The city opened the interim city manager’s job to every employee on its payroll on Sept. 28.

One of them applied.

He is Reuben C. Franklin Jr., the assistant city manager, and the memorandum that says so is item 13.A on tonight’s agenda.

The last line of that memorandum is the part the board votes on. It asks the commission to appoint him interim city manager from Dec. 17, 2026 to June 17, 2027, “or at a future date as determined by the City Commission.”

Dec. 17 is the day after City Manager David Birchim’s last day.

What the file says

The cover letter runs a page. It is dated Sept. 30. It gives “more than sixteen years” with the city and a progression the resume behind it dates row by row: professional engineer from July 2010, mobility program manager from February 2017, public works director from September 2019, assistant city manager from June 2023.

The resume also opens by claiming twenty years of municipal leadership experience, which is the only number in the file that does not match the letter. The five dated rows account for it. The first of them is just under four years at a private engineering firm starting in June 2006, so twenty is the career and sixteen is the city.

The job description attached to the same item asks for ten years in municipal government. Either number clears it.

The document they are measured against

That job description is three pages out of the city’s personnel manual, and it was issued on March 22, 2023. Its revision date is blank. Its approval line is blank. The running head on its second page carries the name of a different city manager.

It also still has its editing in it. One paragraph on preparing the commission agenda ends with a parenthetical crediting the staff member who revised it. A paragraph on reviewing ordinances ends with “deleted by staff as ordinances are done by City Attorney,” and then prints the deleted paragraph anyway.

A master’s degree is listed as preferred, and a valid Florida driver’s license, classification E, is listed as required.

Which is fine. It is the document the memorandum says the applicant was reviewed against, and it is about three and a half years old.

Six months, and who the six months is for

The memorandum gives the reason in one sentence. The six month term “was being considered in order to allow the new Mayor and the new city commissioners enough time to consider their options for filling the City Manager position.”

That is the whole shape of the thing. A board on its way out hires a caretaker, and by the city manager’s own account the hiring is left to the board that follows.

What is not in the packet

The discussion the memorandum describes happened at the Sept. 28 meeting. The minutes of that meeting are not on tonight’s agenda.

Consent item CA.4 approves two sets: the Sept. 14 shade meeting and the Sept. 23 special budget meeting. So until a later agenda carries them, the city manager’s one paragraph is the only public account of what the commission said on Sept. 28 about the length of the term, and the Tattler will publish the minutes when they are posted.

Twice on one agenda

Two items up, the city clerk reports on the boards. Five seats are open: the audit committee, the 1977 city employees’ retirement system trustees, the civil service board, the firefighters’ pension trust fund trustees and the police officers’ retirement system trustees.

The clerk advertised in the Record and posted on the city website. One application came in, for the audit committee.

The meeting is at 5 p.m. in the Alcazar Room. The next one is Oct. 26.