Jason Davis is a finalist for what should be — but isn’t — one of the most sought-after public sector jobs in South Florida. He’s one of three finalists to be Fort Lauderdale’s next city manager.
Davis is currently deputy administrator in St. Lucie County and previously was Palm Beach County’s water utilities director. He has a Ph.D. in organizational leadership from Nova Southeastern University and was a recent finalist for city manager in Deerfield Beach, where city leaders promoted their public safety director instead.
The other Fort Lauderdale finalists are Rickelle Williams, an assistant Miami Beach city manager, and Matthew von der Hayden, administrator of much smaller Stafford Township, N.J. (pop. 30,000) on the Jersey shore.
All three will be in town in early February for a city tour, a public meet-and-greet and job interviews.
Mike Stocker/Sun Sentinel
Steve Bousquet, Sun Sentinel columnist.
Not one of the three has ever run a government anywhere near the size of Florida’s 10th largest city — a red flag for sure.
Where are the applications from other cities in Florida or throughout the South? They stayed away.
The unimpressive field might be explained by bad timing. A search firm hired by the city solicited applicants during the volatile 2024 election season, when the city’s political future was uncertain.
In the end, only one seat changed hands with Ben Sorensen replacing Warren Sturman in District 4, but the political dynamics are different now. Still, city leaders mostly appear content with these choices. “I’m good with the three,” Mayor Dean Trantalis said.
Commissioner John Herbst expressed dissatisfaction with the field, and faulted a seven-member citizens’ search committee for forwarding only three names from a final field of seven. He tried to add two more but was outvoted by his colleagues.
In an interview, Herbst, a former city auditor, called Williams, the apparent frontrunner, a “lightweight,” and said of his city: “We run the world’s largest on-the-job training program.”
Davis, 49, has lots of experience in water, storm water, budgeting and project management. He has the deepest résumé, making him a dark horse contender in a very shallow pool. He was short-listed by the search committee on Jan 19.
In a 45-minute online interview, Davis talked about the merits of “smart growth” in St. Lucie, where miles of former citrus groves are being converted into huge single-family home subdivisions. It’s the story of Broward’s evolution, 40 years later.
The challenge, he said, is to manage growth so that roads, sewers, sidewalks and other infrastructure can keep up with demand.
“The thing I hear at every board meeting is that ‘we don’t want to be another Palm Beach or Broward or Miami,’” Davis said in a job interview. “So we’re trying to coach our board on smart growth. The growth is coming … When the builders come, and our code allows for nine units per acre, for example, we try to get them to agree to three units per acre.”
That’s music to the ears of everyone worn down by growth, noise and traffic. But “smart growth” means different things to people.
The American Planning Association defines it as “mixed-use, mixed-income livable communities” and “redevelopment patterns that optimize prior infrastructure investments, and consume less land than is otherwise available for agriculture, open space, natural systems and rural lifestyles.”
Florida’s abysmal failure to keep up with development is not just a Fort Lauderdale problem. Here’s one street-level example.
Ten years ago, a Fort Lauderdale consultant identified 106 miles of poorly maintained city sidewalks because the city stopped making repairs. This week, a new study identified 437 miles of short- and long-term sidewalk improvements needed in the city.
“There’s a very large need,” project manager Robert Modys told officials.
Davis’ support for less-dense development will draw the attention of commissioners and the development community, which has a big say in city politics. Development and redevelopment are woven deeply through the city’s culture and economy.
But this critical hiring decision will most likely be based on the personal chemistry between the applicants and commissioners that will develop in public meetings and one-on-one interviews on Feb. 3-4.
Discussing how he works positively with co-workers, Davis said: “I try to just be an open book … I have to earn their trust. Let me earn it.”
He’ll get the chance to do that.
Steve Bousquet is Opinion Editor of the Sun Sentinel and a columnist in Tallahassee and Fort Lauderdale. Contact him at sbousquet@sunsentinel.com or (850) 567-2240 and follow him on X @stevebousquet.