STUART — The Martin County Commission majority took the advice of the search committee it appointed to vet county attorney applicants and promoted Deputy County Attorney Elysse Elder to the head of the county’s Legal Department on Oct. 21 as the replacement for former County Attorney Sarah Woods, who retired last July after more than two decades with the county.
County Administrator Don Donaldson began the conversation that day with a brief description of the vetting process the county undertook after Woods announced her second and final retirement on May 6.
“This position was advertised on May 30 with the applicants submitting prior to July 1,” he said. “There were a number of views and interest, and the Board selected a committee to assist in reviewing the applicants. That board consisted of our Clerk of the Court Carolyn Timmann, Sheriff John Budensiek and Denise Marie Neiman – a former Palm Beach County attorney – and myself. Our job was to narrow down the applicants for the Board’s consideration. We did narrow it down to three applicants.”
Donaldson admitted two of those interviews never actually took place because those applicants went to work someplace else in the interim. That left only Elder, who the Commission had named acting county manager in late July.
“However, it’s important to note that the applicant we have has done an excellent job for us,” he said in reference to Elder. “We, the committee, have voted unanimously to recommend Elysse Elder to be our county attorney. We have with us Ms. Timmann and Sheriff Budensiek if you want any details on our reviews or interviews. Ms. Neiman could not attend, but she did send a nice recommendation. Having said that, this is your process, and ultimately, the final decision rests on you.”
The first Board member to respond, District 5 Commissioner Ed Ciampi, acknowledged that he and his colleagues had also received letters of recommendation from Tax Collector Ruth Pietruszewski and Supervisor of Elections Vicki Davis in support of Elder. Conversely, they’d received emails, he admitted, from residents frustrated there was only one final applicant from which to choose.
“As Mr. Donaldson just mentioned, this has been a multi-month-long process involving putting it out on social-media hiring platforms for anybody to have the opportunity to throw their name into the hat,” he said. “There were people that applied, [and] there was a vetting process. We were very fortunate in this particular case to have our sheriff, our clerk of the court and Denise Neiman, an officer of the Florida Association of County Attorneys, involved in this. Coming from out of the area, Ms. Neiman gave an unbiased perspective of whether or not we were getting the right person.”
After Commissioner Ciampi made a motion to hire Elder permanently as county attorney, Commissioner Eileen Vargas asked for more clarification of “why was there only one viable candidate.” Donaldson reiterated his previous comments in response.
“As I stated before, we had narrowed down to seven and then to three for interviews,” he explained. “The two that we were going to interview dropped out as they were hired to other county or city attorney positions. We continued with the interview of Ms. Elder, treated her as a candidate and gave her very tough questions so we could be assured she knew the full depth of the process. That’s why we just have one candidate from the original mix.”
Commissioner Stacey Hetherington agreed with both Ciampi and Donaldson’s assessments.
“It was a very thorough and transparent process, and I’ll be glad to second Commissioner Ciampi’s motion,” she said.
Commissioner Blake Capps also supported Elder’s promotion and read from Neiman’s recommendation letter.
“We know a lot about former deputy county attorney and now Acting County Attorney Elysse Elder,” he said. “We know she knows our comp plan, LDRs and ordinances very well. I put a lot of weight on former Palm Beach County Attorney Neiman’s letter of reference, which ends with this statement: Even if hundreds of others applied, it’s highly unlikely any could come close to what your Deputy County Attorney Elysse Elder can offer. Ms. Elder clearly cares about rendering the best legal counsel to the Board, administration and the county’s various departments. She has a proven track record working in Martin County’s legal office in different positions since 2018, including the very role she is seeking.”
Afterward Timmann came to the podium to explain her vote for Elder.
“I will tell you, selfishly, that I care a lot about this position,” she said. “Part of my role is to help protect the county from different risks and identify hot topics that we may need a little assistance with. Those are very diverse – criminal, civil, financial, ordinance issues – and we need a diverse base. Ms. Elder brings that to us.”
Chief Budensiek agreed, recalling a time when Elder actually had to correct one of his own actions.
“When I think about attorneys, I think of three things,” he said. “Somebody smart enough to see the problem or figure out a problem; somebody brave enough to look you in the eyes and tell you the truth, whether you like it or not; and somebody forward-thinking enough to actually figure out how to navigate the scenario and move the organization forward. We clearly saw that in Ms. Elder.”
Chairwoman Sarah Heard, however, admitted she would not support Elder for a behavior she described several years prior.
“There was a trial in circuit court here seven years ago,” she said. “The defendant was, and is, a Martin County employee; Ms. Elder was a Martin County employee. She should have been impartial – she was anything but [that] during this trial. For three days, she stomped loudly in and out of the courtroom, slamming the door each time. She was trying to rattle the defense attorneys, [and] she was trying to influence the outcome of the trial. I thought on several occasions the judge was going to prohibit her from remaining in the courtroom. For those reasons, among others, I’m not going to support her.”
Commissioner Ciampi then chimed back in, trying to end on a more positive note.
“I think the legal profession, more so than many other professions – with all the respect to my colleague – engenders this level of emotion,” he said. “I think that should not overshadow decades of experience and the fact the community is endorsing her.”
The County Commission then voted 4-1 to hire Elder, with Chairwoman Heard dissenting. Although Heard did not state who the employee on trial was, she herself was charged with public records violations related to the 2013 Lakepoint Mining Company lawsuit against Martin County for breach of contract. Her own charges stemmed from the fact she claimed she could not produce her personal email records due to hacking. Heard was acquitted by a jury of those charges in April of 2019, which was six years ago this year.