Shirking public process, Hilton Head announces top contract with Bluffton town manager
Hilton Head Island has secretly chosen a new town manager.
The Town of Hilton Head Island announced it would sign Bluffton Town Manager Marc Orlando to its top job Wednesday afternoon at a special Town Council meeting. The vote was 6 to 1, with newly elected Alex Brown the sole opposition.
Orlando, 49, will make between $158,000 and $245,000. As of presstime Wednesday, the contract had not been signed.
The Bluffton official will leave his job after six years overseeing the town. He could not be reached Wednesday for comment.
He was not on the short list of candidates for the job following a failed executive search, and council member Bill Harkins said Orlando submitted his interest and credentials “out of the blue.”
His name has not been mentioned publicly in the six months the town has been searching, officially and unofficially, since retiring Town Manager Steve Riley announced his departure. In that time, Hilton Head’s Town Council and residents have repeatedly talked about the importance of a fair and transparent process for replacing its top official of the past 24 years.
The council hired an executive search firm in the fall that failed when council members added Assistant Town Manager Josh Gruber to the short list, and two finalists unexpectedly dropped out. After that search fell apart, the council said it would discuss its next move at its Jan. 28 workshop — a meeting that does not appear on the town calendar yet.
One council member criticized the secrecy of the current hiring, saying the end doesn’t justify the means.
As Hilton Head residents Patsy Brison and Risa Prince wrote to The Island Packet in July, “A selection without an open process, without public input, and without communication to the public contradicts what Mayor John McCann and several Town Council members promised when running for office.”
The secretive hiring sets up the incoming town manager for a rocky public relations start after residents have repeatedly called for clarity on the process but received very little.
But “this is not an election,” Ward 6 representative Glenn Stafford said Wednesday evening. “This is a selection to be made by public officials.”
The town manager is Hilton Head’s chief executive officer, responsible for overseeing, hiring and fixing salaries for town staff, preparing and presenting budgets and advising the elected town council on how to achieve its goals.
Unbeknownst to the public, Mayor John McCann and Orlando have met individually with every town council member in recent weeks, conducting unofficial interviews for the job.
Members of town council were quick to defend the process Tuesday. Some said the importance of getting a good candidate for the job outweighs a public process.
Harkins, mayor pro tem, called Orlando a “stellar” candidate.
“As we look at the situation that were in, we truly view this as celebration event, not only for the town of Hilton Head but also hopefully a celebration for our candidate Marc Orlando,” Harkins said.
Before the meeting, the only council member to have spoken publicly on the issue, Alex Brown, elected in November, sent an email newsletter Tuesday night about the impending council meeting.
“While I’m aware that some confidentiality is required in this process, that does not justify a secretive backroom process to ‘get the job done’ without thoroughly searching for and vetting qualified candidates,” Brown wrote.
The move is an about-face from a summer of pressure from the public to be included in the process of selecting and interviewing a new town manager. In October, the town was planning a 50-person reception for the final candidates so they could be introduced, and critiqued, by the public.
McCann has not returned three calls in the last two days seeking comment.
Any discussion of Orlando’s placement in the job has occurred in executive session, where the public isn’t privy to details, discussion or draft documents.
Orlando previously worked as a senior planner with the Town of Hilton Head but has worked with the Town of Bluffton since 2014. He has served as Bluffton’s town manager since September 2014. He was a finalist for the role of Beaufort County administrator in 2019.
His salary there was at least $161,000, according to previous reporting from The Island Packet.
This story was originally published December 30, 2020 at 4:43 PM.
