The Flagler County Commission Thursday evening voted unanimously to hire Michael Rodriguez, a lawyer with 28 years’ experience, much of it in local government, as its next county attorney, replacing Al Hadeed, who retires in two weeks.
The unanimous vote masked reluctance among some commissioners to immediately make the choice, which was made more by default than by acclamation.
Commissioner Pam Richardson didn’t want to “kick the can,” which was not exactly an endorsement for either candidate and may have reflected the unseemliness of the last few months’ search: she wanted to be done with it. Commissioner Leann Pennington said she was “comfortable either way.” Commissioner Kim Carney said there was no statutory requirement to have a county attorney named by the time Hadeed left, opening the possibility of an interim. But Commissioner Greg Hansen, a lone decisive voice, had made his motion for Rodriguez.
The commission reached its decision at in a brief special meeting following 45-minute interview sessions with each candidate. Though public, the sessions drew just four members of the public, two of them in local government.
If it weren’t for the handful of county employees and the commissioners, the candidates would have had no one to meet or greet in the period between the interviews and the special meeting commissioners had set aside for the purpose. By then the candidates probably had had enough of them: they’d spent the day in one-on-one interviews with the commissioners and in meetings with county staff, including Hadeed.
The commission interviewed two candidates–Marsha Segal-George and Rodriguez. Deputy County Attorney Sean Moylan had been a candidate until his withdrawal over a week ago. Segal-George made no secret of how grueling the day had been, but also said perhaps one too many times that she’d gone through the process as a “test” of her endurance after resigning as Deltona’s city attorney, where she’d felt burnt out.
Rodriguez has served as an assistant county attorney in Volusia and Martin counties. He’s represented Miami Dade County, Miami Lakes, Apopka, before Palm Bay. He lives in DeLand and appears intent on staying there. (State Road 11’s treachery aside, there’s no requirement that he should live in the county). His specialty has been in land use and environmental law, in the private and public sectors. He invoked the name of Dan Eckert, who was the Volusia County attorney from 1978 to 2020, as a mentor.
“I want to return to county work. It’s where I started,” Rodriguez said. His salary range is $175,000 to $225,000, up from the $150,000 he’s paid now.
Hansen said Rodriguez “packs all the gear,” and that he is “super qualified.” Rodriguez is chief deputy attorney in Palm Bay, the city that a few months ago hired former Palm Coast City Manager Matt Morton as its manager. Morton, in a text, described him as “solid, capable and skilled in land use matters.” (It’s been tit for tat with Morton, who just took long-time Palm Coast chief of staff Jason DeLorenzo as assistant manager.)
Commissioner Leann Pennington called Segal-George “overqualified,” but voted for Rodriguez as she sensed by then that the majority was with Rodriguez, and commissioners likely preferred a unanimous vote. The county attorney and the county administrator are the only two hires in the commission’s authority. It may not direct its attorney or administrator on administrative matters beyond that, especially not personnel matters, which are entirely under the executives’ purview.
But the commission regularly deals with its other attorneys–Moylan, of course, who’s been with the county 14 years, and Sarah Specter. They both will report to Rodriguez, assuming the contract with Rodriguez is ratified. “Sean and Sarah mean a lot to the board and have been incredibly helpful to this board and staff,” Pennington said. She wanted “a level of assurance from whoever would be the county attorney that they understand that we greatly appreciate the work that Sarah and Sean provide,” and that they should have the ability to talk to commissioners if they faced “corrective action.”
In other words, Pennington wanted what she could not say or exert: job protection for two beloved staff members.
“Mr. Hadeed,” Commission Chair Andy Dance asked, “is that overreaching into our arena?” He meant, of course, overreaching into the county attorney’s administration.
Hadeed reassured him. “I will tell you from my own observations and conversations with the two candidates,” Hadeed said, “I don’t believe you’ll have any trouble in that area.” Hadeed and Dance had both openly championed Moylan as the next county attorney, which may itself contribute to a delicate dynamic within the county attorney’s office and its new leadership.
