David Birchim will leave the St. Augustine city manager’s office on Dec. 16, and the commission that takes his letter is not the commission that will replace him.

He wrote to the mayor, the vice-mayor and the commissioners on Sept. 28. One page. His contract runs to June 2, 2028, and he asked to be let out of it early.

Then he gave the board the part that matters to everybody else.

“During this time, you will have the chance to appoint a new City Manager, or to appoint an interim City Manager if you would prefer to allow the incoming City Commission to make this important decision.”

The city says the commission took the second one. Its own News Flash, posted Sept. 29, says the board accepted the letter, released him from the contract, and will select an interim “at the next meeting when all commissioners are present,” so that the final decision is made by the newly seated board in 2027.

What that hands to the ballot

The commission hires a city manager and the commission lets one go. That is the whole of what the letter asks for. It is addressed to the mayor, the vice-mayor and the commissioners, and what it asks them to do is accept a retirement and release a contract.

The next one gets picked by a board that does not exist yet.

There is one City of St. Augustine Commission race on the Nov. 3 ballot, Seat 5, and the Supervisor of Elections has two candidates qualified for it, Matt Brown and Julie Settle.

The record, and what is not in it yet

The letter is dated Sept. 28, which was the day of the meeting, so the posted agenda for that meeting carries no item about any of this. The nearest thing on it is 13.A, under Items by City Manager: “2026 Year in Review: January 1-September 14, 2026.”

Minutes are approved at the next meeting, which is Oct. 12 at five. Until then the city’s own release is the only published account of what the board did with the letter, and a release is the city saying something rather than the record of it.

Twenty-nine years

Birchim started with the city in December 1997 and was named manager in May 2023, chosen from three candidates after John Regan retired that June. He was planning and building director, then assistant city manager.

The city’s list of what it credits to the tenure runs to the Community Services Department, the Dignity Pavilion, the West King Street parking garage, a new Anastasia Island fire station, and a rewrite of how the city runs Nights of Lights.

“It has been an honor to serve the City of St. Augustine and to work alongside such a dedicated team,” he said in the city’s release. “I’m proud of what we have accomplished together and confident in the City’s continued success.”

Two cities, two searches

St. Augustine Beach is doing this at the same time and is further along. Its commission set a range of $160,000 to $200,000 for the next manager on Aug. 3, after the search consultant proposed $180,000 to $230,000 and the board called that too high. Applications for Max Royle’s job come back to that commission on Monday, item B under presentations.

So both cities in this county are replacing a manager this winter. One of them has published a salary range and a date to read the applications. The other has published a last day.