News

By Dan Moffett

     South Palm Beach council members have cut their list of candidates for the vacant town manager position down to three, and Mayor Bonnie Fischer hopes to offer one of them a contract before the end of the year.
    “We want to get this filled as quickly as possible,” she said.
     Vice Mayor Robert Gottlieb said: “These are outstanding candidates. It’s an honor for this town to have that kind of response.”
     The council picked the three finalists during a special meeting on Nov. 16 after considering the resumes of at least seven candidates.
     The town manager’s job opened in October when the council abruptly terminated Bob Vitas through a unanimous vote of no-confidence. Vitas and council members bickered for months over the details of his new contract, including cost-of-living raises and the requirement in a charter provision that calls for an annual review — which he never received.
     Since his ouster, Town Clerk Maylee DeJesus and Police Chief Carl Webb have taken over the manager’s administrative duties.
     With plans for a beach stabilization project in the works and considering a possible renovation of the Town Hall building, the council can ill-afford to go too long without a manager on the scene.
     The contract is expected to call for a salary of around $100,000, with merit raises possible only at the council’s discretion, and a six-month probation period.
     The finalists are:
     • Mike Hein, who has worked the last two years as the assistant town manager in Longboat Key. Before coming to Florida, he was city manager of Tucson, Ariz., for four years and then Pima County’s director of emergency management and homeland security.
     Hein told the Town Council he gained considerable experience with beach projects when he oversaw a renourishment plan in Longboat Key that called for hauling in 16,000 dump trucks (430,000 cubic yards) of sand. South Palm Beach hopes to begin a beach stabilization project late next year.
     During the 1990s, Hein worked as the town manager of Marana, Ariz., and also took on budget issues for the Nogales, Ariz., finance department. He was also the city of South Tucson’s director of economic development.
     Hein holds an under-graduate degree from Wisconsin -Stevens Point, and earned a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Arizona. Hein also did postgraduate work at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
     • Teresa Lamar-Sarno is special assistant to the city manager of Stuart. A certified planner, for the last 10 years she has served as the city’s community redevelopment administrator.
     Lamar-Sarno told the council she has experience in social media — Facebook, Twitter and website construction — and could help South Palm Beach develop its Internet connections, an improvement Gottlieb has frequently supported. Lamar-Sarno told the council she has experience in grant writing that could bring in money for social media development.
     Originally from Brooklyn, Lamar-Sarno earned a master’s degree in political science and government from the University of Central Florida.
     • Mo Thornton is known to many government officials in Palm Beach County. For the last 21 years, she has worked as the manager for the City of Atlantis and has served as treasurer of the county League of Cities for 20 years. Thornton told council members that the many contacts she has made throughout South Florida would be valuable to the town.
     Thornton’s first job in Atlantis was as the city’s bookkeeper in 1989, and she then became its finance director. Thornton has a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Florida Atlantic University.
     Earlier this year, she did some consulting work for South Palm Beach, advising the counsel on how to go about selecting an auditing firm. Thornton is originally from St. Paul, Minn.
     In other business:
     During the regular town meeting on Nov. 28, the council unanimously approved a contract hiring Grau & Associates as the new South Palm Beach auditors. The Pinecrest firm replaces Nowlen, Holt & Miner of West Palm Beach who worked for the town for many years.
     Grau agreed to an eight-year contract that starts at $18,000 annually and increases to $21,500 in 2024.