DELTONA, FLA — City officials in Deltona held a workshop to discuss the search for a new city manager after former Interim City Manager Jim Chisholm resigned on Aug. 15.

Two days later, the city appointed the director of public works Glenn Whitcomb, as interim city manager.

The city’s deputy city manager also resigned earlier this month.

Chisholm was chosen as interim city manager in October of 2022, and signed a one-year contract in February this year. 

“He still had some time, so I am extremely disappointed because I believed the commission as a whole trusted him, I believe it is a little unethical to leave a city the way he did, that’s just my personal opinion,” Deltona City Mayor Santiago Avila Jr. said.

Deltona resident Brandy White has lived in the city for over 40 years. She shared her concerns at the special meeting the city held on Aug. 17. Today she spoke at the city’s workshop.

“The way my brain works, I am a problem solver. It’s what I do, and I decided to let me take a look at the old contract, the new contract. What happened? Where did we go wrong?” White said she took it upon herself to write up a new proposed city manager’s contract and send it to the city for consideration.

“Obviously I put a lot of ethics sections in here because we lack that right now in our contracts,” White said. 

She thinks the new city manager should not be an existing or previous city employee because it will create another vacancy at the city level and there could be potential conflicts.

“I think coming from where we are right now, there’s a huge break between residents in our city and to be honest it’s not going to be effective, any type of government is not going to be effective if the people aren’t on board and we have reasons to have the distrust we have,” she said.

Avila Jr. says he will investigate what’s causing the big turnover among city employees.

“Definitely, what we have now isn’t working. I think we are going on 27 years, 18 or 19 different city managers. There’s a problem, there’s a huge problem and a big disconnect,” he said.

White hopes the applicant would be transparent and maintain good communication with residents to bridge the gap between the city government and the people.

“It’s not completely hopeless, but it’s still a struggle, and more and more residents are getting tired of seeing these things, open checkbooks, but we are the ones struggling out here,” White said.

At the workshop commissioners agreed to creating two committees to help with the search.

The citizens committee will be formed by residents of the City of Deltona. Each commissioner will nominate two residents to be part of this committee.

Additionally, acting City Manager Glenn Whitcomb will choose two city staff members to form a committee of city staffers.

Both committees are expected to be ready within the next two weeks.

During public comment a dozen of residents shared with commissioners recommendations for the search process including having a grading rubric to rate each candidate, finding someone who has experience and someone who will be open to talking to residents and available to address citizens concerns.

City of DeBary’s City Manager Carmen Rosamonda was present at the meeting to offer his help in the search process. He said the city can either go with an external firm or go independently to find candidates for the position. “You have to be smart, you have to ask the right questions,” Rosamonda said.

The mayor says the search for a new city manager can last up to six months. But they don’t want to rush things because they want to make sure the next person who steps into the position is the right fit.