- December 4, 2025
The Palm Coast City Council has narrowed down its city manager candidates to two choices: David Fraser of Cheyenne, Wyoming and Michael McGlothlin of Largo, Florida.
The council will now fly both candidates in for an in-person interview and presentation on Nov. 13. From there, the council will vote on and choose their next city manager.
““In all honesty, I think either McGlothlin or Fraser could do this job. And I think they’d do well,” Vice Mayor Theresa Carli Pontieri said.
The council initially each picked their top three candidates, but, in an effort to ensure the new city manager is chosen unanimously by the council in November, only the candidates with the top number of votes from council members were selected.
The meeting started with six candidates remaining:Fraser, McGlothlin, Carl Geffken of Mountain Home, Arkansas, Thomas Thomas of Bloomington Illinois, Norman West of Flagler Beach and Anthony Schembri of Venice, Florida.
The council ranked their top three pick in order of priority first – their number one, number two and number three picks..
West was the only candidate to receive two number one ranking votes, but he had no other placement selections. Thomas received no votes from any of the council members. Schembri was two council members’ number three pick.
That left Geffken, Fraser and McGlothlin vying for the top three positions: Geffken received three votes, one from each ranking position; McGlothlin also received three votes, one number one pick and two number three picks. Fraser pulled ahead with five votes, one number one rank and four number two ranks.
But the council ultimately decided to cut Geffken because the city staff’s media search for derogatory history turned up his termination as city manager from Fort Smith, Arizona in 2024.
Before they voted, Councilman Charles Gambaro pointed out in that city staff’s internet search both Thomas and Geffken were fired from their jobs.
According to the search, Thomas was fired in 2023 from his Compton, California city manager position for treating his employees unfairly. Geffken was fired for acting outside of his board’s authorization, opening Fort Smith to litigation, and a derogatory comment about the public during a city meeting.
“I just wanted to throw it out there and make sure everybody’s tracking that before we vote,” Gambaro said.
Another candidate, McGlothlin, was also terminated from his position as Reddington Shores, Florida city manager in early 2025. But McGlothlin addressed his termination in his video submission, stating it was a mutual separation after the city’s board changed over and had a different focus.
Vice Mayor Theresa Carli Pontieri said she did not look at any candidate in a vacuum. She considered how the council had previously voted on these candidates, their work experiences
“I really looked at the white papers and videos to see who seemed to be in touch with the city’s needs,” she said.
Pontieri and Councilmen Ty Miller and Dave Sullivan both said they felt Geffkin’s internet search history was the deciding factor, especially his acting outside of the board’s direction.
“I think it kind of says, ‘I’m smart and I think I’m smarter than the people who are directing policy,” Miller said.
Throughout the narrowing process of the original 112 candidates, the council has tried to ensure only candidates that have a majority support of at least three council members moves forward into the next round. This is to avoid repeating the last finalist selection where the council was split and voted five times but still ended up without a majority vote.
With Geffken dropped from consideration, Gambaro argued the council should still keep West on the list. Not only is he a local, he said, but he has a strong military background and experience as a brigadier general.
“I think Mr. West is an excellent candidate,” Gambaro said. “I think we’re making a mistake not bringing him in.”
Miller and Gambaro both had concerns about the potential of either Fraser or McGlothlin dropping out before the November interviews, but ultimately the council felt it could not consider Geffkin because of the search history and West did not have enough support from the council.
Mayor Mike Norris said he could not go with West because of his lack of municipal experience, similar to how Gambaro felt of a candidate in the previous selection process.
“Okay, it’s payback, I get it,” Gambaro said.
“It’s not payback,” Norris said. “It’s honesty. He’s probably more suited as a college professor.”
Ultimately, the council decided to stick with just McGlothlin and Fraser. The two will be flown in for the in person interview portion on Nov. 13.
