- December 4, 2025
![Palm Coast's two final city manager candidates: Carl Fraser of Wyoming [left] and Michael McGlothlin of Florida [right]. Images courtesy of Palm Coast](https://media.yourobserver.com/img/photos/2025/10/20/Screenshot_2025-10-20_144058_t1100.png?31a214c4405663fd4bc7e33e8c8cedcc07d61559)
For the second time this year, Palm Coast is down to two final city manager candidates. This time, it’s David Fraser, of Wyoming; and Michael McGlothlin, of Florida; and this time, it appears likely that one will get the job.
But who are these candidates? Both McGlothlin and Fraser will be brought in for in-person interviews with the Palm Coast City Council on Thursday, Nov. 13, when residents are invited to either attend at City Hall or watch virtually. The city will also hold community meet and greet events, though the times of those events have not yet been announced.
Below is a brief summary of each candidate’s resume, a video interview answering questions from the City Council and a white paper describing his vision for his would-be first year as Palm Coast’s city manager.
DAVID FRASER of Cheyenne, Wyoming
According to his resume, Fraser has 29 years of experience with positions ranging from his first professional position as management intern to interim county manager. He has experience managing a $1 billion budget with 3,000 employees.
His current position is interim county manager in Adams County, Colorado. He has served as a town administrator, city manager or executive director in some capacity since 1994 across five different municipalities and one 10-year tenure as the executive director for the Nevada League of Cities & Municipalities.
In his video interview, said Palm Coast’s rapid growth was the “big-ticket item” facing the city and said the city needs to prioritize infrastructure growth before the rapid increase of population.
Fraser said he believes in finding the best people to do the job and giving them all the tools they need to do it. He described his management style as a “coaching style” and uses measurable goals as a performance metric.
He’s a strong believer in the chain of command, he said, and, when it comes to ethical decisions, he said it is important to utilize legal experts’ advice and to make well-thought-out decisions.
Fraser said he always takes taxes seriously and regularly looks for other, creative revenue sources to relieve the tax burden off residents.
In his white paper, Fraser divided his vision for a first year as Palm Coast’s city manager into six sections that would “focus on building a strong foundation of trust, operational excellence, and strategic alignment between the City Council, staff, and residents.”
Clarity of vision, integrity of process and consistency of communication were the three main values he said would shape “every initiative undertaken” in his first year.
He said he would engage with council members, department directors and key staff to review the council’s existing strategic priorities and programs while identifying performance metrics and timelines for staff.
While learning and reviewing key programs, Fraser said he would build a culture of high-performing organization while enhancing communication, transparency and community engagement and advancing economic and community vitality.
His approach, he said, emphasizes collaboration, clarity and results, building on the city’s previous success “through a balanced focus on operational excellence and leadership development.”
MICHAEL MCGLOTHLIN of Largo, Florida
According to his resume, McGlothlin has almost 40 years of public service experience, and has a Master of Business Administration from Columbia Southern University. He served in the U.S. Army Military Police Corps and served as a Fayetteville, North Carolina, police officer for six years.
He was one of three semi-finalist candidates who had been terminated from a previous position as the city manager at Reddington Shores in Florida.
McGlothlin addressed his termination from the Reddington Shores during his video response.
He said he had been hired by one city board with specific goals and direction only for a newly elected majority to replace the previous board a few months later. He said the new board wanted to go in another direction and, though he stayed on for a year, eventually he and the new board decided to make the mutual decision to part ways.
The largest budget he has administered, according to his resume, is Reddington Shores’ $14 million budget.
McGlothlin’s most recent position at Reddington Shores ended in early 2025. In his video interview, he offered direct answers with outlines of how he would approach certain issues.
For economic development, McGlothlin said he would establish clear goals and an action plan, strengthen community partnerships and implement business infrastructure processes while optimizing internal funding.
McGlothlin said his metrics for measuring success with employees include “critical” metrics like citizen satisfaction, teamwork, budgeting, professional development and productivity. Regarding maintaining service levels without an increase to costs, he said he would utilize a zero-based budgeting strategy, optimize spending, look for cost-saving methods and search for alternative revenue sources.
In his white paper, McGlothlin split his vision of his first year as Palm Coast’s city manager into a three-phased approach that he described as a holistic strategy for strengthening government.
Phase I he described as primarily learning and relationship development, scheduling one-on-ones with council members and weekly meetings with key city staff. It also involves connecting with residents, conducting a complete “executive-level review of the city’s departments” and a thorough review of the budget.
Phase II would be about establishing the goals for the coming year, developing a performance measurement system and addressing high-priority concerns.
Finally, Phase III he outlines as the beginning of “making it happen,” launching programs developed in Phase II and incorporating community feedback. He said he would also foster “a culture of continuous quality improvement” with Palm Coast by empowering staff, communicating organizational values and utilizing evidence-based and data-driven practices.
Editor's note: A previous version of this story incorrectly state David Fraser's first name was Carl. Updated Nov. 1, 2025.
