County Manager Resigns Early, Acting Manager Named

The sudden resignation of Collier County Manager, Mark Isackson, had commissioners voting on an interim during Tuesday's BCC meeting. Deputy County Manager, Amy Patterson, was named acting County Manager, effective immediately. Isackson had announced his intent to resign effective July 1st but it was moved twice, to Friday, May 13th and then to Monday, May 9th. The item was moved to the top of the agenda as they needed to have an acting county manager in place to sign and make decisions.

Commissioner LoCastro opened the discussion by stating that legally, the county needs to have an acting county manager in place. When talking about who to select, he said “We have two deputies,” sharing concern that picking one deputy over the other “would be an artificial endorsement.” Both Patterson and Deputy County Manager, Dan Rodriguez, are finalists for the County Manager job. He suggested selecting by seniority, even “picking from a hat,” just anything to keep the process fair and balanced. Commissioner Solis agreed with LoCastro saying that the board “doesn’t want to prejudge anything.” Commissioner Taylor nominated County Attorney, Jeff Klatzkow, but it was not seconded by any other board member. Commissioner Saunders believes that there isn’t any prejudging and put forth a motion to have Patterson made acting county manager as she has fulfilled that role in the past and has seniority. Commissioner McDaniel seconded, noting that the selection was made as “senior in the seat and not based on experience.” The motion passed 5-0.

In January, Isackson announced he would be retiring on July 1st due to post COVID-complications and continued health problems. Initially, he would have remained on the payroll using contractual leave until that time but on Friday, May 6th he moved the date from July 1st to May 13th citing doctor’s recommendation that he eliminate “work-related stress.” That changed again on Monday, May 9th to “immediately” after a disagreement with a Clerk of Court’s letter that outlined “questionable requests” on Isackson’s request for accrued leave pay. Isackson took issue with the letter and so resigned “effective immediately” and will not remain in any type of consultation capacity.

Commissioners continue to move forward with the process of selecting a permanent County Manager. Besides Patterson and Rodriguez, the other candidates still in consideration are Steve Howard from Camden County, Georgia, David Puente, Jr. from Washington State, Leonard Sossamon from New Jersey and G. George Yilmaz, head of the Public Utilities Division of Collier County.