MEMORANDUM COLIN BAENZIGER & ASSOCIATES TO: Mayor and City Council Vero Beach, FL FROM: Colin Baenziger DATE: April 22, 2019 RE: City Attorney Search Update: Recommended Candidates The following is a summary of the six candidates that we are recommending the City consider to be its next City Attorney. We believe all the candidates are very strong and that any one of them would do an excellent job for Vero Beach. Brief summaries of the recommended credentials follow. We have also provided materials for one other candidate you may wish to consider. Although beyond the scope of our assignment, we have additionally provided some information concerning the law firm that submitted a proposal. Those We Are Recommending • Cynthia A. Everett: Ms. Everett was most recently the City Attorney for the City of Fort Lauderdale, FL (population 180,072), for five years. Prior to that she was the Village Attorney for the Village of Pinecrest, FL (population 19,201), for fourteen years. She has a collegial, flexible management style believing no one style fits every situation. Employees have different backgrounds and experiences, and those factors must be considered in managing people. Throughout her legal career she has had many notable accomplishments. Among other things, has had the honor of successfully arguing before the Florida Supreme Court and being elected to The Florida Bar Board of Governors. She feels her greatest achievement to date is being a role model and inspiration to others. Throughout her legal career, students, lawyers, non-lawyers and staff have told her how they admire her leadership, professionalism and career guidance to them over the years. Ms. Everett has a Bachelor in Government from the Florida State University and a Juris Doctor from the George Washington University. • Susan M. Garrett: Ms. Garrett has been with the City of Atlanta, GA (population 486,290), since 2012 and she has been the Deputy City Attorney since August of 2018. Prior to this she was the Assistant City Attorney for East Point, GA (population 35,433), for three years. She also served as the Chief Procurement Officer (CPO) for the City of Atlanta overseeing a department of 75+ employees) on an interim basis for fourteen months. Ms. Garrett’s management style is collaborative and collegial but not laissez-faire. She assumes full responsibility for setting goals, making decisions, and giving direction in a clear and timely manner. After doing so, she steps back and allows staff to perform their roles with an appropriate level of autonomy – that is, with advice and oversight from her, but without needless micromanaging. Her greatest achievement in recent years was her tenure Interim CPO (on loan from the Law Department). The Procurement Department was in turmoil after Memo to the Mayor and Council, Vero Beach, FL, April 22, 2019 the prior CPO was terminated after being implicated in a federal bribery investigation. It was her first experience leading a large organization and holding a cabinet level position in the City administration. She quickly restored staff morale and improved productivity. She left the department far better than she had found it - running more smoothly and happily than it had in years. Ms. Garrett has a Bachelor in French from McGill University and a Juris Doctor from the Emory University School of Law. • John S. Turner: Mr. Turner has been a partner with the Peterson Law Group since 2015, during which time he has worked as the contract Town Attorney for Fort Myers Beach, FL (population 7,077). Prior to that he was the Senior Assistant Attorney for the Lee County (population 678,241) for twenty-four years. Mr. Turner’s management style is to encourage staff to accomplish the organization’s long-range objectives. The main goal as the leader of the office is to mold the City Attorney’s office into the most-admired and highest-rated office in the area. This can only be done with hard work and dedication, putting aside the distractions that result from lack of integrity and respect, and from abandonment of civility. Some of Mr. Turner’s achievements in Fort Myers include the adoption of several dozen ordinances, resolutions and zoning cases including: new short-term rental regulations; beach regulations and development; a seven-acre rezoning project; the largest re-development in the Town’s history; and, rezoning of various commercial and residential parcels. Mr. Turner received a Bachelor in Marketing and Juris Doctor from the University of Tulsa. • Joseph X. DiNovo: Mr. DiNovo has been the Assistant County Attorney for Hernando County, FL (population 186,553) since 2014. Prior to that employment, he owned a private practice for nine years and was the Appellate Staff Attorney for the 19th Judicial Circuit for three years. Mr. DiNovo’s preferred