Search firm recommends 28 Lake Worth Beach city manager semifinalists
The 66 applicants from 20 states whose resumes will be reviewed June 2 by City Commission do not include interim city manager Troy Perry.
SIXTY-SIX CANDIDATES from 20 states and one other country, Pakistan, want to be Lake Worth Beach’s next city manager, a job that could pay at least $300,000 a year.
A recruiting firm hired by the city is recommending 28 semifinalists, including four women and one internal candidate: Stuart Sword, the city’s assistant director of Leisure Services, the only semifinalist with no city manager experience.
Assistant City Manager Troy Perry, who has been serving as Lake Worth Beach’s interim manager since April 21, confirmed in an email to the Lake Worth Beach Independent that he is not a candidate for the full-time job. Perry is making a base salary of $233,928 under an agreement approved May 19.
Among the semifinalists whose names will be presented to the City Commission on June 2: A recently-ousted Riviera Beach city manager; a former Pahokee manager who was accused of fraud last year by the county inspector general: an Arkansas manager fired in December for making a disparaging comment on a hot mic at a public meeting; and a former CIA analyst who is assistant city manager in Washington, D.C.
The preliminary evaluation of the candidates, prepared by Sumter Local Government Consulting, is based on a scoring matrix that awards points for management experience, education and professional certification.
While the firm’s report includes each applicant’s resume, it offers no information about why candidates who are not currently employed in local government left their most recent public positions.
Here is a list of the 28 recommended semifinalists, including background from a Lake Worth Beach Independent review of news archives and public records, in order of their Sumter ranking.
These four candidates each scored the highest with 65 points
James Gleason
City administrator in Lake Helen, Fla., from 2024 to January 2026.
Gleason came out of retirement to manage Lake Helen but announced 19 months later that he was stepping down, citing a mix of personal and professional reasons, according to The West Volusia Beacon.
Lynda Boswell
Finance director for Port Arthur, Texas, since October 2023 and for Temple Terrace, Fla., from 2017-2022.
Michael Hein
Town manager in Groveland, 37 miles west of Orlando, since 2017.
Richard Douglas
County administrator for Sussex County, Va., since October 2020.
City manager, Covington, Va., March 2016 to February 2019 when he resigned under pressure.
These five candidates each scored 60 points
Carl Geffken
City administrator in Fort Smith, Ark., May 2016 to December 2024.
He was fired a week after officials caught him on a hot mic saying “These people are stupid” during public comments at a meeting, according to The Arkansas Times. In February, while interviewing for a managerial position in Iowa, Geffken denied making the “stupid” remark, saying it was falsely attributed to him, according to The Quad-City Times.
Cheri Matthews
County Manager in Henry County, Ga., 2015 to April 2026
Matthews was fired by the commission’s chairperson without a full vote of the board, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. A week earlier, the county announced its finances would be transferred from the county manager to the county commission.
In January, a county ethics board dismissed a complaint that alleged Matthews has a conflict of interest because her husband and sister are county employees who fall within her chain of command.
Robert Hillard
City manager in Charlotte, Mich., from May 2024 to February 2026 when he resigned.
Thomas Thomas
City manager in Compton, Calif., from March 2022 to July 2023 when he was fired.
Jonathan Evans
Riviera Beach city manager, 2019 to May 2026,
He received a $186,000 separation agreement in May when his contract was not renewed after a tumultuous run marked by clashes and an FBI probe. He served as city manager there for six months in 2017 before he was fired. He was city manager in Madeira Beach from 2017 to 2019.
These three candidates each scored 55 points
Jerry Gabrielatos
City manager in Beloit, Wis., 2023 to 2025. City manager in West Linn, Ore., from September 2020 to August 2022.
Joel Dye
City manager in Allegan, Mich., since April 2017.
William Lawrence
Town manager of Lady Lake, Fla., since April 2021. City manager in Bowling Green, Fla., from 2019 to 2021.
These four candidates each scored 50 points
Charles Rudd
City manager Tarpon Springs October 2024 to May 2026.
City manager Crescent City August 2021 to September 2024
Rudd resigned from his Tarpon Springs post following backlash over a $40,000 therapy-style staff retreat in Orlando that caused some city employees distress. “There’s a deep paranoia in Tarpon Springs about Scientology,” Rudd told the Tampa Bay Times. “They were worried it’s a part of Scientology, and it’s not.”
Chandler Williamson
Deputy town manager and interim town manager for Pembroke Park April 2024 to April 2025.
Pahokee city manager March 2015 to May 2021.
In 2025, Palm Beach County Inspector General John Carey found “widespread and systemic mismanagement” of taxpayer funds in an audit of Pahokee finances from Oct. 1, 2017, to Jan. 10, 2023. Referring to Williamson, who used taxpayer money to, among other things, finance trips to his alma mater in South Carolina, the audit alleged, “His action suggests waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayer dollars.’’
Larry Tibbs
Moore Haven city manager since 2021. Assistant city manager of Belle Glade from 2016 to 2021.
Marc Nelson
Town manager for Simsbury, Conn., since 2024.
Mayor and city administrator for Poughkeepsie, N.Y., from 2023 to 2024.
These two candidates each scored 45 points
Scott Andrews
County manager for Doña Ana County, New Mexico, since October 2024. Assistant city manager in Bakersfield, Calif., May 2022 to September 2024.
Under Andrews’ tenure, a massive, multibillion-dollar artificial intelligence data center campus called Project Jupiter is under construction in Doña Ana County. Backed by tech giants Oracle and OpenAI, the project has also raised questions and concerns.
Zachary Border
Township manager for Lower Swatara Township in south central Pennsylvania since 2023.
These rest of the recommendations
Richard “Dick” McKinley, 40 points.
City administrator in Lawrenceburg, Tenn., since December 2022.
Colin Donnelly, 40 points.
Grants administrator for Dania Beach September 2019 to December 2024. Assistant city manager in Dania Beach 2006 to 2019.
Christopher Rodriguez, 35 points.
Assistant city administrator for Washington, D.C., since September 2023.
A former CIA analyst, he was accused of workplace discrimination during his tenure from 2017 to 2023 as D.C.’s director of homeland security and Emergency Management Agency, according to reports.
Steven Chapman, 35 points.
Deputy city manager/chief financial officer for Brookhaven, Ga, since September 2016.
Dana Schoening, 40 points.
City manager in Tuttle, Okla., since 2022.
Charles Morris, 40 points.
City manager in Milton-Freewater, Ore., from May 2024 to October 2025 when he was fired. Deputy city manager Niceville, Fla., 2023 to 2024.
Natasha Tucker, 40 points.
Town manager for Colonial Beach, Va., since April 2024. Had been interim and assistant town manager there from May 2023 to April 2024.
Jacquelin Guild, 35 points.
Deputy city manager for Annapolis, Md., since November 2020.
Stuart Sword, 30 points.
Assistant director for Lake Worth Beach Leisure Services since 2025.
Douglas Baber, 40 points.
Assistant county manager/chief financial officer for Hardee County, Fla., since March 2024.
The candidate from Pakistan, Muhammad Mughal of Karachi, scored 15 points.
Read Sumter’s full initial candidate review by clicking here.