LAKE WORTH BEACH, Fla. — The Lake Worth Beach City Council on Monday fired City Manager Carmen Davis, who was hired two years ago.
During a specially scheduled meeting to evaluate her two-year performance, the council voted 3-2 to terminate her.
Voting to remove her were Vice Mayor Christopher McCoy of District 2, Commissioner Kim Stokes of District 3 and Commissioner Reinaldo Díaz of District 4. Voting against the measure were Mayor Betty Resch and Commissioner Sarah Malega of District 1.
Jamie Brown, the city's public works director, will serve as interim city manager.
Davis was hired in September 2021 after spending nearly a decade running day-to-day operations in Hinds County, Mississippi. She was selected by city commissioners from a group of four finalists. She replaced Michael Bornstein, who stepped down in June 2021 after nine years as the city's top administrator.
She began her position in December 2021.
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"What was attractive to me about Lake Worth Beach is the fact that it's very connected with its community," she said at the time in an interview with WPTV.
She was the first person of color to run a city of about 40,000 people.
"Fundamentally, because of not being a good fit for the city," McVoy told WPTV reporter Ethan Stein. "Three commissioners all had similar experiences of having requested forward movement on various issues and yet no movement for two years."
Diaz gave his reasons to WPTV reporter Joel Lopez.
"It wasn't an easy decision. But looking at the totality of her tenure, it's apparent that we're struggling to move the city forward," he said. "I talked about it in the meeting. But, basically, there have been a lot of policy directions brought up since I've been in office that fizzle out to no response. Even when there is a clear majority. The response I generally received was that my ideas needed to be brought to the rest of the commission, which is difficult because of Sunshine Law, of course, but something that every municipality has to deal with in Florida."
He noted there were other issues.
"Like micromanaging and slow onboarding, where we lost a really good person at water utility because she took weeks to review that person's resume," he said. "Rather than trust the staff that really wanted this person for a highly technical position. She ended up taking another offer. Really frustrating."
Her evaluation included organizational management, fiscal management and budgeting, intermediate and long-range planning, intergovernmental relationships, relationship with the public, relationship with the City Commission and personal characteristics.
The rating scale was 1 to 5.
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Resch, the mayor, gave her top remarks in several areas, including a 5 in all categories of intergovernmental relations, professional development and personal characteristics.
"My experience with Ms. Davis and her communication with me has been very positive," the mayor wrote in her evaluation. "She keeps me up to date either in person or by phone or email with any updates. She is very available to me. Of course I don't know how this works with others."
Resch noted she was "walking iinto a chaotic situation and grabbing hold of it in a very timely manner."
She also wrote: "Lake Worth Beach is not an easy city to manage. I'm sure at time she is harding cats! She is consistently professional and calm (even in the face of being disrepected in public and behind closed doors)."
In her own evaluation, Davis wrote: "I am a visionary/servant who is passionate about serving the LWB community and believes in its future. I take great pride in my work."
She added, "I enjoy my role as a problem solver and looked for innovative ways to address concerns, when necessary, and I always find the best outcome for the whole of the team, Commission, and all the community."
When asked about improvements and focus, she wrote: "Delegating was initially difficult as I felt the need to engage in as many issues as possible to understand and be familiar with to ensure the resolutions and approaches to those issues are aligned with the Commission's direction."
She noted the vacancy of the assistant city manager "has further extended the need to be hands-on."
One of the top matters in the city is the renovation of the historic Gulfstream Hotel.