Rehoboth Beach City Manager Sharon Lynn has resigned effective May 6, according to a city news release on Tuesday.
The former police officer and detective with more than two decades of experience in municipal leadership served as the city manager in Rehoboth Beach for more than eight years.
“It’s been a true honor to serve the City of Rehoboth Beach community,” Lynn said. “While we have achieved much in the eight years I’ve worked for Rehoboth, I am perhaps most proud of the staff that I’ve hired and promoted. I feel certain that the next person to assume the city manager position will find a well-oiled machine in place.”
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Lynn has no immediate future professional plans, according to the release.
Before Lynn came to Rehoboth Beach in January 2014, she was the municipal manager in West Goshen Township, Pennsylvania, for a decade, and then in Provincetown, Massachusetts, from 2007-2013.
In a 2013 interview with Wicked Local, the local Provincetown news organization, Lynn talked about moving to Florida at 19 years old and becoming a police officer despite being only the second woman to take on the role there.
She then decided to move back up north to West Goshen, and she wasn’t discouraged when the police department gave her a lesser position, the Wicked Local reported.
“I knocked on the doors of police departments and they were like, you want to be what?” Lynn said in that interview. “I was hired as a dispatcher. I felt like, I’ll take whatever job I could take to get my foot in the door.”
She would later become a police officer and detective in West Goshen – the township’s first woman in both positions – and even trained at the FBI National Academy.
Even with this history as a pioneer in law enforcement, Lynn’s colleagues in Rehoboth Beach will remember her for her positive contributions to life in the nation’s summer capital.
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“Sharon caught my attention from her very first interview in 2013,” said Mayor Stan Mills.
“She towered over the other applicants. I thought then and I still believe today that we would be fortunate to have such a strong professional lead our team. In her more than eight years with the city, Sharon has consistently demonstrated professionalism and often innovation in her approach to staffing and budgeting. She successfully ushered the City of Rehoboth Beach into the 21st century. She can leave us proud of her accomplishments.”
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Under Lynn’s leadership, the city has implemented a five-year capital improvement program. Rehoboth Beach was also nationally recognized for the first time last year with the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award from the Government Finance Officers Association.
In 2018, Lynn was named City Manager of the Year by the Delaware League of Local Governments. She has received credentialed manager designation from the International City/County Management Association.
Emily Lytle covers Sussex County from the inland towns to the beaches. Got a story she should tell? Contact her at elytle@delmarvanow.com or 302-332-0370. Follow her on Twitter at @emily3lytle.
