Gautier’s former city manager takes a job in another state

Former Gautier City Manager Samantha Abell has accepted a job as deputy city manager in Gulf Breeze, Florida.

Abell told the Sun Herald that she accepted the job Wednesday after a rigorous process that began with 87 candidates and narrowed to five.

The current city manager of the town of 5,800 has held the job for 24 years.

“I call it the Ocean Springs of the Pensacola area,” she said. “It’s a peninsula city known for its schools and quality of life.”

She and her family have spent years traveling to Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola to treat her daughter’s rare cancer. Her daughter, Lorelei, now 11, is in remission.

“We love the Mississippi Coast,” she said. But Gulf Breeze has always had a special meaning to them. And her daughter will continue to get check ups at Sacred Heart.

Abell, 39, came to Gautier in 2010 as as economic development and planning director and was promoted to city manager in 2012. When she resigned it was to pursue other opportunities. She was a candidate for the Gulf Breeze job and a position as a county administrator elsewhere at that time.

“We will miss the support and dynamic leadership on the Mississippi Gulf Coast,” she told the Sun Herald. “We take with us friends for a lifetime. I hold great memories working for Mayor Gollott and the City Council. It was here on the Coast that my husband went back to school at MGCCC as a veteran to become a critical care nurse and enjoyed serving the community in the Ocean Springs emergency room for the Singing River Health System.

“Our children transitioned from a homeschool environment to a school system with great teachers and a forward-thinking administration. And I personally could not ask for more than the opportunity to work with the most hardworking employees on earth at the City of Gautier. They inspired me daily.”

This story was originally published July 20, 2016 at 5:53 PM with the headline "Gautier’s former city manager takes a job in another state."