The culmination of Flagler County Sheriff’s Chief Mark Strobridge’s unusual tenure as an assistant city manager on loan to Interim City Manager Lauren Johnston is the long-overdue appointment of directors to two of Palm Coast government’s most crucial departments: utilities and growth management.
On Wednesday, the city announced the hiring of John Zobler as the Community Development Director, a post that had been unfilled since Jason DeLorenzo was appointed chief of staff in September 2022, and Brian Roche as the director of the Utility Department, the largest department in the city with 166 employees and recently unsettled. Earlier this month, DeLorenzo left the city.
“This is what you have to do,” Strobridge, the sheriff’s chief of staff, said, referring to the mission Lauren gave me the first day I arrived—in fact, before I arrived here. By the end of next week, he will be going back to work as a sheriff. To move forward, we must select the best candidates for these two crucial roles.
He had been hired by Johnston for the brief position to assist her in leading the city while she concentrated on budget season, with important hires as her top priorities. Johnston stated, “I have enjoyed his company and I can’t thank him enough for all the help that he’s provided and really put us back into a positive direction.” Though he didn’t want to give the impression that the city was headed in a negative direction, his assistance—just an additional pair of eyes and hands—was helpful.
In a phone discussion this afternoon, Johnston and Strobridge discussed the appointments, Strobridge’s term, and the near future. They were questioned about why their team shouldn’t continue as the permanent city manager and assistant city manager since they presented the model they established in the previous few months as a success.
Johnston acknowledged that it was an excellent question, but she gave the same response as before: it has to do with people’s home lives, future plans, and balance between their personal and professional lives. As a young mother and the head of a household that might have its own zip code, Strobridge and Johnson both have extremely demanding lives at home.
Every position’s interview committee was chaired by Strobridge, and human resources was always involved. Steve Flanagan, a former utility director, and Lynn Stevens, the deputy stormwater director with extensive utility experience, participated in the interviews conducted by that department. The applicants for the community development role were interviewed by Strobridge and Johnston.
They had nothing but praise for the two new hires. Roche has several years of expertise at Jacksonville SJEA, the state’s largest municipal utility with over 2,200 employees, and Strobridge views him as a fixer. Roche served as the utility’s general manager, chief financial officer for a few months until February 2021, and director of its finances. He began working for Aramco Oil Co. in Texas as a project engineer.
According to Strobridge, he is someone who truly, truly understands utility, has an insane passion for utility, understands the numbers, and is well-rounded in that regard due to his longevity and experience in the field, which has taken him from Orlando to Jacksonville to even small systems across the state. Strobridge claimed that because of his enthusiasm for utilities, he doesn’t seem interested in the position of city manager.
Roche’s sixth decade is coming to an end. We have no idea how long somebody will hold any given post. Strobridge remarked, “As you are aware, none of us are guaranteed tomorrow.” Therefore, a person’s longevity isn’t actually shown by the fact that they have more experience than someone else. Furthermore, it won’t matter until you have some excellent playing and succession planning in place in a field where he has experience.
Roche has served as the director of water resources at the private engineering firm North Florida Professional Services since 2023. He holds an MBA and a master of accounting and is a qualified public accountant in addition to being an engineer. To begin, he will be paid $175,000. (View his application here and his resume here.)
Having owned and maintained a home on a canal in Palm Coast’s C Section since 2015, Zobler also brings a wealth of experience to the position, having served as Ocala’s public works director from 1999 to 2008 (though no work has been listed since 2019), city manager from 2014 to 2019, and deputy city manager prior to that. He mentions Bradd Clark, the deputy municipal fire chief, as one of his references, and he is leaving retirement to accept the Palm Coast position.
According to Johnston, Ocala has gone through that same transition from horse farms to densely inhabited regions. In order to help the department work through the lessons he has learned that [positions] Palm Coast better for the future, he brings his expertise and skills to the table. Zobler is going to get $155,000. (His application is available here.)
Strobridge did not explicitly respond when asked about other accomplishments that would characterize his term. We have some policies that will be released soon. We’re a little thrilled with the progress made in this short period of time, but they’ll be fully implemented, most likely a little after I’m gone, he said. The next step in all of this, in my opinion, will be to observe what transpires with the city manager post in the future.
As a result, he said, a lot of subtle things happened that are harder to measure than the appointments.
However, he addressed the discrepancy between the reality and the public’s impression of a city that is allegedly headed in the wrong direction. Despite the city’s busy and diverse communications strategy, he stated, “I think the perception is off, and part of that gap is created by a lack of communication directly to the community on what we’re doing here at the city.” That strategy appears to have little resonance against a small core of naysayers who routinely fill public comment segments at city council meetings with baseless claims and frequent, undocumented smears against city employees, thus consistently but disproportionately affecting the city s image.
Strobridge stated that one of the things we also focused on was spreading the word that the city of Palm Coast has some excellent employees, which is unquestionably true. There are many people that are passionate about serving the community and are well-versed in their craft.
David Ayres will host Johnston and Strobridge on WNZF’s Free For All Fridays starting at 9 a.m. on Friday.
