Town Manager Trey Nazzaro (foreground), Police Chief Richard Jones and Town Clerk Reneé Basel constitute three changes in leadership jobs in Gulf Stream in recent years. Nazzaro’s promotion in January follows Jones’ hiring from Ocean Ridge in 2023 and Basel’s promotion in 2022. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star
By Steve Plunkett
At their first meeting since Town Manager Greg Dunham announced his retirement, Gulf Stream town commissioners quickly elevated Trey Nazzaro, his assistant, as his successor.
“I think Trey is the perfect candidate,” Commissioner Joan Orthwein said before the unanimous vote Jan. 9.
“I’m absolutely in favor of this,” Commissioner Robert Canfield said.
Choosing Nazzaro was one of three options Dunham gave to replace him. Commissioners could also have gotten free help in a search for job candidates from a state municipal managers group or spent up to $30,000 on a headhunter.
By picking Nazzaro and opting not to replace him with another assistant, “We’ll actually be saving money,” Orthwein said.
But Nazzaro did receive a healthy salary boost, from $178,000 a year to $230,000.
“We should move him up equal to Ocean Ridge,” Mayor Scott Morgan said, and into the midrange of manager pay on the barrier island.
After being praised by Morgan and Dunham, Nazzaro lauded Town Clerk Reneé Basel, who he said “is just such a such a huge value add in her position.”
“She’s not only the town clerk but does a lot of what I would consider assistant manager or senior-level things,” just like the relationship previous Manager Bill Thrasher and Clerk Rita Taylor had, Nazarro said.
“That’s the relationship that I envision having with Reneé.”
Nazzaro, 43, started working for the town in 2014 as a paralegal at Gulf Stream’s law firm, Jones Foster, while he was still attending St. Thomas University School of Law. The town passed a resolution of appreciation for the work he did then, authoring Gulf Stream’s public records policy. He graduated that year magna cum laude and spent the next two years as a law clerk in federal court in Miami before being hired full time by the town as staff attorney.
“You had at one point 33 lawsuits that you were actively managing with our outside counsel, which were usually two or three,” Vice Mayor Tom Stanley recalled of Nazzaro’s early days. “I would go into your office and all I would see was stacks and stacks of things. There were motions and pleadings and depositions.”
At the time, the town was being buffeted by thousands of public records requests and dozens of lawsuits, mostly by a couple of residents.
“I think when you see a young man go through something — you had a young child and a family, you were here late and you did all those things for us to get us through that. You know, that shows the character, the type of professional, the type of employee, type of family member that we want on our staff,” Stanley said.
Commissioners were also effusive with praise for Dunham, who was hired in 2017 when Gulf Stream was still battling lawsuits and public records requests.
“Your calm demeanor and presence stabilized what could have been a real problem in this Town Hall because we had already lost staff,” Morgan said. “But you kept people together, you moved it forward, and we made it through that time, due in no small part to your leadership.”
Dunham also guided the town through the end phase of its utility undergrounding project and devised its ambitious 10-year capital improvement plan to replace water mains and stormwater drains and resurface roadways.
“So as you move forward into your retirement, I want you to know that you leave with honor but also with the best wishes and the gratitude of this town,” the mayor said.
Dunham began his career as a police officer and assistant city manager in Texas, then moved to Florida State University for a master’s degree in public administration. He was an assistant city manager in Palm Beach Gardens, then town manager in Ocean Ridge from 1998 to 2002 and in Manalapan from 2002 to 2010. After a break from government work, he served as town manager of Kenly, North Carolina, for five years before coming to Gulf Stream.
He thanked his staff “for your hard work and your dedication and commitment to make Gulf Stream the best town for our residents to live in.”
“It’s been the best job I’ve ever had,” Dunham said. “What a job to have at the end of your career and what a town to work for.”
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