Imagine the following ad for the recruitment of a city manager for Deltona:

“HELP WANTED — Someone with the wisdom of Solomon, the patience of Job, the humility of Jesus, the compassion of a missionary, the thick and armored “skin of an alligator,” the toughness of a Marine, the warmth of a golden retriever, and the resolve to maintain these qualities during natural disasters, storms and human-caused crises. Apply today.”

More than four years after Jane Shang exited as city manager, Deltona’s quest for someone to come into town and solve all the problems is once again gaining attention and traction. With the City Commission’s blessing, Colin Baenziger and Associates, the executive-search firm Deltona has contracted to lead the search, has prepared a brochure to supplement its advertising in publications and online to reach potential applicants for the position.

Newly appointed City Commissioner Troy Shimkus noted Deltona has a reputation for being “dysfunctional,” beset with plenty of challenges in a time of nonstop growth.

“What we are asking for is someone to come and fix that,” Shimkus told his colleagues and the audience.

The brochure is nine pages and gives extra context to Deltona within the East Central Florida region, and it challenges would-be public administrators to come forward and enter themselves into the competition to lead what has to be one of the most interesting cities in the country.

Deltona, a city with a population not far below the 100,000 mark, has its share of difficulties:

— The city’s property-tax base is approximately 80 percent residential, although the advent of two massive Amazon warehouses and new apartments bring the promise of increasing the commercial/industrial tax revenues

— The lingering perception of Deltona as a “bedroom community” of the Greater Orlando area

— A large number of its households on the lower side of the area’s socioeconomic scale

— For much of the past five years, Deltona’s municipal government has been marked by division and dissension over such issues as the leadership style of city managers, zoning and residential development.

The recruiting brochure notes “the need for stability in government,” and that Deltona “has had four interim managers (one of whom also served briefly as manager), and each has attempted to implement a different set of priorities.”

— Deltona has vocal critics who often show up at City Commission meetings to bring attention to real concerns or to themselves.

“Commission meetings have, on occasion, become raucous,” the brochure points out.

— As the city moves toward age 30 — often considered the mark of maturity — there are still some growing pains, especially traffic congestion, overcrowding in some schools, and flooding and drainage problems in some parts of Deltona that became acute during the 2022 hurricane season.

Deltona’s advantages include:

— Strategic placement in the I-4 corridor and its access to transportation 

— A workforce with a good work ethic and a willingness to offer an honest day’s labor for a fair wage and under equitable conditions, and the workforce would like to be employed closer to home.

— Deltona has a reputation of being a rather friendly and generally welcoming place, whose people have mostly come from somewhere else and have neighbors who likewise came from somewhere else, including several foreign countries.

— What was once a retirement village has morphed into a place where growing families have come in search of affordable housing.

The brochure that Baenziger and his team have drafted highlights the positive at its outset.

“The City is a wonderful place to live, work, play and raise a family. It is a quiet residential community that has practically everything you would want within its boundaries or nearby,” the reader learns. “While its parks are plentiful, it is also halfway between the world’s most famous beach (Daytona Beach) and some of the country’s most popular tourist attractions (Disney World, Universal Studios, and SeaWorld Orlando). What really makes Deltona a wonderful place, however, is its residents.”

While Deltona, and Florida in general, may seem like paradise and an opportunity too good to be true for many aspiring public servants living in Northern states, Baenziger’s brochure sets forth the reality awaiting whomever the City Commission hires for the post.

“The ideal candidate will have a high degree of emotional intelligence and be forward thinking,” the brochure reads. “A critical skill will be the ability to gaze into the future, anticipate issues, and take action to resolve the issues before they become problems. Likewise, she/he must be able to analyze the current challenges, prioritize, and address them.

“Deltona has a variety of competing interests,” the narrative continues. “The ideal candidate will be immune to pressure. He/she will be strong but diplomatic, and have the skin of an alligator. Finding common ground, and bringing people to a consensus will be key to success.”

The recruiting brochure further calls for the one chosen to administer Deltona to “be savvy in the use of both traditions and social media. When confronted with negativity, the Manager will stand up and politely correct the record.”

Thanks to a change in Deltona’s charter, the next permanent manager may reside as far as 25 miles away from the city limits, but city commissioners say living “in the City is preferred.”

The pay range for the next permanent city manager set by the City Commission is $160,000-$250,000. That new higher limit is up from the $200,000 previously set. Commissioners who support the quarter-of-a-million-dollar ceiling say they do not intend to use that as the low-end starting point in negotiations for compensation.

“We are not guaranteeing a higher salary,” Shimkus said.

“The better the salary range, the more applications you will receive,” Commissioner Maritza Avila-Vazquez said. “This will attract more.”

As things now stand, the deadline for applying to be Deltona’s next city manager is March 11, 2024. 

Baenziger and his team will review and screen the applications between March 12 and April 20, and the firm will recommend its top choices for interviews by the City Commission. The current timetable calls for the finalists — how many there will be has not been determined — to visit Deltona and sit for interviews by the mayor and commissioners in May, and a “hiring decision will be made shortly thereafter,” the brochure notes.

Under Florida’s government-in-the-sunshine law, the applications, résumés, cover letters and other documents submitted by those seeking the manager’s position become public record.