James Beard finds bump on the road to Gables City Manager

Does Coral Gables have a new city manager? Maybe. Maybe not.

City Commissioners chose a new top administrator last week, but a routine background check turned up a 2011 child abuse charge that may give them a cause to take another look.

James Beard said that the “bogus charge” was dismissed and that he had already explained the situation — and the following paternity suit — with the committee and at least two of the commissioners. He even offered me the name and number of the guardian ad litem who handled the case.

This is likely to be discussed at Tuesday’s city commission meeting.

Beard, selected from a final list of five candidates, was negotiating his contract as late as last Friday and, according to sources, was about to sign off on a $230,000- a-year salary that was brought up after he got a counter offer to stay from the city of Atlanta, where he is currently the chief financial officer. The job was supposed to be offered to him Tuesday.

But on Monday, City Hall insiders and even residents were whispering about the “domestic violence” incident. Maybe someone is unhappy with the choice and trying to undo it? Someone might be trying to use this incident as a ruse to take a re-vote.

When asked at the Biltmore Hotel free-for-all — where the five candidates were put on display so that commissioners could see how they interacted with the public — Beard told Ladra his son, who lives down here, was one of the reasons he wanted to come back to the Miami area from Atlanta. “We have a very loving relationship,” he said.

Still, he was a surprise choice to many, after sources and insiders said that two other candidates — former Doral City Manager Yvonne Soler-McKinley and Miami Parking Authority CEO Art Noriega — had the inside track. The other top finalists were Pieter Bockweg, the executive director for City of Miami’s Omni, Midtown & South East Overtown Park West Community Redevelopment Agencies, and Miami Lakes Town Manager Alex Rey.

But Beard, who once worked at the city of Miami under then manager Howard Gary, was the only one of the five final candidates at a special meeting last Tuesday to come in the top two for every commissioner. When they voted between those top two — which also included Noriega — Beard got three votes and Noriega got two. A final vote on Beard became unanimous by commissioners who were mostly, with one exception, anxious to fill the spot vacated when former City Manager Pat Salerno resigned abruptly after he was caught in a lie to commissioners about traffic accident statistics.

The only thing standing between Beard and a new job in October was the background check.

Can Ladra ask the obvious question? Why is a background check being done now, at the end of the process rather than at the beginning? Why wasn’t a general criminal background check part of the package when the Gables paid Colin Baenziger & Associates $33,000 to recruit candidates?

Vice Mayor Bill Kerdyk Jr. already expressed disappointment last week with the pool of candidates.

“I’m just not sure that they have the skills needed to be city manager,” Kerdyk said. “I’m just not sure this is it. I want to consider delaying this process. I bring it up today because the fact is that I feel very strongly about this.”

Kerdyk said at last week’s meeting that each of the candidates had something to offer. “But we want the total package,” he told his colleagues. “Elements are good, and maybe, at some point those elements will become the package. But like I said, delaying the process two months won’t hurt. I just think that there are some other possible candidates that can bring this city into the future.”

Now that immediate future, at least, is in flux. Because what happens if the deal with Beard is not signed?

Commissioner Frank Quesada told Ladra that if the allegations are serious enough to discard Beard as the top choice, then he would like to go back to his first choice, Noriega, who ended up as No. 2.

“If he is still interested, I would ask the city attorney to reach out to Mr. Noriega to see if he is still interested and then I’m going to ask the city commission to go that way,” Quesada said.

“If he’s not interested, that’s a conversation we need to have on the dais,” he added.

How much you wanna bet that chat starts Tuesday?

Coral Gables, Pat Salerno

James Beard finds bump on the road to Gables City Manager added by Ladra on September 22, 2014
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