One of the administration’s most institutionally knowledgeable and adaptable executives, Jason DeLorenzo has served as the chief of staff and director of community development for the Palm Coast government for the past six years. Prior to that, he served on the city council for five years. On July 11, he will leave City Hall to take a position as assistant city manager in Palm Bay, Brevard County.
I’m constantly trying to grow in my work. In an interview this evening, 54-year-old DeLorenzo stated, “I took advantage of this opportunity when it presented itself.” Through my service and work here, I have dedicated a lot of energy to the community, but now is the perfect moment for a change.
DeLorenzo, 54, will be reporting to Matt Morton, who Palm Bay recruited as city manager earlier this year after he was hired from the private sector in Palm Coast in 2018 when Morton was the city manager here. This is a promotion to a larger, politically more tranquil city with a familiar management. DeLorenzo had worked briefly for a title business and for just over ten years as the director of political affairs for the Flagler Home Builders Association.
The Palm Coast administration has already lost a community development director, a position DeLorenzo has been filling, a utilities director, and a permanent city manager, a position Interim City Manager Lauren Johnston has been filling. She has attempted to fill these voids by hiring Flagler County Sheriff’s Chief Mark Strobridge as an interim assistant manager less than three weeks ago.
I’m both happy and sad, am I right? Lauren Johnston, the temporary city manager of Palm Coast, stated this evening. You’re always looking out for your colleagues. You always want what’s best for them, and they end up being family. I was so pleased that he had discovered a fantastic chance and a career progression.
She would undoubtedly feel the loss, though. According to Johnston, he has undoubtedly had an influence on the company. Many people will miss him, but we are glad for him nonetheless. It’s also important to celebrate if you’re continuing to do better and bigger things.
The City Council won’t be shocked, but they will probably be disappointed. Concerns about a brain drain are real. Even while the remainder of the council supports the staff, DeLorenzo’s resignation is in no small way representative of the cost the city is bearing as a result of Mayor Mike Norris’s scathing attacks on the administration since his election in November.
An independent inquiry found that months earlier, Norris violated the city charter by attempting to terminate both DeLorenzo and Johnston in a secret meeting. The City Council censured him for those and other similar offenses and disrespectful actions toward administrative personnel. His own group made an effort to persuade him to accept responsibility, but he refused. Despite letting go of most of his duties as mayor, Norris seems to have doubled down.
Publicly and privately, Norris has persisted in disparaging some city officials, including DeLorenzo, who was formerly registered as a Democrat but is now a Republican. Norris refused to comply any more than he did in his capacity as the city’s development regulations supervisor: Norris accused him of conspiring with developers to enable the city’s explosive growth since 2018, disregarding slanders. In Norris’s strangely paranoid and invented political calculation, it is practically a given that he will view DeLorenzo’s departure as a win and either brag about it himself or ask his frequently fictitious social media followers to do so.
DeLorenzo has been composed and professional at all times. Even when he appeared before the board on Tuesday, knowing that he had been hired for the Palm Bay position (he was given notice on Monday after being hired last Friday), his generally friendly demeanor hasn’t shown any signs of snit in his frequent appearances before Norris and the other council members.
Despite repeated inquiries, he tactfully rejected that part of the difficulties he has been facing for the past few months this evening. “I really don’t hear a lot of it because I’m not on social media,” he remarked. I don’t really pay attention to that, but sometimes something flares up and maybe someone will tell me about it. I mean, working for the government isn’t that simple. There will always be someone criticizing you since it’s difficult to please everyone, and I believe that’s just a part of the job.
DeLorenzo, however, acknowledged that although morale at City Hall is generally good, he said, “Oh, I think it’s been better in past years.” People get anxious when there is a lot of noise or talking, so we’ve had to talk to the workers about that for a while. However, that does occur occasionally.
He is confident that the city will continue to be guided by its directors and executive personnel. They are committed. He described them as diligent public servants. Although there are some voids in the organization and open roles, Lauren is intelligent, driven, and skilled. She has also been with the company for a long time. She has extensive organizational knowledge and a strong operational background.
Assuming that the council would select a new city manager who would want to put their own imprint on the selections, Johnston had postponed filling some jobs. No more. As though the interim part of her title were fading, she is posting the vacancies. However, neither she nor DeLorenzo had a candidate in mind for his place. Maybe Strobridge was intentionally brought in.
Given the context, Johnston was specifically asked if there are concerns about a brain drain. That is a constant source of anxiety in our workplace. Johnston stated, “We don’t want that.” However, we make an effort to stop that. We make an effort to implement effective work-life balance initiatives. For the purpose of retaining our employees and those talented people, we make an effort to offer competitive pay and benefits packages.
The administration cannot control all forces.
Because his 16-year-old daughter excels in the AICE advanced studies program at Matanzas High School, his parents reside in Palm Coast, and his extended family frequently relocates to Palm Coast (his sister recently purchased a home here), DeLorenzo will work in Palm Bay during the week but commute back to Palm Coast on the weekends. For the time being, the couple will keep their base and property in this city, but his wife Rebecca, the CEO of the Florida Association of Free and Charitable Clinics, can operate remotely from any location.
Disregarding the clamor and the critics, DeLorenzo would rather consider the city’s accomplishments and milestones, of which he is proud: fulfilling a previous City Council’s business-friendly initiatives (that was a really strong program that we put together) that significantly enhanced the city’s customer-service profile; the Citation Boulevard extension, the final chance to obtain an east-west connector, which created an important public-safety corridor while saving the city millions of dollars by establishing that access between Seminole Woods Boulevard and Belle Terre Boulevard; and, in his capacity as chief of staff, dismantling organizational silos and encouraging improved communication between them in order to be more cooperative and solution-based, he said.
DeLorenzo thrives on the common DNA that makes a city function and is all wonk and meticulous when he gets going.
According to Johnston, he is kind, considerate, charming, and enjoys talking. Every time we were up there for legislative action days, we would go to these events, whether they were in Tiger Bay, Chamber, or even Tallahassee. He would talk to anyone and start a good conversation, and you would leave with something positive from whoever he had spoken to at the time. He has lived in this community. He s lived here for so long, and loves it here. This is where he raised his family, and you have a desire to ensure that the neighborhood remains the location you love.
The community is losing that. Maybe unnecessary. A portend almost certainly, if the council doesn t mind the drain.
