City Manager's Office

The Coconut Creek City Commission named Karen M. Brooks as City Manager effective October 4, 2019, with a unanimous vote. She succeeds Mary C. Blasi who served in that capacity since September 12, 2013.

Brooks is responsible for overseeing the City’s $179 million budget, 512 full-time equivalent employees, and the City’s day-to-day operations.

Brooks joined Coconut Creek in May 1997 as the City’s Controller and was named Director of Finance and Administrative Services in 2002. In 2016, her role was expanded to include Assistant City Manager and in 2017 she became Deputy City Manager/Chief Financial Officer.

Brooks is a Certified Public Finance Officer, Certified Public Funds Investment Manager and an International City Management Association (ICMA) Credentialed Manager. She holds a BS degree in Accounting from Fort Lauderdale College, an MBA from Nova Southeastern University and is a graduate of the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service Senior Executive Institute.

Prior to joining Coconut Creek, Brooks served the City of Tamarac for ten years in various finance positions.

Bernadette Hughes joined the City of Coconut Creek as Assistant to the City Manager in 2014.  She has approximately 20 years of municipal experience in Florida and North Carolina.

Prior to working in Coconut Creek, Bernadette worked in the City of Tamarac, Florida, where she led the City’s High Performance Organization initiative.  She coordinated the city’s strategic planning; resident, business, and employee surveys; customer satisfaction; department scorecards; and city-wide process improvements.  Under her direction, the City of Tamarac became only the third city in the United States to receive the International Palladium Award for Performance Excellence from Drs. Kaplan and Norton, the creators of the Balanced Scorecard.

Bernadette is active in various public administration organizations.  She served as a Senior Examiner for the Florida Governor’s Sterling Council for seven years, was a Board Member for the Florida Benchmarking Consortium, and served as Secretary/Treasurer of the Broward County City Manager’s Association.    She holds a Masters of Public Administration Degree and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science from North Carolina State University, is a graduate of the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service LEAD Program, and is a Six Sigma Green Belt.

Yvonne Lopez joined the City of Coconut Creek as the Public Information Officer in 2005 and was promoted as the Community Relations Director in 2013. She is responsible for planning and implementing programs to convey information on City programs, functions and activities. She launched the City’s Citizen’s Academy, Speaker’s Bureau, CreekTV, social media outreach, and Year in Review publication. 

Prior to joining the City, Yvonne served as Vice President of Public Relations and Communications for The Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance. Before relocating from New York City, Yvonne worked for Dow Jones Television as the Community Affairs Director, and WPIX/Channel 11 as the Community Affairs Manager.  She is a past Chair of Atlantic Technical Center’s Student Advisory Council and has Chaired the boards of  Hispanic Unity (appointed as Board Member Emeritus); Six Degrees/Big Brothers Big Sisters; and ASPIRA Broward. She currently serves as an Advisory Board member to Meals on Wheels South Florida and is a mentor to disenfranchised youth.

Her non-profit experience stems from employment with the New York City Partnership/Summer Jobs Program and the National Puerto Rican Forum.

She holds a Bachelors Degree in Communications Arts from New York Institute of Technology.