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Retaining McIntosh does no one service© St. Petersburg Times published March 10, 2002 If Paul McIntosh leaves his job as Hernando County administrator, it appears he will have to jump, not be pushed. A slim majority of the County Commission made sure of that Wednesday when they voted 3-2 to retain McIntosh, at least until his next scheduled review in July. McIntosh kept his job because Commissioners Mary Aiken, Chris Kingsley and Betty Whitehouse were not swayed by arguments offered by Commissioners Nancy Robinson and Diane Rowden that the controversial administrator has become a liability whose effectiveness is unsalvageable. Voters will hold each commissioner accountable for his or her decision, some sooner than others. In the meantime, they are forced to wait patiently as McIntosh looks for work elsewhere. He's already in the running for the vacant administrator's job in Marion County and chances are he had his resume handy when he attended the National Association of Counties convention in Washington, D.C., last week. While the commissioners may be doing McIntosh a favor by looking the other way as he looks for another job, they are not doing their constituents any favors. Just because McIntosh wasn't fired doesn't mean there is stability in the leadership of county government. On the contrary, his job hunting and the divisiveness among his staff combine to further undermine McIntosh's credibility. His conduct and the commission's inability to recognize the magnitude of his lapses in judgment have created an atmosphere of distrust and animosity that will only worsen. Workers' morale has nose-dived. Even employees who would prefer to not choose sides are compelled to do so, and risk the ire of their bosses if they happen to lean the wrong way. The commissioners' first priority must be to the people they serve, and by patiently waiting for McIntosh to announce his resignation, instead of seizing the opportunity to buy out his contract, Kingsley, Whitehouse and Aiken have chosen to prolong an already strained relationship that has slim hope of long-term improvement. Because of last week's decision, the commission is now forced to play an uneasy waiting game: For McIntosh to land another job, or for him to make another mistake, one that can't be dismissed as easily as his past indiscretions. In the meantime, the public will endure this awkward truce, and keep its fingers crossed that when McIntosh jumps, the commissioners won't be caught unawares.
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