The Lake County (FL) government is searching for a new County Manager, and here is one report on the current process and situation. My current favorite to handle the elected Board and the tight budget process is a Klingon applicant pictured here. After all, he might have to ask the Sheriff to give up some budget dollars! Below this article is the list of
the 34 active applicants.
When the list is whittled down further, I will review the resumes and write a follow up article.
vj
From 93 to 34
TAVARES — Lake County commissioners will begin weeding through a stack of applications for a new county manager to fill its chief-executive post, which has been vacant since Cindy Hall was fired.
Interim County Manager Sandy Minkoff, the longtime county attorney who assumed Hall's role and is steering the county through budgetary tumult, said he does not want the job on a permanent basis.
Human Resources Director Susan Irby said the pool of candidates has been whittled from 93 to 34 candidates — many applicants failed to meet the county's minimum educational and experience requirements.
Three candidates who made the initial cut withdrew because they accepted other job offers.
According to the Lake's Web site, the county is "looking for a confident, knowledgeable and experienced management professional" who could be described as a "self-starter" committed to a conservative financial direction.
The candidate pool includes just one woman, Melinda Carlton, and nine with government-management experience in Florida, according to an Orlando Sentinel review of the 34 remaining applications.
Hall, 60, served as the county's top government executive from 2005 until October, when her leadership and decision-making skills were sharply criticized in a job-performance evaluation by Commissioner Jimmy Conner.
She has never commented publicly about her termination.
Commission Chairman Welton Cadwell, who had defended Hall and given her high marks in her performance evaluation, ultimately proposed the termination, saying she "just didn't seem like a good fit with the current board."
Hall's ending salary was $157,800, according to the Web site. But her replacement's salary is negotiable.
Stephen Hudak can be reached at [email protected] or 352-742-5930.
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Here is a list of the 34 active candidates that was collected by the Orlando Sentinel HERE.
orlandosentinel.com/news/local/lake/os-lk-box-county-manager-candidates-20100501,0,6196009.story
OrlandoSentinel.com
Many want to be Lake County manager
May 2, 2010
Steering county government's ship of state
Thirty-seven applicants remain in the running to be named Lake County
manager. Here they are in alphabetical order:
•Roger Baker, county manager in Gilpin County, Colo., writes a
newspaper column for the local paper and gave this answer about economic
development in his application: "Haven't had to worry about it, we have
gambling."
•Robert Belleman, city manager of Bay City, Mich., (population:
36,817).
•Rod Bockenfeld, serves as a commissioner in Arapahoe County,
Colo., a community of 540,000 residents that has a "strong commissioner
form of government."
•Melinda Carlton, the lone female applicant is a township manager
in New Jersey who boasted that she has been in public or private
leadership roles since she was 19 and managed a large flower shop.
•M.A. "Art" Chaudry, served as senior vice president of business
operations for Kansas City Royals baseball team; turned down offer to
head Yuma County, Ariz.; and was finalist for similar government post in
Broward County.
•Michael Ciesielski, applicant from New Mexico headed a charter
school and served as a human-resources director.
•Patrick Degrave, former city administrator of Oak Creek, Wis., a
Milwaukee suburb, has law-enforcement background.
•Freed G. "Mike" Etienne, deputy city manager of Richmond, Va.,
(pop: 206,000) said he created a "pothole brigade" to identify and
repair problem stretches of road.
•Michael Garriga, administrator of Desoto County, Miss., which
has grown from 130,000 to 160,000 residents during his six-year
leadership.
•Kenneth Griffin, assistant Marion County manager has college
degrees from Cornell, University of Southern California and the
University of Mississippi. He was an assistant county manager in
Hillsborough County from 2006 to ‘09.
•Alan Grindstaff, city manager of Jasper, Texas, is a retired
U.S. Army Reserve major.
•Daniel Hobbs, California resident served as the city manager of
Fresno, Calif., the nation's 37th largest city,
for four years.
•Jason Hoch, New Hampshire hopeful employed as municipal
government consultant.
•Hugh King, Duluth, Ga., resident managed more employees (130) as
street-division boss in Colorado Springs than as city manager in
Monticello, Ga., which employed 55 people.
•Mark Kutney, deputy city manager of Belle Glade also serves as
the city's airport manager and emergency manager.
•Ronald LaCouture, applicant from South Carolina described
himself as an "academician/advisor/author" and offered his services as a
"short-term, added value governance-consultant."
•Mark Lauzier, former assistant city manager of Pompano Beach
said the tax rate in the Broward County city dropped eight straight
years while he was part of the government administration.
•Gregory D. Lewis, applicant from upstate New York said he worked
to save the Niagara Falls Air Force Base from closing while manager of
Niagara County.
•Craig Lonon, resident of South Padre Island, Texas, served as
city manager of Harlingen, Texas, (pop. 57,000) from March 2006 until
December 2009.
•Michael Mahaney, served as city manager of Deerfield Beach from
April 2007 until January 2010. He also was the city manager of St.
Marys, Ga., when Money Magazine dubbed it the best small town in
America.
•Thomas Mattis, city manager in Kyle, Texas, a community of
30,000 residents, says he has more than 25 years' experience as a city
manager.
•John McCue, former city manager of Orange City in Volusia County
boasted that he helped to successfully recruit a computer-chip
manufacturer and boat manufacturer at other career stops.
•James Mullen, former chief executive officer of Colorado
Springs, Colo., (pop. 360,000) who says he served as top administrator
of one of the nation's fastest-growing counties.
•Walter Munchheimer, resident of West Palm Beach served was
director of financial management in Palm Beach County from 2000 to 2008.
He also was deputy manager of Fulton County, Ga., in 1998.
•Wayne O'Neal, 23 years in city/county management, mostly in
Michigan, briefly served as county manager in Hendry County in southwest
Florida.
•James Pennington, South Carolina applicant has served as city
manager in Fayetteville, Ark.; Paducah, Ky.; and two Florida
communities, Lauderhill and Delray Beach.
•Ron Rabun, resident of Griffin, Ga., serves as city-management
consultant in Iraq and was manager of Seminole County from 1991-96.
•Hector Rivera, resident of Palm City and former Peace Corps
worker was manager from 1993-1997 of Guilford County, N.C., the
third-largest county in the Tar-Heel State.
•Charles Saddler, resident of Lakeland was human-resources
director in Polk County for four years.
•Thomas Spencer, resident of Clearwater was an assistant county
attorney in Pinellas County, where he says he successfully defended
deputy sheriffs' against claims of excessive force, false arrest and
negligence in a jail suicide.
•Randolph Terronez, Wisconsin applicant served as county
administrator for five different counties in the Midwest, including
Kalamazoo County, Mich., which had a population of 232,000.
•Anthony Troiano, former town manager of Hopkinton, Mass., was
critically injured in an automobile accident in 2008 and was in a coma
for six weeks. Town employees pooled sick leave so he could continue to
receive a paycheck.
•Craig Ward, has served as an executive-level manager for nine
years in SeaTac, Wash., a suburb of Tacoma. He says he helped lower the
city's crime rate and improved its economic-development brand.
•John Wenderski, served as treasurer for Orlando from 1983 to
1987 and says he "directed the acquisition and relocation of the
occupants of 100 parcels of land" to make room for what is now Amway
Arena.
