Job Depends On Dredge Project

If the Hernando Beach channel dredge project doesn't begin by July 30, County Engineer Charles Mixson will be fired on July 31.

County Administrator David Hamilton notified Mixson of this ultimatum in a memo Friday, ordering him to take over day-to-day oversight of the project from Assistant County Engineer Gregg Sutton.

"We specifically directed you to 'ensure that actual construction is completed on the Hernando Beach dredge project upon a mutually agreed-upon time line,'" Hamilton wrote, quoting a disciplinary report from last August, when Mixson was put on probation for failing to adequately manage the dredge project, among other issues. "(T)the County still lacks a dredge permit and the (state) funding for the project has been further imperiled."

Mixson's probation will now be extended for another six months, Hamilton wrote. He will not lose any days of pay as he was last August.

The memo comes two days after the county was forced to request the cancellation of a three-day hearing to defend its permit from the Department of Environmental Protection to store dredged material, called spoil, on a piece of property on Eagle Nest Drive in Hernando Beach.

Last-minute test results ordered by a county consultant showed traces of petroleum products in the sediment in the channel.

Mixson couldn't be reached for comment late Friday.

But on Thursday, Mixson wrote a memo to Hamilton explaining the DEP had requested sediment testing, which was done in February 2007. The testing did not reveal concerns, he wrote.

DEP officials said this week the department does not require applicants to test the sediment for petroleum products such as oil and grease. A consultant hired by an environmental lawyer to defend the Eagle Nest permit saw the gap in the data and ordered the tests.

"It is unrealistic to say that I should have known the elutriate testing was necessary," Mixson wrote. "Based upon previous testing and the DEP recommendation, I would not have performed the elutriate test. As you recall on this and the (cleanup of the former Department of Public Works site), you directed me to do whatever DEP wanted, no more and no less. I have also done that."

But there's a larger issue, Hamilton responded to Mixson's memo.

"With all due respect, we do not believe the issue of fault is relevant to the County's current predicament," Hamilton wrote. "If you had proceeded with the dredge project in a timely fashion, the negative result of the elutriate testing would have presented the County with a minor obstacle on the way to completing the project. You, however, did not do so."

Hamilton said in an interview late Friday that he had no choice but to set the ultimatum. He noted Mixson has been "very cooperative since his return" and that he has shown "noticeable and significant improvement."

But, Hamilton said, "I cannot simply absolve him of this major multimillion dollar project which the county engineer was always responsible for."

"Quarterbacks are not paid to throw the football around, they're paid to win football games," Hamilton said. "His career and the county's reputation are on the line now. Hernando County has to start being a winning team."