Marathon City Council Member Robyn Still joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the city.
How is the search for a city manager going?
Still said, “We got an email from our human resources department last week. There had been a total of 52 candidates who had applied. To be considered a true candidate in the move forward, they have to do the complete package so that basically consists of they have to submit a cover letter, a resume, and they have to do a city of Marathon’s application. So if they missed some of those steps, they’re not considered a true applicant right now, of those, five have working experience in Florida, which is something we were looking for, and that’s Florida governmental entities, which is important. One has experience in Monroe County. Now, I don’t have any names. We’ve not seen an application. What’s going to happen is there are going to be members within city hall who have not applied, who are going to take a look at those applications, and obviously, we had a job description with qualifications, and they’re going to match those applications with what our requirements were, and then they’re going to give us the top number, just picking a number at random, the top five, it could be the top 10. I don’t know what that number has been decided right now. I guess it depends on how many get close enough to those qualifications. They’re going to give that to us as council. And then we’re going to move forward. There’s been some brief discussion that we will have one on one meetings with them, with those applicants. And then what I’d like to see is that those finalists do come in front of city council, in the public that way, members of the public can meet them, can hear a little bit about them. What I like to see is, and that’s just me, I’m just one, one of five. When I applied for my position, before I had to run for election for my appointment, all of us applicants had to go in front of city council. We had a certain number of minutes to basically introduce ourselves and say why we thought we were the best candidate for that position. And then City Council voted. The public were able to see every one of us. Council were able to see us. And I’d like to see that happen as well with these candidates, because whoever gets selected is going to touch the lives of everybody who lives here, owns property here, and also visits here. That’s an important position, and they touch a little bit of everything.”
The public information officer in Marathon was also terminated recently.
Still said, “He has. That’s unfortunate. I was happy with what he was doing, however, just to reiterate and let people know, there’s some misunderstandings of what city council members can and cannot do, but per our charter, we can only hire and fire two employees. That’s the city manager and that’s the city attorney. We can’t tell the city manager or city attorney what to do, any hiring or firing outside of those two positions, we have absolutely no control over. We can’t direct them to do one thing or another. That can be very frustrating when you don’t agree with decisions that are made. But it’s out of our hands and out of our power. We can only express how we feel about it, and that’s as far as we can go. I was proud of the job that he was doing. I have been told that we do have another public information officer that will begin on Carlos G’s last day. He is still with us. He’s still, for a few more days, doing his job. I have not met this new person yet. I hope to meet them. I’m hoping they’re going to be introduced to us at our next city council meeting. One of the comments I have made is that I’m going to be expecting good things. I’m going to be expecting the level that we’ve seen already, because that has been a big leap for the city of Marathon. We’ve never had that kind of outreach before. We’ve not had videos like we’ve seen, our newsletter, all of the information that’s going out to the public, I think, has been very important. We need to work on maintaining public trust and the way to do that is to be open, be honest, be visible, and let everybody see what’s going on. And Carlos did a wonderful job of being present for events, and videoing those events and advertising them, and I just, I expect to see that going forward, that’s what I’m going to look for. I’m going to give the other person the chance, obviously, because I don’t know them, and they may be just as good, they may provide just as great of services. I hope so. But I think everybody deserves the kind of services we’ve been getting.”
The fire chief has been in the news recently as well for alleged reckless driving in a city vehicle.
Still said, “The information I have is that’s something that’s under investigation. It’s pretty standard from my experience, my past career, if an employee has been in an accident, or if there’s an investigation, they’re put on leave. That’s not a red flag for me. So I’m just kind of trusting the process to see what happens. I’d like to thank the fire chief has done for our department. It’s the first time we’ve ever been fully staffed. I know his employees like him. I’ve liked him, and I’m just waiting to see what a decision is going to be as far as the outcome of that investigation. I wish I could tell the public we had more control in the city council, but once again, we’re only responsible for hiring and firing two people, that’s per our charter is all we are allowed to do. That’s very frustrating at times, but that’s the way that charter was written back when the city incorporated, and that’s what we’re bound by, regardless of our personal feelings. I just hope a thorough investigation is done. I think that would be fair to everybody concerned, and I’m just waiting to hear what the outcome is.”
Summer camps are coming up as well.
Still said, “If you need childcare for this summer and you need a summer camp, Parks and Rec with the city of Marathon is taking applications, I think we have, I want to say, eight weeks of summer camp coming up. You can register. You do not have to sign up for all eight weeks. If you need one week or two, or if you need the entire summer, you can go on their Facebook page, and there is a link to register. I’m not sure what the pricing difference is, but I think it flexes back and forth, but what an amazing program. Not only that, usually the the Keys Weekly will have a printout of all of the summer camps and Marathon’s, so be on the lookout for that. There are so many amazing camp opportunities here in our community, you could not go wrong with any of them.”