Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves will announce this morning that former Escambia County Supervisor of Elections David Stafford will be his choice for the new city administrator, who will be in charge of the city’s operations.
Background: Escambia County voters elected Stafford in 2004 to replace long-time Election Supervisor Bonnie Jones. He served until January 2024 when he resigned to serve as an Election Security Advisor for the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). Stafford is nationally recognized as an authority on election security, having testified several times before Congress and the Florida Legislature.
- Most recently, Stafford has been the Vice President of Accounts for Enhanced Voting, a leading national provider of election technology solutions.
- Before his election in 2004, he served as Congressman Joe Scarborough’s chief of staff and also as a senior writer and producer when Scarborough began his television career at MSNBC.
Stafford will report for work on October 27. Deputy Administrator Amy Miller has served as the interim since Tim Kinsella left in early September.
Job Opening
Tim Kinsella abruptly announced his resignation in August to take a position with Navy Federal Credit Union. When we broke the story, Kinsella said Navy Federal’s COO had made the offer before he took his two-week vacation in mid-July, and the opportunity was simply too good to pass up. He assured me that his leaving has nothing to do with Florida DOGE and any issues at the city or with Mayor D.C. Reeves.
- In his resignation to Mayor Reeves, he wrote, “In my long years of service in the military and state government, serving alongside you has been a highlight of my career. You are the exact leader this city needs, and you are the only Mayor for whom I would have taken on the job of City Administrator. It has been a singular honor and privilege to serve under your leadership, and I thank you for your trust, support, and partnership during my tenure.”
Stafford will be Reeves’ third administrator. When he took office in 2022, Reeves retained Kerrith Fiddler as administrator. Fiddler stepped down on July 5, 2024.
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By my math, Stafford is the 11th person in less than 14 years to serve as city administrator in name, by function or in an acting capacity. Of the 11, a few to include Christopher Holley and Amy Miller had prior “municipal management” experience. In the case of Stafford, he doesn’t seem qualified to serve in the position. See the job description at the link below. Originally, the concept was that a mayor with no prior executive leadership experience could hire a city administrator as their little helper. The position was only made mandatory during the charter review commission’s final meeting in August 2009. We don’t really know the justification. The commission led by Crystal Spencer refused to draft and submit its mandatory final report and refused to hold its mandatory final public hearing. I did raise my concern with Mayor Wiggins who told me he felt that he “lacked the authority as mayor to make Crystal finish the job.” Not true at all but we’ve all been paying for it with endless chaos and violation of the charter ever since. I think it’s time to rethink how the city administrator is appointed. One option is to let the city council make the appointment as is common in both council-manager and also mayor-council forms of government, Century an example in that second form of government. Another option is for the city council to appoint a commission of citizens to make the appointment. A third option is to make the city administrator position an elected office, perhaps along with the city attorney and city clerk too.
https://ricksblog.biz/city-of-pensacola-reopens-job-search-for-administrator/