Former sheriff Jim Manfre makes shortlist as City Council cuts list of city manager applicants to six

Palm Coast Observer
News

Of the 86 people who submitted resumes for the position of Palm Coast City Manager, 18 earned a vote of support from one or more council members during a Nov. 17 special council meeting, six of those earned a vote from two or more of the city's five council members, and only one — local attorney and former Flagler County Sheriff James Manfre — had the support of three council members.

Who are the six?

Vince Akhimie:

A civil engineer, Akhimie served as the former assistant city manager of Avon Park, Florida, from October 2019 to August 2020, according to his resume. He'd formerly been the director of utilities for the city of Daytona Beach from 2015 to 2017, and held previous director-level utilities and public works positions in the Florida communities of Riviera Beach, Oviedo, DeSoto County, Pole County and Miami Beach, as well as similar posts in communities in Washington, Illinois and Connecticut. He has a bachelor's and master's degree in civil engineering from the University of Washington and is a PhD candidate at Florida State University's interdisciplinary Public Administration, Planning, and Engineering program, having completed all requirements but the dissertation. He has also earned the Certified Public Manager (CPM) designation through FSU's Center for Public Management.

Anthony Carson:

Carson was most recently the city manager of Forney, Texas, a city with a population of 23,455, according to 2020 census results. He was in that role from 2018 to 2021, according to his resume. He was previously city manager or town administrator for communities in Illinois, Ohio, Maryland and Delaware, and was county administrator for Trumbull County, Ohio. He holds a Master of Public Administration from Valdosta State University and a bachelor's in general studies from Kent State University. He is an International City/County Manager Association (ICMA) Credentialed Manager.

Shawn Henessee:

Henessee was county manager of Clark County, Washington from July 2018 to March 2020. Clark County had 503,311 residents as of the 2020 census. An attorney by training — he received his J.D. at the University of Missouri-Kansas City — Henessee was previously city manager or county administrator of the city of Pleasant Hill, Marinette County, and Jackson County, all in Missouri, according to his resume. His resume cites a background in Geographic Information System mapping. He holds a master's degree in political science from the University of Kansas, with an additional 42 graduate hours in urban planning.

James Manfre:

Manfre, a local attorney, served two stints as Flagler County's sheriff: From 2012 to 2017, and from 2001 to 2005. He was previously an attorney in private practice, specializing in real estate development and corporate law, and has served with law firms in Florida and New York. He worked for the Town of Babylon, New York, from 1988 to 1996, as deputy counsel for the Industrial Development Agency and as deputy town attorney, according to his resume. He was previously assistant district attorney for Suffolk County, New York. He earned his J.D. at St. John's University School of Law, and his bachelor's from Fordham University. He's served on multiple local boards and committees, including the Flagler Palm Coast Chamber of Commerce, Flagler County Rotary and the Florida Hospital Flagler Foundation Board.

Patrick Marsh:

Marsh, currently a consultant, was the city administrator of Fitchburg, Wisconsin, from September 2015 to January 2021. The city had 29,609 residents as of the 2020 census. He was previously city manager and economic development director of Monona, Wisconsin; village administrator of Coal Valley, Illinois; assistant city manager of Eldridge, Ohio; director of operations for iPower Distribution Group and senior planner for the State Regional Commission in Rock Island, Illinois, according to his resume. He is an ICMA Credentialed Manager with a master's degree in public administration from Northern Illinois University and a bachelor's in business/public administration and political science from Augustana College.

Scott Moye:

Moye is the city manage of Ware County, Georgia. Ware County had a population of 331,449,281 as of the 2020 census. Moye was previously the procure-to-pay operations coordinator for the Mayo Clinic Health System in Waycross, Georgia, according to his resume. Former government roles include a stint as city administrator of Blackshear, Georgia; deputy and interim city manager of Fernandina Beach; and administrative and financial director of the Southeast Georgia Regional Development Center. He holds a Master of Public Administration from Georgia Southern University and a bachelor's in business administration from Georgia College. He became a Certified Public Finance Manager through Georgia State University this past July.

The six with two or more votes of support — Manfre, Vince Akhimie, Anthony Carson, Shawn Henessee, Patrick Marsh and Scott Moye — will move forward to the next step of the city's selection process, which will include a nationwide background check and then invitations for interviews.

"We are looking to be a cohesive and unanimous body in our decision for the next city manager," Mayor David Alfin said at the meeting. "The is one of the top duties and functions of this council, and appointing the next city manager will be for the future of Palm Coast."

The Nov. 17 meeting was the council's first formal consideration of the applicants.

The meeting was brief and the discussion solely about procedure, not about the merits of individual candidates.

Council members each arrived at the meeting having reviewed binders containing application materials from everyone who'd applied. Each councilman had selected five as their top choices.

At the meeting, city staff members gave each councilman a form listing all the applicants. Each councilman placed marks next to their five choices and returned the forms to city staff members, who then created and printed a list of all of the candidates who'd been chosen by at least one candidate, noting which candidates had been chosen by two, or, in the case of Manfre, three: He'd been selected by council members Nick Klufas, Victor Barbosa and Ed Danko.

Alfin, after the tallies were counted, invited other council members to comment on their choices and choose their top pick from the list, so that the council could narrow the list to five applicants before moving to the next phase of the selection process.

But Councilman Eddie Branquinho noted that only six candidates had received support from two or more council members.

He suggested moving forward with those six, and other council members agreed.

Councilman Ed Danko asked if the council would be able to consider names aside from those six if it finds itself unable to converge around one of the six shortlisted candidates. Alfin suggested that would be a possibility.

City staff will have a private firm conduct background checks on the six candidates' civil, criminal employment history, as well as media coverage and social media activity.