The City of Pahokee accepted applications for interim city manager until Friday, May 3. On Monday, May 6, the city commission held a special meeting to interview applicants and choose an interim city administrator. The agenda backup for last night’s meeting included eight candidates: Howard Brown, Michael E. Jackson, Isabelle J. McDonald, Carmen Y. Davis, Felisia Hill, Jongelene B. Adams, Jeff Shoobridge, and Esteban Cardenas. Two (Shoobridge, Hill) out of the 8 withdrew themselves from consideration. The other six sat for an interview from the City Commission.

Two (McDonald, Cardenas) of the remaining six had no interim or permanent manager experience at all and should not have been interviewed in my opinion. Cardenas was the only one to submit just a resume and interest letter without an application. In my view, there should have only been four interviewees: Brown, Jackson, Davis, and Adams.

Brown has served as city manager from 2014 until 2023 at three different cities. What was concerning about Brown is that he resigned from all three of his manager roles. The worry with him is would he continue the pattern if chosen by Pahokee’s legislative body to be interim manager. Jackson was the second interview. He last served in a city manager capacity with the City of South Bay from 1996 through 2001. He has spent the last 23 years outside of municipal government. Davis was the fourth to be interviewed who was present via Zoom. She mentioned having 14 years of managing day-to-day operations. Her last city manager role was with Lake Worth Beach, Florida, from 2021-2023. The next applicant to be interviewed by the city commission was Director of Community and Economic Development Jongelene Adams. She expressed to the commission her experience in previously serving as interim manager for Pahokee as well as having served as deputy city manager under Lucas. She provided the governing board with her substantial knowledge of current city projects, familiarity with city staff, active relationships with various levels of government, and her ability to keep the city moving forward day one. The last interviewee was Cardenas who spoke about his education, experience in research, and current employment as a teacher at the local middle school.

The commissioners physically present had a list of 11 questions they rotated in asking. Each of the 11 questions were worth 5 points max. Therefore, each commissioner was able to award a maximum of 55 points. So, for the four commission members present the total points a candidate could receive was 220. Had Boldin had the ability to score applicants the total would have been out of 275. Per Clerk Warner, Boldin was allowed to submit scores, but he did not. He was still able to ask his own specific questions that he created.

The scores (out of 220 total) were:
Jackson 198

The meeting video has 500 views so far and can be seen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_6zLp7XwYI.

In my observation, the strongest 2 candidates and interviewees were Adams and Davis. I again maintain that Adams would have been the best choice for interim manager. She has the knowledge and experience necessary to undertake the position, having served in that role within the last few years. She would have been best to keep the city moving forward without delay. Davis would have been a great second choice.

I strongly think the city commission yet again failed in the interim manager vote. The commission missed a terrific opportunity to install Adams as Interim or even Davis. I liked Davis. She mentioned having experience saving money in the city budget. She also had provided specifics to the question about what the city could expect in her first 90 days. Ideally, Davis and Adams, in my estimation, would make the perfect team for Pahokee.

Pahokee’s elected dais (except for Vice Mayor Murvin and Commissioner Boldin) seem intent on bypassing their own capable and experienced in-house city staff. The Commission kept saying they needed to go through a process for hiring an interim manager. To me, this latest process was really rushed where about there were 8 days to advertise and take application submissions. Only four qualified or experienced individuals emerged from the applicants (of which the other 4 either withdrew themselves or had zero experience.)

I have requested and received the individual scores for each candidate from the city clerk from Babb, Murvin, McPherson and Cowan-Williams. If you would like to see them, they are uploaded to the Facebook Group called Pahokee Speaks under the files section. In the final analysis, the Pahokee Commission chose to go with Jackson who has not served as a chief municipal officer since 2001 and who is out of the country until Friday, May 10. Current Manager Lucas’s resignation becomes effective Saturday, May 11. The commission’s choice was very short-sighted and could once again place Pahokee on unstable footing going forward. Pahokee has too many projects, critical needs, delicate ongoing issues, and high staff turnover to have made this interim manager decision on a whim. My hope is that this decision does not set Pahokee back yet again.

Eager to see #PahokeeRising begin!