Social media derails Apopka's effort to name an administrator

Seemingly on its way to naming a long-sought permanent city administrator, the Apopka City Council ran into a virtual brick wall Wednesday night, in the form of an eleventh-hour, social media kerfuffle over the interim administrator’s qualifications.

Radley Williams, the city’s recreation director at the time, took the interim role April 28 after Jacob Smith was fired in March by Mayor Bryan Nelson.

Nelson said Smith was terminated after just nine months in the job over his poor communication and failure to inform city officials of an emailed inquiry from the state’s Department of Government Efficiency. A city investigation found that Smith instead deleted the email.

Nelson was pushing to give Williams the job that would pay him $187,500 annually on a permanent basis Wednesday night.