management style is one utilizing a collaborative approach to decision making. He believes that “two heads are better than one” and three are better. Every attorney brings his or her own unique legal experience and unique skill set to the approach of a legal problem. His greatest personal and professional achievement would be arguing before the Supreme Court of Ohio in the case of Cline et. al. v. American Aggregates Corporation, 15 Ohio St. 3d 384, 474 N.E. 2d 324, 15 OBR 501 (1984). In addition to deriving a great deal of professional satisfaction from playing a part in the overruling of a precedent that had stood since 1861 and to have persuaded the court to adopt a more equitable and protective view of the water resource as embodied in Section 858 of the Restatement of the Law 2d, Torts, it was particularly gratifying to be approached, after oral argument, by one of the adjoining landowners (a person of modest means), and thanked for helping him restore his water supply. Mr. DiNovo has a Bachelors in political science from John Carroll University and a Juris Doctorate from Syracuse University. • Philip Sherwin: Mr. Sherwin worked for Polk County, FL, from 2003 to 2015, most recently serving as an Assistant County Attorney III. He also worked for the City of Cape Coral as an Assistant City Attorney from 1985 to 1989 and has sixteen years’ experience in the private sector. While at Polk County, he supervised a paralegal and a secretary. In 2010 he became Board Certified in City, County and Local Government Law. When asked about litigation, he said, “As a Certified Circuit Civil Court Mediator, I understand the value of mediation. In handling lawsuits everything must be weighed with the City’s best interest in mind, which entails a cost/benefit analysis as the matter progresses and a determination Page 2 of 4 Memo to the Mayor and Council, Vero Beach, FL, April 22, 2019 whether to settle or not. The City Attorney makes the recommendation to the City Commission, which ultimately determines how one proceeds with a lawsuit. In some cases, you may have a matter that will be particularly imperative to pursue to the end to deter others from bringing similar actions, while in other cases you must go to trial when there is no reasonable basis to settle the matter. Litigation is both time consuming and expensive, which must be kept in mind at all times.” Mr. Sherwin received a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Miami in Coral Gables and a J.D. from Northern Illinois University. • Lysia H. Bowling: Ms. Bowling was the City Attorney for Pensacola, FL (population 52,590) from 2015 until recently when the new mayor took office and appointed someone else. Prior to this she was the City Attorney for San Angelo, TX (population 99,803), for six years and the Assistant City Attorney for Miami, FL (population 416,577), for two years. She considers herself to be a team player and an integral part of the management. Her goal is to contribute to the success of the management team. She ensures that the office never turns inward or works in isolation. Instead she wants it to collaborate with other members of the organization. She has been fortunate to work closely with many leaders and professionals in diverse governmental arenas to benefit operations and to improve customer service. To that end, she has successfully proposed and instituted a variety of mechanisms to streamline enforcement programs and facilitate citizen compliance for the good of the community. Ms. Bowling has a Bachelor in Political Science and Latin American Studies from Yale and a Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia. Someone Else You May Wish to Consider Another candidate who applied and whom you may wish to consider. • Manny Anon: Mr. Anon was the Assistant City Attorney for Port St. Lucie, FL (population 189,344) from 2016 to January 2019. He was previously the Assistant City Attorney for the City of Surfside, FL (population 5,863) for four months and he was Deputy General Counsel for the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees for fifteen years. Mr. Anon’s management style is proactive and adaptive. He also believes in an open-door policy. He is most proud of his military service. During his past deployments, he served as Command Judge Advocate at Camp Darby in Livorno, Italy primarily responsible for Contract/Fiscal, Legal Assistance and Claims at Camp Darby; Chief Client Service Officer and Chief Foreign Claims Officer at Bagram Airfield (in Afghanistan); Chief Client Service Officer, Contract Officer and Foreign Claims Officer at Camp FOB Marez in Mosul, Iraq; and Command Judge Advocate at CAS in Qatar responsible for Legal Assistance, Admin, UCMJ, and Contract/Fiscal law and more. Mr. Anon has an A.A. from Miami-Dade Community College, a B.A.