DAYTONA BEACH — With the departure of First Step Shelter Executive Director Victoria Fahlberg looming, the shelter’s board is preparing to launch the process to find a successor.
At a special meeting April 20, shelter board members agreed they want to keep Fahlberg in her position while they search for new director candidates, and they figured out who they want to help in that process.
The board’s decisions mean Fahlberg will remain the shelter’s director at least until mid-June, and that a woman who helped in the recruitment process back in 2019 before the shelter opened will again be giving First Step a hand in finding a leader.
Both of those decisions will require formal agreements, so board members will meet again April 27 to zero in on the details of the agreement for Fahlberg to stay past her announced resignation date of May 10, and for an agreement with Leslie Bonner, a seasoned human resources professional who offered to help search for a successor free of charge.
Before next week’s meeting, there will be work behind the scenes to draw up those agreements with an assist from City Attorney Ben Gross, who provides legal guidance to the First Step Shelter Board.
Fahlberg will also meet with Bonner to work on the job description of the executive director position that will be used in advertisements for the soon-to-be-vacant post.
Before Bonner’s offer surfaced, Fahlberg had found three head-hunting firms for board members to consider, which would have cost somewhere between $26,000 and $42,000.
It’s all leading to a new beginning for Fahlberg, who has been First Step’s director since the facility for homeless adults on Daytona Beach’s west side opened in December 2019, and for the nonprofit shelter that has helped more than 1,231 people get into a place they can call home.
What will happen next at First Step Shelter?
Fahlberg submitted her letter of resignation on April 10. She said it was a move she had contemplated for the past year or so.
She gave a 30-day notice, as is required by her contract. She plans to go on vacation after her announced departure date of May 10, but now she has agreed to temporarily come back to work starting May 17 to help in the transition process. It could take two or three months, possibly longer, to get a new director hired and on the job.
The agreement that’s being written up will extend her time leading the shelter another 30 days past May 17, and it will allow for additional 30-day extensions that the board would have to vote on and Fahlberg would have to agree to.
Fahlberg’s current annual base salary is $136,000. She also receives $1,000 per month to pay for health insurance, $50 per month for a cellphone stipend, and $50 per month for an auto allowance.
She currently makes $69 per hour, and she has requested to bump that up to $125 per hour to keep working for the 30 days past May 17.
That higher rate of pay plus her benefits would add up to an extra $9,537 on top of her current salary. But Fahlberg has agreed to forgo the benefits, so it would be another $8,237.
Two shelter board members, Jason Leslie and Joan Campanaro, said they would prefer for Fahlberg to keep working under current rate of pay.
“I don’t like the position we’re in,” Leslie said at the April 20 meeting. “Victoria has all the leverage.”
Leslie cast the lone no vote on the agreement to keep Fahlberg on temporarily at the higher rate of pay starting May 17. Six other board members voted yes.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Search about to begin for new executive director of First Step Shelter
Reporting by Eileen Zaffiro-Kean, Daytona Beach News-Journal / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
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