Atlantic Beach officials have approved a temporary hiring freeze as the city weighs the potential fiscal impact of a proposed property tax amendment that will appear on the Nov. 3 ballot.
The City Commission voted 4-1 to pause filling positions through Nov. 15, with an exception for the public works director position if a qualified candidate emerges before the deadline. Commissioner Bruce Bole, who participated remotely, opposed the hiring freeze.
Commissioner Thomas Grant initially proposed extending the hiring pause through the end of the year but amended his motion to Nov. 15, after the election.
"The optics of going out and hiring someone with any significant salary right now, I would just feel better if we waited until after this Amendment Three vote," Grant said. "We may have some attrition between now and then and may be able to weave this a little bit better. This is the absolute wrong time to be rushing to fill spots."
Current openings include a streets maintenance position, deputy city manager, animal control officer and public works director. City Manager Kevin Hogencamp confirmed he recently filled the finance director position, although the job posting remains active on the city's website.
Godfred Adomako will serve as the city's new finance director effective Oct. 12, Hogencamp announced in his Sept. 14 community update.
Adomako comes to Atlantic Beach from the city of Jacksonville, where he spent five years as manager of accounting services in that city's Finance Department. The department, led by Chief Financial Officer Anna Brosche, oversees revenue collection, fund investment and debt management for Florida's most populous city.
The discussion focused in part on the budget implications of filling the deputy city manager position.
"Whether it's a deputy city manager or an assistant to the city manager, that would be one position. Otherwise it's anybody who resigns between now and then," Hogencamp said.
Mayor Curtis Ford said he had mixed emotions about the moratorium.
"I do think we need to backstop our City Manager and I think I'm going to agree to make a hire. But I also get where Commissioner Grant is coming from," he said. "To some degree, once we have the budget then the City Manager gets to do what he thinks is appropriate with that budget. I think the budget informs the next steps."
Commissioner Jessica Ring questioned whether a proposed $144,000 salary for the position was appropriate given the financial uncertainty surrounding Amendment 3.
She also questioned whether the city needs a separate communications specialist, saying communications responsibilities should fall under an assistant or deputy city manager.
"This should be a professional learning goal for all of them that they all incorporate communications within. We're staring down Amendment 3. Whether you're going to vote for it or not, we will have to cut," Ring said.
"I can't in good faith as an elected official stand by and allow $200,000 plus to add that when I know we're looking at cutting the youth programming."
Hogencamp pointed to discussions during previous budget workshops indicating that commissioners did not support filling the deputy city manager position.
"I thought I read the room and I heard that we don't want you at this time to replace the deputy city manager position. I think maybe tonight I am hearing otherwise," he said. "If indeed we can move forward with a deputy city manager then I'm not asking for an assistant to the city manager."
Hogencamp's previous salary as deputy city manager, including retirement benefits, was approximately $175,000 a year. Under the proposed budget, the assistant to the city manager position would carry an annual salary of $124,000.
"I wanted to hire a deputy city manager but I thought the majority of this body did not want to, so I proposed within the same framework of the current year's budget to hire a position I called chief of staff and a communications specialist. That got some negative feedback and I pivoted and lowered that job's responsibilities to something I currently call assistant to the city manager that I have budgeted for $124,000," Hogencamp said.
"I have abandoned the concept of hiring a communication specialist and would outsource some of those responsibilities. Frankly, if the body decides on an assistant to the city manager, I've already conceded that we can make that work."
Grant said he was not advocating that Hogencamp continue indefinitely without filling a position to provide administrative support, regardless of the title.
"Let's just see what the whole landscape looks like first," he said.
Bole pointed to what he called "the bigger picture": the city charter, which defines the city manager's role. He said he did not support restrictions that would prevent Hogencamp from filling staffing gaps within his responsibilities under the charter.
"We give our city manager the functionality of what we want him to achieve, where we set goals, very specific of what we want our city to be. We reorganized the city under our last city manager with the Neighborhoods department," Bole said.
"If he stays within budget, we give him the functionality of what we want to see out of the other end, we pass a budget and we move forward. Under our charter, I support the city manager carrying out the plan of the day."
Resident Lisa Herrold said a review of 2017 meeting transcripts provided some context for the city's relationship with the deputy city manager position.
"In April 2017, Atlantic Beach was going through a city manager transition. Kevin Hogencamp was serving as interim city manager and the commission considered establishing a deputy city manager position," Herrold said.
"The city attorney said although Kevin was already performing the duties and exercising the powers of the city manager, the additional position of deputy city manager was necessary and in the best interest of the city."
Staff also encouraged officials to "focus on the necessity of the position rather than who filled it." The commission ultimately voted to appoint Hogencamp to the permanent deputy city manager role, where he served for nine years.
"What has changed? The person who spent nearly nine years serving as the city's second in command is now our city manager. If we had completed the national city manager search that we had discussed and hired someone from outside Atlantic Beach, would we have expected that person to come into this organization without the support of a deputy city manager?" Herrold asked.
"That person would have needed someone who understood our organization, our employees, our culture, our history, our policies and our community. Kevin already has that knowledge. But knowing an organization doesn't make the city manager job smaller. It certainly doesn't eliminate the need for support."
Ford said the city is facing an unprecedented challenge to its revenue stream through Amendment 3 and that hiring freezes are not unusual for businesses facing financial uncertainty.
"There is nothing wrong with that," he said. "It's not just this position. It's any position between now and Nov. 15."
