The City Commission voted 4-1 to postpone voting on the lone applicant for the interim city manager position until other potential candidates are found and reviewed by commissioners during a special meeting on Friday, May 19.
The decision came following a brief standoff during a special commission meeting on Monday, May 15, where commissioners Nate Kilton and Mike Sparkman wanted to confirm the selection of Temple Terrace’s former city manager and current mayor, Kim Leinbach, during the meeting. Vice-Mayor Bill Dodson and Commissioner Mary Mathis, while impressed with Leinbach’s resume, wanted to hold off on the vote.
“It’s just a very important step to not move hastily just because we are faced with a pressing deadline,” Dodson said. “There is still sufficient time in that present timeline to get a lot done. Just acting on haste and making an appointment based on a resume alone…that would not be the way I would choose to act on placing an interim city manager appointment. We have insufficient information at this point.”
Mayor Rick Lott, who indicated early support for Leinbach and said he understood both sides, served as a moderator of sorts as the pros and cons of making a quick selection were debated. Sparkman issued an early motion to offer Leinbach the position. Kilton issued, and later withdrew, a second to that motion, paving the way for Friday’s meeting.
City commissioners are in overdrive to select an interim city manager before current City Manager Mike Herr’s last day, Friday June 2. Herr announced in early May that he’d be leaving Plant City to become Winter Haven’s city manager. Commissioners indicated whoever is selected to become the interim city manager would have to start five days before Herr’s departure to ease the transition, making the selection process even more urgent.
“We have a very short timeline here,” Kilton said. “With our exiting city manager on June the second, in my mind, we’d almost want someone to be here that last week that he’s here for transition. Really, we’re talking about making a decision by this time next week at the latest.”
Lott called a special meeting Monday, May 8, to discuss the interim city manager position, during which commissioners voted to reconvene with a list potential applicants. Dodson indicated the Florida League of Cities could provide qualified and vetted applicants through a Senior Advisor program. Plant City, Dodson said, had successfully used similar League of Cities programs in the past to select a city manager.
Dodson was tasked with bringing those names to the Monday, May 15, meeting. However, because the commission did not have a vote to provide the League of Cities with a job announcement, Dodson said the League of Cities could not provide the names.
Following Monday’s vote to send the job announcement to the the League of Cities, the League would have had until Thursday to get the names of any candidates to the City so they may attend Friday’s meeting. According to the office of the clerk, it had not yet received a draft of the announcement for the League by Tuesday afternoon. Later that day, the clerk’s office said it was advised by the League that “they would not have enough time to get the announcement out and follow their selection process in enough time to make the May 19 deadline.”
A vote to make an offer to an interim city manager will take place at the Friday, May 19, meeting, Lott said.
“I’m voting Friday morning,” Lott said. “As long as there is a motion and a second, I am voting Friday morning.”
Leinbach, 68, is the only person to submit a resume for the interim city manager position so far. He became mayor of Temple Terrace on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016, and had served as its city manager between 1999 and 2013 before that. He also served as an interim city manager during the summer of 2016, working in Mount Dora for about five months.
Leinbach said he would prefer to submit his letter of resignation during a Temple Terrace City Council meeting ff he is offered and accepts the position, but should be able to accommodate Plant City’s urgent schedule. Temple Terrace holds city council meetings on the first and third Tuesday of every month and has its next meetings scheduled for Tuesday, May 16, and Tuesday, June 6.
Leinbach said he found out about the available position through the network of people he knows from his time in city management, and that he looks forward to the prospect of serving Plant City. He also said he has no interest in the position on permanent basis.
“I think it’s an outstanding city,” Leinbach said. “I think it has its act together. It would be an honor to serve Plant City. I’ve done city management since I left college, sometimes it’s hard to stop.”
Leinbach said he would be in attendance during the special commission meeting at 9 a.m. on Friday, April 19 in the Sadye Gibbs Martin Auditorium at City Hall.