8 city manager candidates to be interviewed

HAINES CITY — The City Commission on Thursday agreed to interview eight candidates to become the next city manager next month. The candidates include former Winter Haven City Manager Deric Feacher.

Acting City Manager Rick Sloan is not one of those candidates because he did not submit an application despite expressing an interest in the job. The city received about 20 applications by the Oct. 15 deadline.

A selection committee including Kandace Tappen, the former human resources director who left  Nov. 7, and a team of retired and active managers from the Florida City and County Management Association reviewed the applications and recommended the eight people as qualified candidates.

Not all eight candidates had complete applications, however, and Commissioner Morris West argued they should be disqualified for that reason.

“They didn’t complete all the paperwork by the closing date and they should be eliminated,” he said.

West said he had read all the applications and that Feacher, who was fired as Winter Haven city manager in September, was clearly the most qualified. He recommended hiring Feacher immediately, which no other commissioner agreed to.

Mayor Horace West said he wanted to go ahead with the interview process but give the applicants until Tuesday to complete the applications or be eliminated.

Sloan told the commission it appeared Tappen had contacted the candidates about incomplete applications, but he did not know the result of those contacts because there was no written record.

The commission agreed to interview the candidates for up to one hour each, four applicants each day. At Sloan’s recommendation, all candidates, even local ones, will be interviewed via Skype, a video telecommunications platform.

Sloan said he would try to set up the interviews for the evenings of Dec. 12 and Dec. 13.

Commissioners agreed they would retain the option of rejecting all eight applicants and offering the job to Sloan.

The acting city manager told commissioners that was the best way to proceed.

Sloan originally said he would not apply for the position, but he indicated last month he would accept the permanent position if asked. That came after Mayor West asked Sloan to consider taking the job.

After the Thursday meeting, Sloan told The Ledger he did not submit an application because the conversation with West occurred after the deadline.

In addition to Feacher, the finalists are:

• Robert Francis Jr., executive director of the Mid-Columbia Council of Governments in Dalles, Ore.

• John Shepherd, manager of the Township of North Huntingdon, Pa.

• Ted Lakey, former county administrator in Jackson County in Marianna.

• Sarah Hannah-Spurlock, former assistant city manager of the City of Key West.

• Anthony Carson Jr., the city manager of Painesville, Ohio, a Cleveland suburb.

• Julian Jackson, the city manager of Peachtree Corners, Ga.

• Mark Kutney, the former manager for the Town of Loxahatchee Groves.

Haines City Public Works Director Addie Javed also applied but was not among the finalists.

Sloan, the city's public safety director, has been serving as acting city manager since Aug. 12 when Jonathan Evans left to become an assistant manager in Sarasota County.

If Sloan becomes city manager, he said he anticipates working for the city for another two to five years until retiring. If he does not get the job, Sloan is scheduled to become the assistant city manager in the new administration.

Economic Development

In a workshop before the meeting, Cyndi Jantomaso, director of the Haines City Economic Development Council, gave an annual report to the commission.

The council helped bring two new companies to the city during 2015-16 fiscal year, she said.

One was Crown Linen, which opened in April on Dyson Road and created 60 new jobs, Jantomaso said. The company, a commercial laundry serving the hospitality industry, could employ 300 people at full capacity.

The other was an unidentified company that purchased the former Equipment Specialist Building in September, she said. Jantomaso described the company as a manufacturer of custom concrete products that will employ 10 to 20 people.

The council is working on several other prospective new businesses, including three prospects that opened up since September, Jantomaso said. 

— Kevin Bouffard can be reached at kevin.bouffard@theledger.com or at 863-401-6980.