The Fort Pierce City Commission voted 4-1 to hire S. Renee Narloch & Associates to conduct the search for the city’s next attorney, beginning a process expected to take about 16 weeks.
The commission selected the firm after reviewing proposals from three executive search companies. Jared Sorensen, the city’s human resources manager, outlined the costs and timelines presented by each firm during the meeting.
“So there were three firms that I received quotes from, Colling, Basinger & Associates, GovHR, USA, or MGT, and S. Renee Narloch & Associates. Colling-Basinger came in at $34,500 with a 12-weeks timeline. GovHR-USMGT came in at $28,000. However, I would like to note that added additional, it’d be $1,200 for each visit that they came here. So if you had three visits, that would add an additional $3,600. So their total cost would come $31,600. And then Renee Narloch & Associates came in at $30,950, and that includes three onsite visits or videos,” Sorensen said.
According to Sorensen, the selected firm estimated that the city could have a new attorney in place by late October or early November.
“I can say that probably towards the end of October and the beginning of November, reasonably is when you would look at being able to fill the position with somebody,” he said.
The timeline creates a gap after current City Attorney Sarah Hedges leaves in September, raising concerns among some commissioners about how legal work will be handled in the interim.
Mayor Linda Hudson said she was worried about the workload that comes through the city attorney’s office.
“Well, I’m very concerned about the work being done, and we’re going to be without a city attorney for three months. I’m very concerned about that, because there’s a lot of work that comes out of that office,” Hudson said.
Commissioner Chris Dzadovsky suggested appointing an interim attorney, but Commissioner Arnold Gaines opposed adding another layer to the search process. The commission decided to wait for a more detailed timeline from the search firm before determining next steps.
The discussion also turned to the city charter and the circumstances surrounding Hedges’ departure.
The commission previously voted 3-2 not to renew Hedges’ contract following an alleged charter breach involving whether the city manager could contact outside counsel without oversight from the city attorney.
Hedges was also named in a letter of intent to sue the city from Finance Director Johnna Morris. The letter alleges Hedges launched an invasive investigation into Morris and her finances and violated consumer protection laws after Morris was suspended because of a wage garnishment tied to a personal debt.
Commissioners have said the letter did not factor into the decision not to renew Hedges’ contract, but Commissioner Michael Broderick questioned how the charter issue had evolved.
“So this original issue with Ms. Hedges was, in theory, a charter conflict between city manager’s office and city attorney’s office. Of course, that issue is now by the board is irrelevant at this point in time because Ms. Hedges was blamed for all this instead of using the charter as what the real issue was here, which was originally brought up. But then it shifted to a personality attack on Ms. Hedges and her lack of quality of work production, et cetera, et cetera. So is the charter going to be in the future?” Broderick asked.
Hudson supported revisiting the charter and said the commission should also clarify the responsibilities of the city attorney position before hiring a replacement.
“Our city attorney had a job description and then there was a lot of discussion about jobs and doing other people’s jobs and overlap. And so I would be very interested in a job description that this commission all understand,” she said.
Sorensen agreed to work with the search firm on updating the job description. The commission is expected to revisit the charter and related issues at a future meeting.