Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves on Wednesday named David Stafford as the city’s next administrator, selecting a veteran public servant with deep local roots and national election‑security experience to manage day‑to‑day operations at City Hall.
Stafford, a Pensacola native and former Escambia County supervisor of elections, is slated to begin Oct. 27, according to the city’s announcement. The city administrator is Pensacola’s top appointed manager, responsible for coordinating departments, executing the mayor’s agenda, and keeping complex capital projects on schedule.
Reeves said Stafford’s combination of local credibility and operational experience made him the right fit as Pensacola navigates growth, infrastructure work, and organizational change.
“We are fortunate to have a person of David’s caliber leading our team at the City of Pensacola,” the mayor said in the release. He praised Stafford’s “deep knowledge of our city,” “leadership acumen,” and “sterling reputation nationally for public service,” adding that those qualities will “continue to push Pensacola to new heights.”
Stafford brings more than three decades of public‑sector leadership. He served as Escambia County supervisor of elections from 2005 to 2024, running countywide voter registration and election operations with a multimillion‑dollar budget and hundreds of temporary workers each cycle. He later worked as an Election Security Advisor at the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, supporting operational risk management across multiple southeastern states, and most recently as vice president of accounts at Enhanced Voting, advising election officials nationwide.
In a statement, Stafford said he was grateful for the chance to serve.
“I am honored and humbled to serve as Pensacola’s City Administrator,” he said. “Pensacola is a city with incredible momentum … I look forward to applying [my] experience to help move our city forward.”
The appointment caps a months‑long search following a summer leadership transition at City Hall. After the departure of former city administrator Tim Kinsella in August, Reeves streamlined reporting lines and created roles to move cross‑department projects faster, naming retired Navy Capt. Cliff Collins, associate city administrator for strategic initiatives, and Adrienne Walker, strategic initiatives project officer. The mayor said then that he would prioritize fit over speed in the national search, aiming to “find the who and figure out the what."
City Hall faces a busy slate this fall. A new airport concourse is breaking ground; downtown redevelopment at Maritime Park is entering a critical phase that hinges on how a large parking structure would be financed; and a draft overhaul of the Land Development Code is back out for public review. The administrator’s office is the hub that coordinates those efforts, from interagency negotiations to grant compliance and construction staging.
Reeves’ choice of a seasoned administrator reflects the stakes of that workload. The city is also navigating a state‑level audit initiative and an emerging discussion about property‑tax reform, debates that can affect both the city’s budget and its project timelines. Stafford’s background in complex operations and intergovernmental work positions him to manage those pressures while keeping routine services on track.
The city did not announce immediate changes among department directors or detail Stafford’s first 100-day agenda. Those decisions typically follow onboarding and meetings with staff.
