Fort Walton Beach turns to recruitment firm in search for new city manager

The Fort Walton Beach City Council decided in special meeting Tuesday to hire a professional recruitment firm to help in the search for new city manager.
The Fort Walton Beach City Council decided in special meeting Tuesday to hire a professional recruitment firm to help in the search for new city manager.

The Fort Walton Beach City Council voted in a special meeting this week to hire south Florida professional recruitment firm Colin Baenziger & Associates for about $29,000 to help in the search for a new city manager.

Longtime City Manager Michael Beedie left the position in early November, and the council appointed the city’s Recreation and Cultural Services Director Jeff Peters as acting city manager.

During the meeting, the city council heard from Stephen Sorrell, senior vice president with Colin Baenziger & Associates.

“Were’ going to get you a large number of good candidates,” Sorrell told the council.

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Sorrell, who had previously talked individually with city council and staff, outlined who the ideal candidate would be and what the process for finding that candidate would look like.

A potential city manager would need a bachelor’s degree at a minimum and have five years of experience working in an administration capacity in municipal government. A master’s degree would be desirable, said Sorrell, but work experience could be considered in lieu of higher educational requirements. They would need to live in Fort Walton Beach or within 15-20 minutes of the city, in order to respond quickly to emergency situations. The candidate would also need to be someone who has an understanding of the importance of the area’s military bases and their connection to the community.

Sorrell ticked off a few of the challenges facing the city and some of the important projects that a new city manager would be presiding over. Those include the new Brooks Bridge replacement project slated to begin next year, the around the mound project to re-route U.S. Highway 98 downtown, as well as major improvements to the city’s recreation complex and the Fort Walton Landing Park.

“You want someone who is a strong decision maker and a leader, said Sorrell. ” Someone with great interpersonal skills...somebody who can communicate with citizens, council and staff."

Sorrell recommended to the council an advertised salary of $140,000 to $175,000 for the position, but stressed that figure was ultimately up to council to decide.

“You as city council can negotiate above, below or anywhere in between those ranges,” said Sorrell. “What we need is a salary range that we think will work to attract a viable candidate.”

Sorrell said Colin Baenziger & Associates would take care of advertising the position as well as finding and vetting potential candidates, and he expected the firm would start receiving applications in January.

“I’ll evaluate every one of those,” said Sorrell. “We’ll do background checks….and I’ll do personal interviews with every single one of them.”

From there, Sorrell said he would narrow the field and present to the council about 10 candidates, including acting city manager Peters.

“All of you speak very highly of him, and we will include him in the final group that we bring to you and recommend,” said Sorrell. “You’ll be able to compare him with all the other applicants that we get you.”

Sorrell recommended the council cut that list down to three or four candidates before beginning their own interview process. He suggested council members interview via Zoom call each candidate and that the city hold a public “meet and greet,” where residents, business leaders, and others could meet and form their own opinions on who they think the next city manager should be.

“That’s going to allow the public to have their input into your selection,” said Sorrell. “And then you, as elected officials, can decide on the candidate that you want.”

Councilman David Schmidt expressed reservations about making such a major decision prior to city council elections in March 2023.

Council members Mike Holmes, Nathan Kelley, Kirby Locklear and MG Moran all have terms that conclude at the end of March. Fort Walton Beach residents will be voting on those four council positions, potentially changing the make up of the council.

“I don’t want the politics or anything else coming from a new election and a new board to interfere with that,” said Schmidt of the hiring decision. “My recommendation is that we get these candidates…but holding off until after the election to make that final decision.”

Council member Nic Allegretto spoke in support of going ahead with the hiring process now.

“I think it’s extremely important that we spend $29,000 to make certain that we are finding the right person that runs the day to day operations of the city of Fort Walton Beach,” said Allegretto. “I think we owe that to every single taxpayer, to say that we did an exhaustive search, we hired the best firm that specializes in this exact situation and has the most contacts and the most experience with doing this.”

City attorney Hayward Dykes Jr. noted that the city’s charter only allows the council a total of two 90-day periods (180 days) in which to appoint a new city manager, and holding off on that decision until the next city council meeting following the elections would be very close to that deadline.

Ultimately, the council voted unanimously to move ahead with the process of finding a new city manager with the help of Colin Baenziger & Associates.

This article originally appeared on Northwest Florida Daily News: Fort Walton Beach selects recruitment firm in search for city manager