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The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 22, 2007

With Hernando County commissioners poised to interview three potential finalists for the county's top administrative job, one question begs an answer:

Will we get the best possible candidate to lead our burgeoning county through what's expected to be a challenging, albeit exceedingly difficult, future?

The truth is, we may never know.

That's because county commissioners chose to waive their own selection policy, which sets board-committee appointments. Appointees then recommend finalists for the position. Instead, commissioners chose, by a vote of 4-1, to let the county's human resources director pick members of her own choosing to pare down the list of initial job seekers.

Because commissioners chose the easy way of keeping the process out of the public's view, we'll never know if the three candidates chosen after first-cut phone interviews Friday are actually the cream of the 39-plus-applicant crop. We will never know how this opaque procedure for the selection of a new county administrator will, in the long term, benefit our community.

We do, however, know the process stinks. The public has been mislead.

What was the urgent need for commissioners to bypass their own rules? Would following the past procedure in effect for years be too cumbersome? Would following the Government-in-the-Sunshine laws become a stumbling block?

Apparently, commissioners thought so.

The truth is, that's exactly why those rules, procedures and laws exist - to ensure that proven processes, due diligence and public transparency are employed to find the best candidate possible.

There was a dissenter to waiving the process at commissioners' Oct. 16 meeting: Commissioner Diane Rowden, who should be acknowledged for not going along with this sham.

Commissioners claimed they did not have the time to review hundreds of applicants - tsk, tsk - and arrive at a short list.

After all, it's the holidays, you know.

With salaries of around $60,000 a year, we're confident commissioners could have found some time to engage in this most important exercise. With the quick demise of five administrators in less than seven years, it is imperative that Hernando County secure stabilized leadership to meet the challenges of our growth, or lack thereof, and a declining economy.

Financial management is the most pressing concern of our day, and strong fiscal leadership is needed to navigate this sea of troubled financial waters. The wrong decisions regarding our fiscal policies could have a disastrous effect on everyone in this community.

But we'll never know how the first cut of applicants was made and upon what criteria it was based. We'll never fully understand how the committee pared the list to three, because the press was told that wouldn't happen Friday. Well, it did.

While the list may well include some very decent public servants, who among them has the experience as the person in charge of a community of 165,000 with the associated problems of growth, needed infrastructure and a track record in fiscal acuity that this county needs so badly?

One of the first-cut candidates is the city administrator in Crow Wing, Minn., a city of 55,100. Then there's the city manager of Peekskill, N.Y., where 22,500 folks reside. The county administrator from Jackson County, Fla., watches out over the 46,400 souls who reside in that panhandle county. Then there's the county manager of Union County, N.C., that 155,000 people call home. Another is the development coordinator for Miami-Dade County. The sixth is the assistant city manager of Surprise, Ariz., a city of 104,00 souls.

Surprise?! You get the picture.

It would be in the public's best interest if commissioners simply began the process over and, this time, follow their own policies and procedures.

County government is in capable hands with the current interim administrator.

The public deserves the best leader, not the most expedient.

Utilizing the current flawed process, we'll never know which one we ended up with.

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