Collier County Narrows Candidates for County Manager

What does it take to hire a County Manager? In what seems like a Groundhog Day moment, Collier County Commissioners are faced with that task once again since current county manager, Mark Isackson, announced his retirement from the position effective July 1, 2022. Isackson began his tenure in May 2021 after the retirement of Leo Ochs but has been dealing with long term COVID-19 after effects since contracting the virus in September.

As with the search for any employee, the first step is posting the open position. Commissioners took up the task immediately, voting by a 3-2 margin to hire the recruitment firm of Colin Baenziger and Associates. Commissioners LoCastro and McDaniel dissented, pointing out that a firm was not needed when hiring Isackson. The rest of the commissioners eventually agreed with them and at their next meeting, rescinded the decision to hire the recruitment firm, allowing the county’s Human Resources Department to gather the information needed and move forward with the process. The window to receive applications was open and a closing date of March 31st put in place.

A total of 40 applications came through by the deadline. Commissioners reviewed them all and sent a list of their top candidates to the HR Department. That list was front and center at the most recent BCC meeting on April 12.

Initially, commissioners decided to create a shortlist based on candidates who appeared on three or more commissioners lists. Two more candidates who showed up on two commissioner’s lists were deemed worthy of consideration, making it a total of seven applicants who have made it through to the next step.

And what is that next step? Background screening. Amy Lyberg, Human Resources Director, provided material on what that entails. First and foremost, it states that “Background screening should be conducted in a manner that comports to the provisions of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA),” followed by a list of these areas that are checked: prior employment verification, education verification, professional license verification, driving record check, social security, national, statewide and/or county criminal, sexual offender registry, consumer credit, worker’s compensation claims and salary search and verification. A second list of screening items was presented as well with the caveat that a vendor would have to be procured to perform this screening. The items on that second list were a civil records search for litigation at the Federal and/or County level, bankruptcy and credit searches, internet/social media searches and newspaper/publication searches. Commissioners agreed these additional screening measures were necessary with Commissioner LoCastro pointing out that “we don’t want to leave anything out.” Attorney Klatzkow let Commissioners know that it is within HR’s authority to get the vendor without having to come back to the board for approval, thus mitigating any delays.

It was initially put forward that the screening would be for the external candidates only, but Commissioner LoCastro felt that internal candidates should also go through this same background check. He believes the county should “treat all seven candidates equally” and that “there should not be

a different standard for internal than external candidates.”  He said, “an employee who worked here at the county at the highest level and if some vetting had been done, maybe we would have caught something sooner.” He is referring to Deputy County Manager, Sean Callahan, who was fired in January when it was discovered he was also working for a lobbying firm Washington, D.C. and had not notified the county. All commissioners agreed that the full background screening process should apply to all candidates, internal as well as external. 

Candidates are given notification they will be going through the background process. While it is not expected, the candidates do have the ability to back out of consideration at this stage.

So, who will be moving through the background check process? In alphabetical order, the seven candidates are: Greg Chavarria, Fort Lauderdale Assistant City Manager; Steve Howard, Camden County, Georgia County Administrator; Amy Patterson Collier County Deputy Manager; David Puente, Jr. Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs Deputy Director; Daniel Rodriguez, Collier County Deputy County Manager; Leonard Sossamon, former interim city manager of the city of Port Richey; and G. George Yilmaz, Collier County, Head of Public Utilities Division. Patterson, Rodriguez and Yilmaz are the internal candidates with Patterson and Yilmaz making it on all five commissioners lists; Rodriguez and Yilmaz were finalists last year when Isackson was selected.

Lyberg will provide an update on where they are in the background process at the next BCC meeting on April 26th. It is expected that the background process will be completed by the first meeting in May, at which time they can move on to interviews, the last step before hiring.

The interview process is two-fold. Candidates will talk with Commissioners one-on-one and then publicly in Council Chambers during a BCC meeting. County Attorney Klatzkow suggested that Commissioners speak with the background checked candidates first and then give Lyberg and HR a further reduced short list. Once all commissioners have interviewed the candidates and provided HR their list, the top three would “publicly” interview.

While it is a fluid process that can accommodate changes, there are still policies and procedures that are followed. Commissioners and HR are confident they are on track to have Isackson’s replacement before his July 1st retirement.

You can view all past BCC meetings and watch current meetings online. Just go to the county website and search “Meetings and Information.” There you will find a link to all current and past county meetings, from the BCC to Planning Commission and more.