Fort Myers Beach Town Manager Andy Hyatt has agreed to stay on as Town Manager until the end of May to help with a smooth transition. The town will pay Hyatt an additional $1,000 for the month of May on top of the regular monthly installment from his $197,000 annual salary.
The town may have a new manager by the end of today. If that happens, the new person will need time to leave his (all five finalists are men) current job, pack up and move down. There’s also the possibility that the Town Council could decide that none of the final five on the board make the cut and the process would have to be started all over again. In that case, it appears, Hyatt will continue as the Town Manager on a month-to-month basis.
Hyatt has been the Fort Myers Beach Town Manager for the last two years, signing on shortly after John King and Karen Woodson were elected and there were enough votes to oust Roger Herndstadt from the position.
After Keith Wilkins and Chris Holly served as interim Town Managers, and a search was launched, Hyatt was the unanimous choice of the Town Council in April 2023. He brought with him decades of Town Manager experience with 5 municipalities, including Surfside, Florida where a condo building collapsed in 2021 where 98 people died.
This Town Council did not want Hyatt to leave and were surprised he announced he wouldn’t be staying. Earlier this year the 66-year old Hyatt decided not to renew his expiring contract with Fort Myers Beach. Hyatt and his wife Susan live in North Florida and Hyatt has been doing a lot of commuting.
In the 2 years he’s been the Fort Myers Beach Town Manager, Hyatt has put the island on a healthy path to rebuild after Hurricane Ian either damaged or destroyed every structure on the island. Those successes include fixing the permitting department, changing the culture between the staff and the community, replacing the old town hall, and preparing the town for future storms.
Working very closely, and politically successfully with the current 5-member Town Council, Hyatt has helped put the next Town Manager in a good position to succeed with a revamped staff that enjoys coming to work every day.
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