By Mary Hladky
Mark Sohaney, who has strong U.S. Navy management credentials but no experience running a city, will be Boca Raton’s next city manager.
The City Council unanimously chose Sohaney immediately after completing interviews on Aug. 12 with the five remaining finalists for the job. Mayor Scott Singer first proposed his appointment and was quickly joined by Deputy Mayor Fran Nachlas and Council members Yvette Drucker and Marc Wigder.
Only Council member Andy Thomson disagreed, saying his choice was James Zervis, Boca Raton’s deputy city manager and chief financial officer. But he joined the others when the vote was cast.
“I am definitely very humbled and honored to be selected as city manager because the city is phenomenal from its history,” Sohaney said in a later interview. “The fabric of the city is important to me.”
Sohaney, 56, who retired from the Navy as a captain in 2024, is the former chief executive officer of Joint Air Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii and previously served as chief executive officer of Naval Air Station Key West and executive assistant to the director of maritime operations for the U.S. Pacific Fleet.
He graduated summa cum laude from San Diego State University and earned his master’s degree at the Naval War College.
In picking Sohaney, council members jettisoned the city’s longstanding practice of promoting from within its ranks. Besides Zervis, they also passed over Deputy City Manager
Jorge Camejo, who served as the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency executive director before taking the same position in Hollywood and then rejoining the city earlier this year.
“I think it is time for us to have a different perspective from the outside … and really bring Boca to the next level,” Drucker said.
Sohaney’s other council supporters echoed that he would bring fresh eyes, as well as his experience handling complex infrastructure projects at a time when the city is planning redevelopment of the 30-acre downtown campus, which includes government buildings and park space.
Council members expect to finalize Sohaney’s employment contract in September.
He will take the reins from George Brown, a city employee for more than 40 years who served as deputy city manager for 21 years until he was promoted on Jan. 1, 2024, to replace longtime City Manager Leif Ahnell.
Brown is retiring in January, but indicated that he will step back from an active role sooner than that. “I doubt the new manager will want the old manager hanging around,” Brown said.
Sohaney has been actively seeking a city manager job in Florida since last year and was selected as a finalist in five cities, including Boca Raton.
He lost out in Palm Bay, Venice and Key West. He was a finalist in Islamorada but withdrew from consideration, according to media reports.
He was among 51 applicants in Sarasota, but that city halted and then restarted its search process. He also was one of more than 200 applicants to become Palm Beach County’s top administrator, a job that went to Palm Beach County Clerk of Circuit Court and Comptroller Joseph Abruzzo in June.
During the interviews, Zervis and Sohaney quickly demonstrated they were the top contenders.
Zervis was hired as the city’s chief financial officer in 2024 and retained that title when he was soon promoted to deputy city manager.
He joined the city after serving as chief administrative officer for Kern County, California, which at the time had a $3.5 billion annual operating budget and a population of more than 900,000. He previously served as that county’s chief operations officer and as city manager, assistant city manager and finance director for Wasco, California, after working in the private sector.
Zervis led governments through crises that included the 2008 financial crash and the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as floods and wildfires, he said. Of particular relevance to Boca Raton, he has negotiated public-private partnerships, which the city is working to create now with Terra and Frisbie Group to redevelop its downtown campus.
“My heart is really here,” he said. “It is to continue to see Boca flourish.”
Showing that he was serious about the job, Sohaney said he had spent the previous two weeks in Boca Raton, toured the city, visited Florida Atlantic and Lynn universities, met with city officials, spoken to residents and attended the Aug. 8 Battle of the Bands in Mizner Park.
But it’s not his first visit; his daughter attended Lynn.
To allay any concerns that his lack of city administrative experience is a disqualifier, he said running naval bases is “basically city management.”
Examples included constructing a $1.2 billion wastewater treatment plant at Pearl Harbor-Hickam, a $750 million water treatment plant and a $4.5 billion dry dock that is under construction now. In Key West, he spent a lot of time on hurricane preparedness, Sohaney said.
“I am confident there is not a lot of transition required,” he said.
Concerning the downtown campus, Sohaney said, “Boca is a little bit behind.” He said the city needed a project with the right size and density that will attract more people to the city.
The two other finalists for the job were Patrick Jordan, administrator of Ionia County, Michigan; and Stan Morris, city manager of Sunny Isles Beach.
A total of seven applicants were finalists, but one accepted another position and the other withdrew from consideration.
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