not scheduled for those candidates.

"I want to make sure that council's voice is not lost, and that we are very thorough," Bonna said.

The new process will be different now, after the council indicated it will put the procedures into writing.

The search will restart, and will last 90 days, after which 10-15 choices will be given to the council. The council will narrow that list to five, and then one-on-one interviews, public meet-and-greets and a public meeting will be scheduled. The public meeting will allow the council to ask the candidates questions before making a decision.

Wicker Perlis is TCPalm's Watchdog Reporter for St. Lucie County. You can reach him at wicker.perlis@tcpalm.com and 504-331-0516.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Port St. Lucie still looking for city's fifth top lawyer in 10 years