Council OKs negotiations with Titcomb to take town manager’s job

By Joe Capozzi

Former Ocean Ridge Town Manager Jamie Titcomb has emerged as the Town Council’s choice to be South Palm Beach’s next manager. Now the council must decide whether to allow him to serve as an independent contractor or a full-time employee.

Titcomb, the town manager in Loxahatchee Groves from 2019 until last June, wants to be South Palm Beach’s town manager as an independent contractor for $12,000 a month.

Although he said he does not want a full-time position because of family obligations that led him to retire last summer, he suggested there could be a scenario that would satisfy the council.

“I’m not necessarily your long-term solution,’’ he told the council at a special meeting on March 6. “I just retired last year. I’m kind of being pulled back out of the mothballs.’’

At the council’s direction, Town Attorney Glen Torcivia was expected to begin negotiations in late March with Titcomb, who would replace departing Robert Kellogg.

Kellogg announced his retirement in November, a day after council member Ray McMillan made an unsuccessful motion to fire him. Kellogg wanted to retire at the end of March but has agreed to stay on until the council finds a replacement.

Torcivia is expected to give the council an update on the negotiations on April 11.

“The most recent conversation I had with the attorney is, he believes if I am going to come here and stay for any duration that I’ll probably need to be an employee of the town,’’ Titcomb said in an interview after the March 14 meeting.

But Titcomb did not indicate this would necessarily be a dealbreaker.

He told the council he could serve in “a transitional” capacity for a while, allowing the council to later seek “a long-term traditional manager.’’

“I have a lot of energy and expertise left in me,’’ he said. “The longer term prospects of this has yet to be seen.’’

Under Titcomb’s proposal, he would make $144,000 a year, assuming he worked 12 months. And since he is a contractor, the town would not be responsible for paying him any benefits.

Kellogg, who has served as a town manager and South Palm Beach employee since 2019, is making $110,250 a year.

When the search process for a new town manager was first discussed at a special meeting Jan. 30, council members agreed it should be a full-time position.

Titcomb attended that meeting and told the council he was not interested in a full-time job but was available to offer advice. But he said that in the days and weeks after that meeting, several council members reached out individually to him and encouraged him to apply.

He also attended the March 6 meeting, which started out with council members preparing to discuss the search process. When McMillan suggested the town save time and negotiate with Titcomb, a majority of the council agreed.

One resident said the town should conduct a general search. But council members, noting how they’re trying to expedite long-debated plans for a new Town Hall, directed Torcivia to negotiate with Titcomb.

“I am more inclined to go with a work-agreement contract versus being a fulltime employee of the town because of the flexibility and my circumstances at this time,’’ Titcomb said March 6.

“I didn’t come forward thinking I am looking for a long-term assignment for years to come,’’ he said. “I know this is a full-time scenario in the sense that once you have the mantle and responsibility and the title, you’ve got to be there for the town as needed. But the details of how that plays out can well be articulated in the agreement to everyone’s satisfaction.’’

Mayor Bonnie Fischer, a South Palm Beach resident since 1976, said she can’t recall any time when the manager wasn’t a full-time town employee.

Titcomb has applied for the South Palm Beach town manager’s job before, in 2015. But he wound up accepting the town manager post in Ocean Ridge, where he worked from October 2015 to March 2019.

Titcomb lives in Atlantis. Ú