Delray Beach selects new city manager

Delray Beach selected its next city manager on Tuesday evening — pending contract negotiations.

Mark Lauzier will work as Delray’s CEO, acting on the will of the City Commission, managing a staff of hundreds as well as the city’s $118 million budget.

Lauzier is the assistant city manager for Tacoma, Wash. He’s previously worked in Florida local government in Parkland and Pompano Beach. He’s also worked as a police officer and a budget analyst. He holds a master’s degree in public administration.

“I’ve been preparing my entire professional career for this job,” Lauzier told the commission on Tuesday.

Mayor Cary Glickstein said Lauzier’s background makes him a “terrific fit” for the city. “The citizens of this town need a legitimate manager and they haven’t had one in, I’d venture to say, close to 15 years,” Glickstein said.

Commissioner Jim Chard said he liked Lauzier because he appeared Press that his daughter wanted to become a lawyer to help people.

“Being an attorney to help the underserved is something she wanted to do,” he said in a telephone interview Tuesday. “She would have been a good one.” knowledgeable, had a proven track record of improving underdeveloped areas and is a risk taker.

“His mastery of detail is rather amazing,” Chard said.

Lauzier is set to replace acting City Manager Neal de Jesus, who will return to his former position as the city’s fire chief.

Before that happens, Delray Beach will enter into contract negotiations for approval by the commission. Lauzier initially requested a salary of $193,750.

The commission unanimously approved Lauzier to

Hithon said he has many questions about what happened. But he said the account of events given to him by police does not sound like his daughter.

“The only logical explanation in this situation is she panicked, and things just escalated out of control,” he become the next city manager, although Commissioner Shelly Petrolia said her first choice was Edward Collins, an executive at a civil engineering firm in Utah who has not worked as a city manager for the past decade.

“I like the fact that he has longevity in some of his previous experiences, he’s steady and he’s evenkeeled,” she said about Collins.

From an unusually low turnout of 36 candidates, the pool narrowed to a choice of either Collins or Lauzier. Filling the job longterm said.

He said she had recently transferred from Hampton University in Virginia to Temple University in Philadelphia and expected to graduate with a degree in political science in the spring.

The Miami-Dade Police has been a challenge for the city. Delray’s last manager, Don Cooper, resigned in December, citing family medical reasons.

Delray Beach lost its previous city manager, Louie Chapman, in 2014 after he resigned in exchange for a $73,000 buyout when the Palm Beach County inspector general found he ordered nearly $60,000 worth of garbage carts without authorization. Department is investigating the shooting, which is routine in the case of a Miami Beach police shooting.

The injured officer, David Cajuso, is recovering at home.