Next Beach manager is among invited candidates
All four interim manager candidates from the Fort Myers Beach Town Council’s short list are expected to be on Estero Island Thursday for most of the day when town officials meet them for morning one-on-one interviews, an afternoon tour and a group interview during the evening’s special public meeting.
The special meeting will actually begin at 11 a.m. that day once the one-on-one interviews are wrapped up. At that time, the council will take one hour to discuss criteria for the town manager performance evaluation and reconvene at 6:30 p.m. for the group interview involving council members submitting questions to each candidate in a public forum.
The short list features former Lee County Manager Don Stilwell; former Cape Coral Manager Terry Stewart; former Seminole County and Volusia County Manager Cynthia Coto; and former Davie (Fla.) Manager and Monroe County Administrator Tom Willi. Former Juno Beach (Fla.) Manager Jeff Naftal was chosen to be in the running but had to drop out due to personal reasons.
The pool of candidates was narrowed from 15 to five potentials at a special council meeting held at town hall last Wednesday morning. At that meeting, all five council members (who had already conducted phone interviews with the 15 candidates) were given a ballot and asked to check up to five candidates who they thought would be best qualified for the position.
During the first vote, both Stilwell and Stewart were on all five council members’ ballots, while Naftal and Coto received four votes apiece. Willi was chosen as the final candidate after a second vote was taken to break a fifth-place tie.
“We’re pretty much going through the same process as we would to find a permanent town manager,” said FMB Mayor Larry Kiker. “Normally, we would just pick somebody and ask them to sit in. So, this is an extraordinary effort that everyone is making here.”
The council also directed retiring interim Town Manager Jack Green and Town Attorney Anne Dalton to begin criminal background and reference checks from a national agency on the five candidates.
Councilman Tom Babcock, who was chosen as the council’s point man for the next interim manager’s negotiations process, highlighted certain performance criteria such as an evaluation and a list of commitments. He disseminated information to each council member for review and asked for further criteria before next Thursday’s meeting.
“The bulk of this performance evaluation sheet is focused on the how and what was the quality of their effort as opposed to just quantity,” said Babcock. “What we agreed to do is to evaluate the performance of the “interim town manager” in August. This is putting together the process and criteria that we would use.”
Vice Mayor Herb Acken, who believes the evaluation process should wait for the next elected council, said he “would suggest that anything beyond the criteria for the contract should be handled by the next city council.”
(BOLD) Here is a brief capsule on the professional experience of each candidate from the resumes the town provided:
n Don Stilwell – Lee County (Fla.) manager, 1993-2009; Executive vice president/general manager, CSMI/Government, Irvine, Calif., 1986-92; Washington County (Ore.) administrator, 1983-86; San Luis Obispo County (Calif.) administrator, 1977-83; Del Norte County (Calif.) administrator, 1974-77; Woodburn (Ore.) manager, 1972-74; Springfield (Ore.) assistant director of finance and administration, 1970-72.
n Terry Stewart – Cape Coral (Fla.) manager, 2002-09; Pembroke Pines (Fla.) assistant fire chief; Lauderdale Lakes (Fla.) fire chief; Nova Southeastern University (Fla.) adjunct professor; Broward Community College (Fla.) adjunct professor.
n Cynthia Coto – Seminole County (Fla.) manager, 2006-09; Volusia County (Fla.) manager, 2000-05; Seminole County (Fla.) Board of County Commissioners (deputy county manager), 1995-2000; (central services director), 1992-95; (deputy environmental services director), 1983-92; (human resources administration), 1977-83.
Tom Willi – New Ventures, LLC, development consultant firm, 2008-present; Monroe County (Fla.) administrator, 2004-08; Davie (Fla.) manager, 1998-2004; Hallandale (Fla.) division director/building official, 1995-98.