It’s deja vu all over again at Key West’s city hall, where a search committee has been assembled to find the next city manager following the June 26 firing of Al Childress.
A special meeting initially planned for Aug. 20 to consider rehiring Childress was canceled, and has not yet been rescheduled. Childress is welcome to apply again for the position with the rest of the expected applicants, but a special vote to return him to the city’s top job now seems unlikely given the new faces on the commission, including Commissioner Donie Lee and Mayor DeeDee Henriquez, who said last month that she was not in favor of bringing Childress back.
The mayor and each commissioner has appointed a member to the new search committee and unlike the last search, the city’s own human resources department will lead this search, rather than an outside headhunting firm.
The committee is slated to convene at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 18 to discuss how many finalists they’d like to evaluate. The current deadline for city manager applications is Sept. 30, but that date could change, city clerk Keri O’Brien told the committee members in a Sept. 6 email.
The full city commission is slated to discuss the search process at its Sept. 12 meeting, so the timeframe for applications could be adjusted, O’Brien’s email states.
The search committee members are as follows:
Erica Sterling, appointed by Henriquez.
Roger McVeigh, appointed by commissioner Monica Haskell.
Commissioner Sam Kaufman, representing himself.
Shawn Smith, appointed by Lee.
Lydia Estenoz, appointed by commissioner Lissette Cuervo Carey.
Peter Batty, Jr., appointed by commissioner Mary Lou Hoover)
Richard McChesney, appointed by commissioner Clayton Lopez.
