Search for New City Manager Underway in Niceville

Lots has changed since 1971, when Corbin started with the City of Niceville

The search for a city manager to replace the retiring Lannie Corbin in Niceville seems to have made a quick start.

According to Mayor Daniel Henkel, the advertised position has received 16 applications as of March 14th. The position closes to applications on the last day of March.

“I’m expecting more as we get closer to the 31 March date,” said Mayor Daniel Henkel, “We are reviewing those resumes and we are doing our due diligence to make sure we provide the council with the top individuals that we think [the council] will need to interview and make hiring or negation decisions on.”

A selection committee, made up of the mayor, two councilpersons and two residents of Niceville will make a recommendation to the council for approval. Once the Council has a recommendation, they could take up a vote to hire a candidate.

Mayor Henkel added that the current plan was to make a decision by the first of May on a candidate or list of candidates to present to the council – with the hope that the hired candidate could begin their job duties in July. “We would have our replacement in place, so there would be a little bit of overlap,” said Mayor Henkel to the council.

A New City Manager for Niceville Florida

The candidate who earns the job of City Manager will have big shoes to fill. The current city manager, Lannie Corbin will have 52 years of experience as a Niceville City Employee when he retires in August. According to the International City Managers Association (ICMA) a city manager will last, on average, a little over six years in a town or city they manage before they find another job or get fired by a council.

Corbin has managed to quadruple the size of the city’s population, expand city services like parks and roads, transform the city’s fire department from a volunteer to a fully professional organization and ensure the city’s financial solvency through boom and bust cycles in the local and national economies.

Not bad for a guy who came home from his first day of work at the city to tell his dad he thought he was going to be fired.

Corbin’s last day will be on August 5th, meaning that the new City Manager will have about a month to pick his brain for advice before he’s off the city’s payroll.

Want the job? You can apply here:

Apply for City Manager of Niceville Job