The city of Fellsmere now has a new full-time city manager, who has decades of experience in county development and planning.
Thursday, Fellsmere city council unanimously appointed Community Development Director Mark Mathes to lead the town, officials said. Mathes was appointed as interim city manager in early May, about a week before the former manager, Jason Nunemaker, resigned from the position.
“Given Mathes’ experience working in the community, that made them feel comfortable appointing him,” said Kurt Bressner, senior advisor of the International City County Management Association. “He’s a licensed professional engineer and planner. All in all, I think it was a good choice.”
Mathes was making $101,000 as interim city manager. Some of his duties included managing the city’s day-to-day oversight, coordinating with the finance director to initiate the budget process for fiscal year 2020, and ensuring the economic development agenda continues to move forward, officials said.
Details on Mathes’ new salary were not immediately available. Bressner led the pursuit to find a top applicant to fill Nunemaker’s shoes.
Bressner and two other senior advisors, Bob LaSala and Ken Parker, began the search process after Nunemaker left office. Bressner said the search ended July 12 and the advisors sent city council the names of their top 12 candidates for recommendation.
“They had good solid candidates,” Bressner said.
Mathes has served as community development director for Fellsmere since 2009, Bressner said. Prior to that, Mathes was a planning director for Lucido & Associates, a private company based in Stuart, and a comprehensive planning administrator for Martin County commission.
Mathes earned his bachelor’s degree in civil and architectural engineering from the University of Miami, Bressner said. He also earned his master’s degree in transportation planning from the University of California at Berkeley and is working on obtaining his doctorate’s degree in urban and regional planning from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
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