- December 4, 2025
Palm Coast’s city manager application window has closed, with 112 applications.
The application was open between May 16 and Aug. 15. Palm Coast received 112 applications across multiple public job search sites, with 64 applications from Florida residents, Human Resources Director Renina Fuller said at the Aug. 26 workshop meeting. The next step is for the Palm Coast City Council to narrow the field of candidates.
Palm Coast has been searching for a new city manager since March 2024. Lauren Johnston, the then-assistant city manager, was installed as the acting city manager and Palm Coast hired a search firm to find candidates for the position. Because of the November 2024 elections, the search was delayed until the new council had been elected.
In May 2025, the council held five separate votes on the final two candidates remaining, hoping to get unanimous approval for one. All five votes deadlocked in 3-2 splits and the council decided to instead place the position on public job search sites to see who would apply.
The job requirements listed were for International City/County Management Association certification, a Bachelor’s degree in Public Administration, Business Administration or a related field, and eight years of experience in a city manager office or some similar, qualified background. Of the initial 112 applications only 105 are admissible: four candidates have withdrawn, one filed two resumes, one only submitted a cover letter and one only sent in a photo without an attached resume.
Council members Charles Gambaro, Ty Miller and Theresa Carli Pontieri all sent in a list of their top 25 candidates to Fuller ahead of the meeting, while Mayor Mike Norris and Councilman Dave Sullivan had not.
Gambaro said he had looked at all of the candidates and that he had narrowed his choices down to two candidates.
Before she left the meeting early for a work engagement, Pontieri suggested the council only look at candidates that have votes from at least three council members.
“Unless there are at least three votes for each person, I don’t think there’s any point of advancing anybody forward,” she said. “Because the chances of getting consensus later on are pretty slim to nil.”
Norris later on agreed with Pontieri’s suggestion.
“That’s paramount,” he said. “Because we’ve already been through this once.”
Updated Aug. 28: A previous version of this story listed the wrong certification on the city manager job requirements. The job listing requested International City/County Management Association certification, not International Capital Market Association certification.
