VILLAGE OF ISLAMORADA AND COUNTY MAY USE AN EMPLOYEE EXCHANGE PROGRAM FOR INTERIM VILLAGE MANAGER POSITION

MONROE COUNTY/Bryan Cook Headshot

​ISLAMORADA, FL – On Thursday, July 27, the Islamorada Village Council gave a head nod to its village attorney to explore the possibility of Monroe County loaning its Director of Employee Services Bryan Cook as an interim village manager with an employee interchange agreement. The Village Council attorney will work with Monroe County attorneys to assemble the details for the Aug. 3 Village meeting. The Village Council did not extend their current village manager’s contract, which expires Aug. 1, 2023.
 
“There are more questions than answers at this time, but we are exploring if this is something Islamorada wants to pursue,” said Monroe County Administrator Roman Gastesi, who has seen similar Executive on Loan programs instituted in the City of Miami and Miami-Dade County years ago, and recently lent Bayshore Manor employees to Poinciana Gardens when that transition took place. “If this is a way our Monroe County family can help our Islamorada family stand strong, we will be glad to step up for a short duration to teach them some of the things that work well in the county.”
 
Gastesi and Cook met with the County’s Senior Management Team Thursday morning, and the directors offered their full support to Cook and Islamorada to help with the transition.
 
“The County has had some of these same issues in the past, and we have overcome them throughout the years by bringing people together,” said Gastesi. “While we can all have differences of opinion, we have learned to respect each other and respect each other’s differences.”
 
Cook has 27 years of human resources experience and believes that everything accomplished in an organization is done by people. He is a collaborative, people-first director who uses a non-authoritative management approach.
 
“I am honored and grateful to be considered to offer this assistance,” said Cook. “I am not perfect, the County is not perfect, but we have made improvements on top of improvements over the years, and I believe that we now have a pretty good format that we would be happy to share with the Village of the Islamorada.”
 
Cook envisions that he will be fully committed to Islamorada full-time and will stay in touch as needed with his County Employee Services team for any issues that arise on a County-level. The day-to-day employee services routine will not be affected, but a few high-level projects may be put on hold until his return.