- April 19, 2024
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Flagler Beach City Manager Bruce Campbell will stay on for at least a few months as the city searches for his replacement.
Campbell's contract ended last November, but he offered to say on until the city found a replacement. They didn't. Campbell again gave his notice, saying he would resign this Sept. 20.
The city advertised the job — which pays $70,000 to $90,000 a year, plus benefits — at first just to city staff members, but received few applications and opened up a broader search. The process won't likely be over by Sept. 20.
At its Aug. 6 meeting, the Flagler Beach City Commission decided it would appoint an acting manager to fill the gap. By a meeting Aug. 27, commissioners were rethinking their strategy.
"I personally think that with some of the things that are going on ... in would be a little tough to have someone come in on an interim basis," Commission Chairman Marshall Shupe said at the meeting. "I’d like to cut to the chase and say that I think that we should tell him that we would like him to stay on, on a month to month basis — same pay, same whatever — until we’ve got a manager."
Commissioner Steve Settle said he was concerned that keeping Campbell could draw out the search for a replacement.
"One of the flaws in our law is it takes four votes to choose a new city manager," he said. "If you’ve got a couple people that are reluctant to move forward and choose somebody new, you might have a stalemate that lasts five years. ... I would like to avoid creating any incentive for us to drag our feet."
"I agree with you, and I’m not proposing that we drag our feet," Shupe said. He suggested workshopping the manager search in September and reviewing applications for Campbell's position then. But, he said, "I think that he’s the person that needs to be here for the next two or three or four months." Many of the issues the city is dealing with now, he said, would be difficult for a newcomer to take on midstream.
Settle wanted to set a date.
"I know from experience from what we went through the last time, to get four votes is extraordinarily hard, and sometimes it’s easy just to —'let’s forget it and to put it off.'"
Shupe made a motion to keep Campbell as the city's manager on a month-to-month basis through December. It passed 4-0, with one commissioner, Kim Carney, absent for the meeting.
