Screenshot via Town of Surfside Commission meeting
Audio By Carbonatix
By the time the Surfside commission voted to fire town manager Mark Blumstein around 1:30 a.m. last Thursday morning, the town commission meeting, which began at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, had already descended into chaos.
After hours of finger-pointing and shouting between commissioners, the sleepy beach town voted 3-2 to oust Blumstein, with Mayor Charles Burkett and Commissioner Ruben Coto in dissent. Commissioners have accused Blumstein, who was hired in December, of “intimidating” employees, being “unprofessional” in his duties, and “going against commission directives” during his nearly nine-month reign, among other alleged problems with his job performance.
Thursday’s vote capped off months of tension, including prior failed attempts to remove him.
But while finding an interim town manager can take weeks — between posting the job, collecting résumés, and interviewing candidates — Surfside’s commission decided to skip all that.
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Instead, they opted for an impromptu search that, at times, felt more like a game of “Who Wants to Be Town Manager?”
Town of Surfside photo
Names were thrown around. Commissioner Nelly Velasquez, vice mayor Tina Paul, and commissioner Gerardo Vildostegui discussed several potential replacements, at least one of whom Velasquez began texting from the dais. At one point during commissioners’ recruitment efforts, Burkett and Coto left the town hall entirely and returned with takeout from a nearby restaurant.
One person whom Paul and Velasquez suggested as a possible fill-in was town clerk Sandra McCready. Paul claimed she’d already talked to McCready, who said “she would do it.”
McCready, however, didn’t seem particularly eager for the job.
“I am your town clerk, I love being your town clerk, and I want to stay being your town clerk,” McCready said.
However, as of Monday morning, McReady is listed as the acting town manager on Surfside’s website.
But on Thursday night, the search had just begun.
“Ok, next idea?” Burkett asked.
“Tim Milian,” Velasquez quickly offered, referring to the town’s longtime parks and recreation director.
“Tim Milian, ok. So let’s just go right down the list,” Burkett responded facetiously. “Does anyone wanna call Tim?”
“Oh, let’s call Tim,” Velasquez replied. “As a matter of fact, I have him on the phone right now. He’s actually texting me.”
Several minutes later, Velasquez mentioned another potential candidate.
“I’m pretty sure that Marisol would also wanna do it,” she said, referring to Marisol Vargas, the town’s former interim manager and current human resources director.
“Marisol does not want to do it,” Burkett snapped back at her. “As a matter of fact, we were out there talking to her five minutes ago…she left.”
As Blumstein’s assistant came to help him pack up, Velasquez turned to her, too.
“Would you be willing to do this for a couple of days?” Velasquez asked.
Blumstein’s assistant shook her head.
“Ok, no problem,” Velasquez replied.
Burkett repeatedly criticized the commissioners for, in his words, “going right down a list of senior employees and trying to figure out if any one of them would plug the hole.”
He described it as trying to fill the role with “any warm body.”
“This is what we call flying by the seat of our pants,” Burkett said. “Not very cool.”
By the end of the night, McCready, seemingly reluctantly, agreed to take on the role of interim town manager. The commission appointed her to the position through Wednesday, October 29. Who will take over the role afterward remains to be seen.
New Times called and emailed Surfside for comment and had not heard back at the time of this reporting.
Correction published 10/28/25: As originally published, this story incorrectly stated that the October 23 Surfside commission meeting had ended without the appointment of an interim town manager. Minutes before the meeting adjourned, Sandra McReady, the town clerk, agreed to take the position on an interim basis while city officials search for a replacement for the former town manager Mark Blumstein, whom the commission voted to fire from the $250,000-per-year post earlier in the evening. The above version reflects the corrected text.
