The only requirement to be the next county administrator is U.S. citizenship, two county commissioners said last week.
That would make the criteria for the $400,000-a-year job less restrictive than a job as a Publix cashier. Publix requires cashiers to be at least 14 years old.
Commissioners Bobby Powell and Maria Sachs wanted no limits on academic or job experience when they expressed their thoughts March 18 in an extraordinary three-hour commission discussion to decide how to replace longtime Administrator Verdenia Baker, who resigned effective May 31.
“To me the only qualification you need is an American citizenship and an interest,” Sachs said.
Powell pushed through a selection plan that did not suggest any criteria for the job and required candidates to submit applications in less than two weeks.
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“Similar to Commissioner Sachs,” he said, “I simply believe that what’s outlined in statute as well as someone being a citizen here in the United States of America would qualify.”
Commissioners voted 4-3 to adopt Powell’s approach but agreed to consider bottom-line standards at their next meeting, which is at 9:30 am Thursday.
Behind the commission’s unusual approach is a push to put Palm Beach County Clerk and Comptroller Joe Abruzzo in the job.
Abruzzo, 44, a Democrat, served six years in the state House and four years in the state Senate before running successfully in 2020 and again in 2024 for the clerk’s job. He has never been a county or city administrator.
He holds a bachelor’s degree from Lynn University in Boca Raton. But many counties the size and complexity of Palm Beach require a master’s degree in public administration, a degree Baker holds.
As clerk, he oversees about 650 employees and a $70 million budget. In an email to employees Friday, he wrote that he was considering the job.
“As the county’s chief financial officer, I believe my executive leadership, budget experience and deep local knowledge could help provide continuity and a smooth transition for our community,” he wrote.
'I don’t understand this rush’
Under Powell’s proposal, candidates would have until April 1, less than two weeks, to apply.
Commissioners considered pushing that date back to April 8. They also said they would decide the timing at Thursday’s meeting.
Typically a major job such as this would be posted nationally for at least 30 days. Often, cities and counties engage headhunters to spend months seeking and screening applicants.
Powell called for commissioners to interview applicants if fewer than five apply. The winner would be selected April 30.
If more than five apply, the commission would appoint a seven-member task force to interview all candidates on April 22 and select five finalists. Commissioners could nominate additional finalists and all would be interviewed on April 30.
The winner would start May 22, leaving one week to learn under Baker, who has worked for the county for 38 years.
Only if commissioners couldn’t agree on a selection on April 30 would the commission hire a headhunter to conduct a national search.
“I don’t understand this rush,” Commissioner Marci Woodward said in an interview. “The only thing that makes sense to me is they have a candidate picked out and all of this is a show.”
Mack Bernard’s role
The three commissioners on the losing end of the vote— Woodward, Gregg Weiss and Mayor Maria Marino — told Stet News they heard about Powell’s approach from Mack Bernard, a former county commissioner who now serves in the state Senate.
They didn’t see a formal presentation of the plan until they returned from a lunch break last Tuesday to find a three-page memo with no letterhead and no signature at their desks.
Bernard did not return phone calls and two commissioners on the winning side, Sachs and Joel Flores, said Bernard had not talked to them. Powell, a close friend of Bernard’s, and Commissioner Sara Baxter did not return phone calls.
Bernard’s boss at the campaign management firm Cornerstone Solutions, Rick Asnani, said if Bernard did approach commissioners, he wasn’t doing so on behalf of Cornerstone. That would have been illegal under a state law that bans lobbying of one’s former board for two years after leaving office. Bernard resigned from the county commission late last year and is not a registered lobbyist.
But the ban only kicks in if the lobbyist is paid.
“He’s not lobbying on anyone’s behalf,” Asnani said. “Our firm has not been hired to engage in this matter.” He suggested Bernard may have been exercising his rights to free speech.
Bernard’s role as a vice president with Cornerstone raised fears that some of the company’s wealthier campaign contributors want to determine the next county administrator.
For instance, Related Ross, whose owner Stephen Ross is a contributor to West Palm Beach City Commission candidates represented by Cornerstone, has a convention center hotel proposal in front of the county and wants to build a performance hall on county land downtown.
