By Dan Moffett
For the fourth time in as many years, South Palm Beach is beginning a search to find a town manager.
But another search just ended before it started. The Town Council thinks it has found the police chief it’s been looking for. And it turns out he’s been wearing a uniform in the town for the last 17 years.
After some emotional debate in a room packed with residents and uniformed officers on Nov. 13, council members voted 3-2 to give the open chief’s job to Sgt. Mark Garrison, the department’s longest-serving member. He held the top position on an interim basis since Carl Webb stepped down in January.
“We’ve had Mark for 10 months and he’s done a great job,” Councilman Bill LeRoy said in pushing for Garrison’s promotion.
“We’ve had no problems with Mark. … I don’t see any reason why he shouldn’t have the job.”
LeRoy, with the vocal support of the sergeant’s backers, succeeded in persuading Mayor Bonnie Fischer and Vice Mayor Robert Gottlieb to vote for Garrison’s approval.
Councilwomen Stella Gaddy Jordan and Elvadianne Culbertson voted no.
The applause and congratulations for Garrison had barely subsided when the council accepted the resignation of Town Manager Mo Thornton, who is retiring in December after 11 months in the position.
“It came out of the blue,” said Fischer, who found out about Thornton’s decision only days before the meeting.
The last two managers, Jim Pascale and Bob Vitas, were forced out of the job after disputes with the council. Pascale lasted six months and Vitas just under two years.
Council members said they were pleased with Thornton’s work, but she said the direction of her life changed and it was time to go.
“Things came together in my life that allowed me an opportunity that I felt I just had to take,” she said. “I want to leave the town in a better place than when I found it. We’ll leave everything in as good shape as we can.”
The council directed Town Attorney Glen Torcivia to develop a list of candidates to replace Thornton temporarily and bring it for discussion to the Dec. 11 meeting. Torcivia said it’s likely that finding and hiring a permanent replacement would take at least several months.
To help fill the administrative void at Town Hall, the council unanimously approved promoting Town Clerk Yude Alvarez to assistant to the town manager and raised her annual salary about $4,000 to $56,425.
Hiring process criticized
Garrison had ample support in the room during the council’s deliberation. Representatives from the police union and Lantana Police Department spoke on his behalf, as did a half-dozen residents.
Seven members of the South Palm force were there to congratulate him. Also there was Robert Rizzotto, who was a commander in the department under Webb until moving out of state two years ago. Rizzotto also had applied for the chief’s job.
Jordan and Culbertson praised Garrison’s performance but each cited reservations. Jordan said Garrison needed more experience and more training. Culbertson was troubled by the process, or lack of it. The town received dozens of applications for chief but the council reviewed none of them and held no interviews.
“What we’re failing to understand is the process going from 31 candidates to one candidate and that had no involvement with the council,” Culbertson said. “By law, the screening of applicants in the decision-making process needs to be done in public. This did not happen.”
At first, Gottlieb proposed postponing a decision but then changed his position after hearing comments from the public. Some council members said they should wait until the new town manager is in place to weigh in on the chief’s hiring.
Fischer said early on she was “concerned that Mark is not quite ready” for the job, but wound up casting the deciding vote for his approval.
Thornton was an enthusiastic supporter of Garrison. “I wanted to give Mark the opportunity to succeed and he has been succeeding,” she said. “He’s stepped up and done everything that’s been asked of him.”
Garrison said he’s learned a lot about running a department since taking over. “I’ve had a lot of experience in the last year,” he said. “I’ve grown a lot.”
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