City Commission Conference Meeting on 2025-01-22 1:30 PM

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Fort Lauderdale City Commission 3h 44m 3 speakers 7 agenda items transcribed 5 days ago official recording ↗

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What is the City Manager recruitment update and which three candidates were recommended?

Dean Trantalis 0:00

Okay, good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to the City Commission meeting this January 22nd, 2025. Thank you for coming. It's a little chilly in here, so maybe if we keep talking, it'll warm it up a little bit. I don't know. So, we got a little late start, and this is our new quarters for today, and they did a nice job setting this up for us, right? It's a little echoey. Is there any way to reduce the echo? I don't know. Okay. All right. So we begin with our conference meeting and the conference reports. And we have our first conference report is CF1, the City Manager Recruitment Interview Update.

Susan Stanton 0:48

And Jerome Post will

Dean Trantalis 0:49

be doing

Susan Stanton 0:50

or starting the conversation along with the chair of the committee. Hello,

Dean Trantalis 0:54

good afternoon. Jerome Polis, Director of Human Resources. I do have Melinda Bowker as the chair of the committee that was seated to narrow down the number of candidates for the search that you requested. As you can see from the cam, the committee has narrowed it down to three candidates that they are recommending move forward to the Commission for Interviews. That includes Jason Davis, Matthew Vonderheiden, and Raquel Williams. And with that, I will turn it over to Chair Bowker for her comments. And if you have any questions about the committee, it's how it operated, et cetera. She can answer those for you. I'll stand on by in case you have any questions for me. Okay, great. Thank you so much. Thanks, Chair.

Dean Trantalis 1:33

Hi, Melinda.

Melinda Bowker 1:34

Hello, mayor, vice mayor, commissioners. Seems higher, but that's all right. Hope your new year has started out well. As Jerome stated, my name is Melinda Bowker. I was appointed to be chair of the Southern Member City Manager Search Committee back at our first meeting in August. Ron Perkins was appointed as vice chair at that meeting. And just to jog your memories, the other committee members are Dan Limblade, Bernadette Norris-Weeks, Mary Peloquin. Who's over there? Earl Presley and Roosevelt Walters. It's been a great committee to serve with. All the members have brought a wealth of knowledge, commitment, and experience to the task we were given. We were officially tasked with advising the commission on matters with respect to the hiring of a new city manager.

Melinda Bowker 2:23

We were to hear citizen neighborhood and community recommendations about the hiring and to review resumes and conduct interviews of candidates recommended by the consultant search firm, MGT. Our ultimate directive was to prepare a short list of candidates to be interviewed on February 4th by the city commission. To that end, I am very pleased that we have fulfilled our directive as just stated in collaboration with a very organized and engaged city HR department led by Jerome Post, as well as with Deli Loman at MGT. The committee has met on six separate occasions. These meetings have been broadcast on the city's YouTube channel, are on the official city calendar, and were open to the public. The committee directed city staff to create a web page specifically to highlight the city manager recruitment process and our committee's activities.

Melinda Bowker 3:13

We also requested the creation and distribution of a city manager recruitment survey for residents to rank citizen priorities for city manager attributes. The answers of over 200 survey respondents were used to inform our deliberations and create interview questions for the candidates. Today, I am very pleased to convey the committee's recommendation that you interview the following three candidates at the conference agenda on February 4th. In alphabetical order, they are Jason Davis, the current... Yes, I'm about to. The current Deputy County Administrator of St. Lucie County, Florida. Matthew Von Der Hayden, Township Administrator and Director of... Also, he is also Director of the Water and Sewer Department in the Township of Stafford, New Jersey.

Melinda Bowker 4:08

And Raquel Williams, the present assistant city manager of the city of Miami Beach, Florida. Each of these candidates received at least a majority vote, so four out of seven, of the search committee. And there was a deliberation that recently took place last week on Tuesday, January 14th.