City Finance Director Jeff Green will be the new city administrator, the city announced Thursday afternoon.
“I’m humbled by the opportunity to get to serve the city,” Green told The Palm Beach Post Thursday, just before the formal announcement. “I’m very excited about the team we have, and we’re getting ready to do great things.”
Green starts his new post Nov. 11.
West Palm Beach Mayor Jeri Muoio announced the move in an email to all city employees.
“As you may know, Jeff has been the architect behind the city’s new five year strategic plan, a fiscal and policy road map unlike anything this city has had in the past,” Muoio wrote. “Jeff has also skillfully and successfully navigated complicated waters to ensure the past two budget years have resulted in a balanced budget and a financially strong city with no reductions in services upon which our residents depend.”
Green came to the city in July 2012 after holding the same post for the city of Fort Myers from 2003 to 2007.
A certified public accountant, he has more than 25 years in financial management, including six years with a major international firm, and has been a chief financial officer both in private and public sectors.
Green succeeds Ed Mitchell, who left Oct. 16 after two decades at the city, 14 years of that as city administrator.
The city did not say immediately what Green’s salary will be. Mitchell was paid $210,140 as administrator. A July 2012 Palm Beach Post survey of government managers across Palm Beach County placed his pay — the same as when he left– behind only Palm Beach County Administrator Bob Weisman ($251, 593) and Boca Raton City Manager Leif Ahnell ($222,280).
With West Palm Beach instituting a “strong mayor” government in 1991, the city administrator’s powers are more limited than those of managers in other cities. The administrator oversees the city’s employees but cannot hire and fire; that’s done by Muoio.
Green’s hiring fills one of three vacant high-level posts, but of course creates a third.
West Palm Beach’s human resources director, Marta Vittini, resigned Aug. 27, after her six-month probationary period. She’d replaced longtime director Pat Cooney. Twenty-four hours earlier, Kim Briesemeister, community redevelopment director since 2004, resigned. She later applied for a return to the city as a private contractor. Her firm is one of four finalists.
The city did not immediately say Thursday what it will do about the finance director’s position.
