Mayor D.C. Reeves made it clear during Tuesday’s press conference that the city has the luxury of taking its time to find the right person for the city administrator position.
Background: Last week, the city reopened the application period through Wednesday, Sept. 24.
When asked about concerns regarding the quality of applicants, he said, “I’m not concerned in the least. We’ve got many options available to us, and we’re moving aggressively on interviewing those applicants.”
- The city posted the position internally first rather than immediately engaging an expensive search firm. If that approach doesn’t yield the desired results, they can always escalate to a professional search firm, which typically costs tens of thousands of dollars and involves a longer onboarding process.
Current Leadership Provides Stability
Mayor Reeves believes that his current leadership team, with Amy Miller serving as interim administrator, takes any pressure off of filling the position. He said, “We’ve got great bandwidth up there right now.”
This stability means the city isn’t operating under pressure to fill the position quickly. “We’re not going to hire someone for the sake of hiring someone,” Reeves stated. “We’re going to make sure that we find the right person.”
Lessons from Past Success
The city’s approach reflects lessons learned from previous successful hires. Mayor Reeves referenced the Parks and Recreation director search, which attracted 130 qualified applications – demonstrating that Pensacola can compete for top talent when the position matches the national candidate pool.
The mayor also shared how timing and opportunity can create unexpected possibilities, referencing how a previous hire came together when the right candidate (Tim Kinsella) emerged just as they were considering engaging a search firm.
- When I pressed about whether the mayor not having declared his re-election plans might impact the search, Reeves was definitive: “I can safely say that’s not an issue.”