A search for Islamorada’s next village manager drew 16 candidates, of whom six are from Florida. Village council members will conduct interviews with the Florida applicants on Saturday, March 29 with the hope of selecting the next manager during an April 8 meeting.
“I believe it’s a good pool of candidates to start from,” Jaime Terry, village human resources director, told council members at the March 18 meeting. “We actually got a lot more than I was anticipating from Florida.”
Among candidates from the Florida Keys are Ron Saunders, former Florida state representative who ran for supervisor of elections last year; Jennifer DeBoisbriand, current village planning director; Plantation Key resident Theodore Munchmeyer, former senior military officer and current chief inspector and engineer with Certified Inspections Services; and Mark Sohaney, Key West resident who’s held a command role at Naval Air Station Key West.
Other candidates from Florida include Peggy Costano, assistant city manager with Lauderdale Lakes, and Timothy Day, Cape Coral resident and district manager for Inframark Corporation.
In addition to the Florida candidates, councilman Steve Friedman said he’s interested in speaking to some from outside the state.
“I just think there might be other viable candidates that I don’t want to overlook,” he said.
Vice Mayor Don Horton said past councils always seemed to select people who have no Florida experience.
“That’s why I thought we start off with the ones who are Florida candidates that have experience here in Florida. We’re not relocating someone or flying them in for interviews,” he said.
Council members will conduct interviews via a round-robin format at village hall on Saturday, March 29. Each council member will be set up in different rooms as candidates enter to answer questions. From there, the council members will look to whittle their candidate lists to three or four. Before the decision is made next month, the public will have a chance to speak to candidates at a meet-and-greet; a date and time haven’t been set.
A request for executive search firms to support the village manager search was canceled, according to the village. All applications are being screened and processed by the village’s human resources department.
