The Town of Fort Myers Beach has a little more than three months to find and hire a new Town Manager after the resignation of Town Manager Andy Hyatt on Tuesday. We reached out to former Fort Myers Beach interim Town Manager Keith Wilkins (pictured) to find out how long the new hire should take.
Wilkins and his partner Chris Holly were brought in to help run the town while a search was launched after the firing of Roger Hernstadt shortly after the November, 2022 election when Karen Woodson and John King were voted in. Nearly 90 applications were submitted for the job. Wilkins and Holly whittled the list down to 5 finalists, which quickly became 4 when one of the finalists took another job offer. Andy Hyatt and the three other finalists were introduced to the public, answered questions from the Town Council in an open forum, then met with them individually. With Town Hall a pile of rubble, thanks to Hurricane Ian, all of this was done at Diamondhead Resort in March of 2023. Hyatt was offered a 2-year contract in April and accepted.
Early this week, with the Town Council hoping Hyatt would stay on for another year or two to help the town continue its rebuild, Hyatt gave 100 days notice citing family reasons. With just over 3 months to find the town’s next leader, we reached out to Wilkins and asked him how long he thinks it will take the Town Council to find a new manager.
Wilkins says, plan on 6 months. “If there’s someone in the wings somewhere then quicker, maybe much so. But to draft an ad, circulate it, give time for responses, conduct interviews, make a selection then time for them to give notice before starting, they (the town) needs to start ASAP.” Wilkins said 100 days isn’t much time.
Hyatt did say he’d help make sure there’s a smooth transition. Whether that means he’ll stay longer to get a new person in his chair is unknown. His contract actually called for 120 days. He wants to be out in 100 (now 97)
We also asked Wilkins if the pool of people can deal with what the town is dealing with now. “It’s a tough field. There could be people available, like Andy was, or some interested in moving up. A large part of it will be the salary they offer. The town is in pretty good shape organizationally. They will need someone with Disaster Management experience, significant recovery and land use experience, a tourism economy and coastal experience as well as someone that is good with constituents, the Town Council and staff.”
Wilkins said if the town hires a search firm that will cost taxpayers about $30,000 or more. Wilkins and Holly did the search that found Hyatt as part of their contract. He says he does believe the town has the HR talent in house to do the search if they have the availability.
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With any luck, they’ll find someone that can actually get some work done on the island right now the government is the biggest hangup. It just drove back-and-forth and saw almost nothing done. Someone needs to be accountable.
Is Roger available???? I bet Andy’s critics would be begging for him to come back then.
I’ve hired senior directors at a salary of $500k and up in less than 100 days. Saying it takes 6 months is only setting the expectation that it will take that long when it won’t or it shouldn’t if you have the right person in HR and the skill set to determine talent vs BS during and interview. This position could be filled in 100 days, no problem if done right and the decision makers know what they’re doing.
Is this the position they just hired that former school administrator to be the assistant for?
Oh bee wan Keith-nobee…
You’re our only hope!!!
Do we send you the $30k now or when you get here to do the search?!
🙏🏻😎🏝️🏖️