Marathon city manager search
to be completed by end of the month
BY TERRY SCHMIDA
If all goes as planned, the City of Marathon should be in a position to offer an employment contract to one of two short-listed candidates for the city manager slot, by the end of the month.
Now that Marathon City Council has voted to conduct in-person interviews with top candidates Charles Lindsey and Lyndon Bonner, it’s just a matter of timing the interviews to fit the candidates schedules, prior to the Aug. 11 or 25 council meetings, so that a final selection pronto. Current City Manager Mike Puto is technically available through the end of the year, but has signaled his intention to step down from the position as soon as a replacement can be installed.
As during the recent searches for high profile postings such as the new in-house city attorney, which was snagged by 39-year-old David Migut, the two top picks for city manager will be receive $500 to assist with meals, a hotel room, and travel expenses.
“We took our five candidates and did Skype interviews with them,” Vice Mayor Mark Senmartin said recently. “And [on July 28] we whittled it down to two people, Charles Lindsey, and Lyndon Bonner, who are going to be coming down here for in-person interviews . . . With any luck, at [the Aug. 11] meeting we can vote to hire one of them, and then move forward with contract negotiations.”
Senmartin added that while he’s happy to interview both candidates for the job, Lindsey’s experience as the former operations manager at Coast Guard Station Marathon, from 2010-13, gives him a leg up on the competition.
“I think I’m happiest with Lindsey right now,” he said. “It’s important to note that Lindsey was a Coast Guard commander here before, and his wife was a Marathon High School teacher, so he’s lived here and knows the town. But I am not completely sold. The other guy has to be given a fair shake.”
For his part, Bonner served as the city manager of North Miami beach during 2011 and 2012, and claims to have visited Marathon numerous times.
Senmartin and the other council members have been looking for a new city manager since Puto informed them in April of his decision to step aside.
The vice mayor also said the council will like to have the new city manager in place and working by early fall.
“It’s conceivable that by Sept. 1 we could have a new manager in place,” Senmartin said. “The hiring process has taken a little bit longer than we expected, but as I made clear from the beginning, I wanted us to hire a good, qualified person. We had Mr. Puto in place, so there wasn’t an emergency.”
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