Several crucial responsibilities, including budget issues and growth, await whomever commissioners choose to be administrator.
By WILL VAN SANT
Published April 4, 2004
BROOKSVILLE - Whomever the County Commission selects Tuesday as Hernando's next administrator might consider the adage: Be careful what you wish for because you just might get it.
Voters recently defeated a sales tax increase that county officials hoped would ease budget troubles and pay for construction projects for years to come. The new administrator will have to build a budget without the anticipated revenue and contend with whatever ill will the sales tax initiative created among residents.
The county's deputy administrator and a county commissioner died recently from cancer, and their jobs are being held by interim appointees. The new administrator will have the authority to name a new deputy and will have to work with the recently shaken commission.
Three seats on the five-member commission are up for election in November, and a changing of the guard could saddle the new administrator with a host of unfamiliar faces not involved in his selection and perhaps critical of his performance.
Then there is the ever-present matter of growth. Just where is Hernando County going? Are we destined to become a sprawling Pasco or Pinellas, as some fear, or will we achieve some yet unarticulated balance between open space and development?
Answering that question will be one of the new administrator's crucial responsibilities.
In short, and in the words of county Commissioner Tom Mylander, the selection of an administrator is "a big decision" that will "affect the county for years to come."
Stepping into this demanding situation and replacing County Administrator Dick Radacky, who is retiring in June, will be one of three men: Gary A. Adams, now the village administrator in Rantoul, Ill.; James V. Chisholm, now the county administrator in De Soto County; or Hernando's own Grant E. Tolbert, who has been director of development services for 14 years.
As an internal candidate, Tolbert was granted a pass to the final round of interviews, which are scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Monday in the county government center, 20 N. Main St. in Brooksville. Adams and Chisholm were chosen by a 20-member search committee from a pool of 65 hopefuls who sent in applications from across the country.
Gary A. Adams
Rantoul, Ill., is just more than 100 miles south of Chicago. The town, through which the famous Illinois Central rail line makes its way from the Windy City to New Orleans, was devastated by the 1993 closing of Chanute Air Force Base. The population was cut in half, to about 7,000 souls, but has rebounded to more than 13,000.
Rantoul is where Adams, 56, was raised and where he has served as administrator since 1997. Adams has experience with Florida government, having been administrator in Putnam County in the mid 1980s. He began his career as chairman of the Champaign County Board in Illinois, an elected position he held for eight years in the home county of the University of Illinois.
His experience as an elected official and as an appointed one, Adams said, gives him perspective on and sensitivity toward the complex dynamics at work when government boards make decisions.
"I can see issues from both sides," he said.
In addition to the standard government administration duties of coordinating services and crafting budgets, Adams manages Rantoul's electric supply. The village has its own generation and distribution system.
That unique duty aside, the focus of Rantoul and Adams in recent years has been to bring people and business back to town.
During Adams' tenure, Rantoul has spent millions on road construction, attracted a pork processing facility, built an aquatic center and soccer/football complex, and has been host city for the National Hot Air Balloon Championships and the World Free Fall Convention, a skydiving event.
Village trustee Ron Loy, whose position is comparable to that of a City Council member, said Adams has done much of the legwork that has helped Rantoul recover from the closing of Chanute, and he praised him as honest and dedicated.
"He has done a superior job," Loy said. "He has been an asset to the village."
Were he selected in Hernando, Adams said, his first priority would not be to review the budget or the details of the county's capital project plan. Those duties are crucial, Adams said. But success will not come without building trusting, forthright relationships with those he works with in government and in the civic sector.
"I know that is something that does not happen overnight," Adams said. "So . . . I would like to start working on that right away."
Village trustee Margurette Carter said the importance Adams puts on his work relationships in Rantoul stands out. In addition to being a man of "vision" and "goal oriented," Carter said, Adams shows considerable compassion in dealings with others.
"I have always felt that I can speak openly about why I feel differently about an issue," Carter said. "He listens."
Carter's description in many ways mirrors what Adams said of himself when asked why he should be named administrator. While being "task oriented" and bent on accomplishing things, he described himself as an able communicator.
"I have always gotten along well with the people that I have worked with and worked for," he said.
Although Adams said he took the job in Rantoul to be close to family, he and his wife want to return to Florida, where they developed many friendships when he worked in the state. Another factor, Adams acknowledges, is a dislike of the bitter wind and blinding snow of Illinois winters.
