Deerfield Beach Close to Hiring New City Manager; Public Meeting Set

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DEERFIELD BEACH CITY MANAGER: It looks like the city is getting closer to hiring a new city manager to replace Burgess Hanson.

A Special City Commission Meeting will be held on Friday, September 6, 2019, at 7:00 PM in the Commission Chambers at City Hall, 150 N.E. Second Avenue in Deerfield Beach. The City Commission will be interviewing the short-listed candidates for City Manager.

Prior to the Special Meeting, there will be a Meet & Greet with the short-listed candidates from 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM in the Old School House Meeting Room, 323 N.E. Second Street. The City Commission will be in attendance, and the public is invited to attend.

The Deerfield Beach city manager position has been open since April when Hanson  was pressured to resign.

As we reported earlier Hanson submitted a written letter of resignation on April 5, 2019. The following week, Mayor Bill Ganz addressed the resignation publicly and made it clear the resignation was not voluntary.

According to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, “Mayor Bill Ganz said he wanted Hanson to step down, concerned that the manager was giving him information that was ‘incomplete, misleading or downright not accurate’….[regarding] background checks for coaches” for teams playing or practicing on city owned property.

The more controversial issue seemed to be that Hanson may have been overpaid or somehow misappropriated $6,000 or $16,000.  The Sun-Sentinel and the the Deerfield-News website offer somewhat different accounts of what exactly happened.  How exactly the money wound up in Hanson’s account is unclear.  Reportedly, he told Ganz about the overpayment a while back, said he would repay the city but apparently didn’t.

When Hanson submitted his resignation on April 5th, some of the language sparked interest. We initially reported he was resigning “to live a better, healthier life” as per the wording in his letter of resignation.  Definitely unusual wording.  Hanson was not known to be ill.  Perhaps he was tiring of his daily commute from his home up in Loxahatchee.  Of course, a city manager living so far from the office (roughly 45 miles each way) is pretty unusual in and of itself.

You can read the full letter of resignation by clicking here.

Hanson had worked for the city of Deerfield Beach since 2001 and took over the City Manager responsibilities in 2010.  Hanson had been relatively popular for most of his years as city manager but that changed recently.  Ganz and Hanson had been considered particularly close, but that obviously changed due to the events leading up to the forced resignation.

This story was prepared by our Deerfield Beach news desk with additional  information from various public sources and their websites.

For more Deerfield Beach news and events information you can go to our website and read our publication, Deerfield Beach Magazine.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”8925″ img_size=”medium” add_caption=”yes”][/vc_column][/vc_row]