The commissioners read questions prepared for them, two each, taking turns. The candidates each individually sat at the lectern in front of the commissioners, Rodriguez without notes, Segal-George with, Rodriguez sitting a bit more stiffly and answering more formally than Segal-George except at first. She gradually relaxed and leaned back in her interview, giving it the feel of a legal seminar with friends rather than a formal job search. She related to the commissioners more easily. Sh’d lived quite a bit longer, too, and had just boasted about her 17-pound two-month-old grandson.
Rodriguez was more guarded. She was the friendly, affable, embracing one. He was arms-length, more hammer than hug. Neither was big on humor, though Segal-George was better at self-deprecation. Her observations had a more rounded edge to them. They were less dogmatic.
“I’m not the sixth commissioner,” Rodriguez told the commissioners, starting his interview with a lecture. “I’m your legal adviser. I am here to advise you on the law and advise you on what your legal guardrails are.” He said the county attorney’s office is independent of all political decisions, using the word independent three times in the first five minutes of his interview. He said he will not advise commissioners on the political repercussions of decisions. “I am adamant about keeping my opinions and my office politically independent from your decisions.”
In one humorous moment, he told them: “I am originally from South Florida. There is nothing you can say or do that I haven’t already seen that’s going to freak me out, that I haven’t, that I’ve already experienced.” He has not, of course, experienced Flagler County, which has been known to redefine Florida Man from time to time.
Dance, who had done his own research, reminded Rodriguez that if he didn’t seek out politics, politics found him–as with his resignation from Apopka, which Dance asked him to explain. Rodriguez said the death of a firefighter became politicized to the point of triggering a municipal constitutional crisis, with a commissioner threatening litigation, “And it was at that point, whereas it was more expedient for me to attend my resignation and to drag the city into a constitutional crisis,” he said, describing the incident more than explaining it. “But that’s unfortunately, the typical political squabbles that are seen in local government in the state of Florida.”
Apopka wasn’t his only untimely departure. There was one in Titusville, too, Dance pointed out, where there was “a perception that you have not been friendly to the general public. So I want to give you the opportunity to talk briefly about public interaction and participation and the public’s role in government, if you would, just to alleviate any of those things, so that the public knows, if you’re coming here, who they’re going to be dealing with, and how you how you treat and respect the public.”
Rodriguez deflected. “I think it’s a touchy subject, because the legal department serves as legal counsel to this board, so I think it’s important to stress that the county attorney’s office is not the legal representative of the public. We’re not the people’s attorney,” he said somewhat abrasively, though Dance had never suggested otherwise, his question touching on Rodriguez’s interpersonal skills, not his bosses. He spoke about “getting wrapped up in legalese” (the opposite of Hadeed, one of whose skills was to explain the law as if he were retelling a short story), but still being willing to engage with the “respectful” public.
Well into his answer, he conceded: “I’m not too proud to say that I’ve made mistakes in the past, and I’m willing to own up to those mistakes, but I’m also willing to learn from those mistakes, and I’ve had that opportunity to really improve. Had that opportunity to have that chance, last years working for Palm Bay, and I definitely will bring that to the county and bring that service, bring those abilities, my experience, to the county.”
Segal-George’s interview followed Rodriguez, so by the time she was done some of the more subtle revelations in the Rodriguez interview may have been muffled by Segal-George’s more overt, and ironically less lawyerly, confessions, some of which did not help her case.
“I felt like I had a test I had to pass for myself, as I was trying to consider whether I wanted to go back to work again,” she said as she described burning out, taking a sabbatical from the workforce, then itching to get back in. “I feel like I passed my test, and I have made it, and I’m sitting here right now, even though I’m kind of tired, but I have made it and and it was a good test for me, because I still am committed to doing the same kind of work that I’ve been doing.”
The commission when it moved on to its special meeting had two choices: to vote on a county attorney, or to return to the search. Slowly, one step forward and half a step back, they decided to make a decision, and Rodriguez go the vote. Segal-George quickly left, Rodriguez stayed, a broad smile finally appearing on what had been a face creased in tension until then.
“We have through this process been able to have two really fine candidates, very well-experienced candidates,” Dance said, “and diverse in their experience and background, and to give us a really solid foundation to make a choice. This is a not just any appointment. This is a strategic appointment that guides our legal course from this point forward.”