Ross’ former partners at the Miami-based Related Group have a big project that is meeting resistance from the county administration. They are suing the county over the value of county land needed for Transit Village, a massive mix of apartments, office buildings and a hotel in what is now a parking lot next to the downtown Tri-Rail station.
‘It’s up to you to make that decision’
Bernard’s involvement, the rushed nature of Powell’s approach, the decision to reject calls to select an interim administrator and conduct a national search and the lack of qualifications raised alarms for commissioners on the losing side of the vote.
Woodward said Bernard put it starkly in his call Monday morning that support is building for two candidates: Abruzzo or the longtime assistant county administrator who Baker promoted as her top deputy last year, Patrick Rutter.
During the meeting, Woodward raised the issue of qualifications.
“This process that’s put before us now,” she said, “we haven’t actually determined the qualifications that we would be requiring, so how can we ask for applications or resumes when we haven’t determined the qualifications?”
“It’s really simple,” Powell said a few minutes later. “Think about this. Individuals are applying. Either us at the Board of County Commissioners or our seven-member panel are looking at the resumes and applications. You and I both know that if somebody applies and they have a resume and they don’t have educational credentials or qualifications that we think necessary, we would not move them to the next round.
“However, if you did think they were qualified and they did not have a master’s degree or a bachelor’s degree but they had been a county administrator of a county of a similar size then it’s up to you to make that decision. … If we don’t think they’re qualified we simply wouldn’t move them to the next round.”
Marino pointed to the complexities of running a county with 7,000 employees and a $9 billion budget. The administrator oversees dozens of departments, including the airport, water and sewer service, fire-rescue, roads and bridges, parks and libraries.
“I don’t want on-the-job training,” Marino said. “I want people who are familiar.”
She said running an agency with 700 employees, about the number Abruzzo oversees at the clerk’s office, doesn’t compare.
County staff came to the meeting prepared to present their suggested approach but commissioners didn’t let them.
‘Look within to see if we have our treasure’
In introducing his proposal, Powell started with a book, “The Alchemist” by Paulo Coelho.
In the book, he told commissioners, a shepherd travels around the world to find buried treasure, only to be sent back home and find it under a tree where he began.
Palm Beach County has had just two administrators over the past 33 years, he said, both longtime residents who knew the county.
“I do believe that we owe it to our constituents, our stakeholders, as well as ourselves as a board, to start this process rather quickly and have the opportunity to look within to see if we have our treasure under our feet before we go around the world.”
But Weiss, who submitted a more traditional six-month approach to the commission a week earlier, didn’t buy that approach.
“We have very competent people here to run this county today without having to appoint someone and have to do this in two weeks. To me that’s just insane,” he told Powell. “I don’t know any organization this size that would do something like that. I think it is a disservice to the community.”
Powell said Weiss’ proposal relied too much on public input and too rigidly filtered out potential candidates.
“The last time we did this process, we went around the world to find our treasure, Verdenia Baker, under our nose. What if our treasure is under our nose today? It does not prevent us from going around the world and doing a national search. But what it does, it allows us to look home first.”
Sachs and Baxter embraced Powell’s approach.
“I love this process, commissioner,” Baxter said. “I couldn’t find anything really that I would change about it. … I don’t want to prolong this into a year. I think we owe it to our residents, I think we owe it to our staff to not have them in limbo either.”
Added Sachs, “The most important thing is that it leaves it up to us.”
She told Stet News later she would support some qualifications.
“I said ‘U.S. citizen’ but I’m open to suggestions of higher degrees in administration and budget background and things like that,” she said.
Joel Flores, a commissioner elected in November cast the deciding vote.
At one point in the meeting, he laid out his bottom line.
“What I’m looking for is very simple,” Flores said. “Have you managed a fairly large budget? Have you managed a large quantity of employees? And, at a bare minimum, requirement of a bachelor’s degree. … And a U.S. citizen. Those are my four criteria.”
This story was originally published by Stet News Palm Beach, a WLRN News partner.
