George Burgess, Frank Nero on shortlist for Gables manager

Round two in the search for a new Coral Gables City Manager has produced a few interesting names that seem head and shoulders above the candidates on the last shortlist — which ended in a fiasco when the commission picked a guy who later did not pass a general background check.

Among them: Former Miami-Dade Manager George Burgess, former Beacon Council CEO and President Frank Nero — who was forced to resign after 17 years in 2013 after he came out publicly against gaming before his board had a chance to weigh in — and Hollywood City Manager Cathy Swanson-Rivenbark, who was the Gables economic development director for many years before going to work in Broward.

As if that weren’t heady enough, there were two other big names on there just a couple of days ago, but Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Director Bill Johnson allegedly withdrew because the salary was not high enough and former Miami-Dade Deputy Mayor Chip Iglesias, who left the county for a lobbying job, is said to have dropped out when it was leaked he was a finalist and his boss found out (wasn’t me).

“No, of course I’m not interested,” he might have said. But a good source inside City Hall told Ladra that he was among the five original names that were brought to commissioners by recruiter Bud Park. We know from having talked to Iglesias himself during the first round that he had originally eyed the position before he was snatched up by the lobbying firm that was hired by David Beckham to bring a soccer stadium to the county.

Either way, whether it’s three or five finalists, they all seem to be of a higher caliber than the last litter commissioners had to pick from in the first round of would-be replacements for former City Manager Pat Salerno, who resigned abruptly in April just before he was to be questioned publicly about lies he told a commissioner who asked about traffic accident information.

Ladra called some of these new candidates. They did not call me back. Park, the recruiter, would not talk about the selection process at all or even confirm that any meetings had taken place. He demanded to know, first, who told me about the interviews and the shortlist and repeated asked me to disclose my sources. I told him that’s not gonna happen. Suffice it to say that the two little birdies are City Hall insiders in a position to know. A third birdie was able to confirm some of the names, but not all of them.

Only Vice Mayor Bill Kerdyk has met with the candidates so far. His meetings were scheduled earlier because he was going out of town. The mayor and other commissioners will be meeting with the candidates in the next couple of days.

There are no public records to confirm this new shortlist. And that is intentional. We’ve gone 180-degrees from a way too protracted and public process — where candidates took a trolley tour and did what amounts to a speed dating session with department heads before being wined and dined at a Biltmore Hotel reception — to a way to secret, cloak and dagger system of choosing the next top administrator for the City Beautiful.

Sure, the last attempt at this crashed and burned in a ball of public shame fire. But some commissioners and political observers believe that the really good candidates stayed away during the first round because of the public gauntlet they had to walk. Especially those who are already employed and whose bosses may not like them shopping around for a better offer.

Still, Ladra can’t help but think that any candidate who can’t be publicly and openly — and transparently — interested in a job like this, overseeing 800 employees and a should not apply. That was part of the problem with the most recent past Coral Gables administration — a lack of transparency.

All of these people on this shortlist are fully capable of running the city of Coral Gables. A couple of them could probably do it in their sleep. So there’s really only one thing commissioners really need to look for:

Who among these people has the, er, rhymes with wherewithals, to clean house and get rid of the Salerno stench still clinging around City Hall?

Coral Gables

George Burgess, Frank Nero on shortlist for Gables manager added by Ladra on October 24, 2014
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