"The weather is a little bit nicer there," Adams joked during a recent interview, when temperatures hovered in the mid 70s in Central Florida and in the mid 30s in central Illinois.
James V. Chisholm
De Soto County is south of Hernando, just inland from Manatee and Sarasota counties. It is largely rural and home to the Peace River, orange groves, cattle ranches and about 33,000 residents.
Chisholm, 59, has been De Soto County administrator since 2000. He has extensive experience in Florida government. He has been been city manager in Islamorada Village of Islands and St. Cloud, county administrator in St. Lucie County and assistant county administrator in Leon County.
According to elected officials in De Soto, the county was in bleak fiscal shape when Chisholm was hired. County workers were being laid off, and the state was considering a takeover of government operations.
Chisholm scoured the budget and quickly came up with $8-million the teetering county could use to right itself.
"The county got turned around," said Bill Altman, chairman of the De Soto County Commission, "and it was Jim's leadership that did it."
Chisholm said he has helped bring 2,800 jobs to the county, pave all the county's roads, build a 4,000-seat public events facility to promote cultural activities and secure $35-million in state and federal grants to create a growth corridor in southwest De Soto.
A Wal-Mart distribution center is being built in the corridor.
"I think I am very good at assimilating the assets of a community," Chisholm said, "and developing a program for that community that realizes its vision."
County Commissioner Ronald Neads, who has clashed with Chisholm over water resource issues, a hot topic in De Soto, agreed that Chisholm was instrumental to realizing all the accomplishments he mentioned.
"Jim is a very aggressive administrator," Neads said. "He has done a lot of good."
Neads said Chisholm has helped institute wage increases and bonuses for county workers and that they respect him as a leader. Chisholm has been successful with the key appointments he has made, Neads said.
The water resource disputes in De Soto have split the commission, with three board members and Chisholm supporting county utility ownership and Neads and another board member supporting use of a regional water supply authority.
According to a local news report, Chisholm was criticized at a recent De Soto County Commission meeting for his interest in the Hernando job, with some suggesting he was fleeing the county in the face of a controversial issue.
Chisholm denied the charge, according to the report, and said he had sent out resumes from time to time throughout his four years in De Soto. Moving around comes with his kind of work, he said, and wherever he ends up, he will likely be faced with issues just as contentious.
Commissioner Altman, who is among those who support county utility ownership, said attacks on Chisholm such as those described in the report are ridiculous. Everybody is free to seek any job they wish, he said, and he pointed out that the upcoming elections could tip the balance of power on the board, leaving Chisholm without the support he now enjoys.
"The man would be a fool not to be looking for a job," Altman said.
Grant E. Tolbert
Finally, there is Tolbert, who came to Hernando from the private sector in 1990. Tolbert, 56, began his career in Hillsborough County's Building and Zoning Department in the early 1970s.
When Tolbert came to Development Services, he said, the department was costing residents $1-million a year in property taxes. Finding that outrageous, Tolbert moved to have the department become an enterprise fund. Now it relies on fees rather than tax dollars to operate.
The move is evidence, Tolbert said, of his frugal attitude toward spending, an attitude he said he would bring to the administrator's job.
"I am conservative with spending the public's funds," he said. "I try to run a very tight organization."
Although he lacks the experience of his two rivals and does not deny there would be much to learn if he gets the administrator's job, Tolbert said his knowledge of Hernando and the development pressures it faces gives him an insider's advantage over Adams and Chisholm.
Of particular concern to Tolbert is growth. The county, he said, must do a better job of concentrating development in core urban areas rather than allowing isolated outposts of growth that contribute to sprawl.
Tolbert's tenure has not been without some scandal. His department was the focus of a grand jury investigation into how it handled rebuilding after the no-name storm of March 1993 along the Hernando coast.
The grand jury found that department employees had not been trained to uniformly enforce federal reconstruction rules and were "subject to undue influence by elected officials, especially county commissioners."
Jurors originally recommended Tolbert's resignation or firing, though they later reversed themselves. Tolbert was cleared of criminal wrongdoing and maintained that he did not engage in any unlawful activity. He did acknowledge that his department made mistakes, and he implemented a series of reforms.
Although county commissioners have steered clear of choosing a favorite until interviews have taken place, Tolbert has traditionally enjoyed the support of board member Diane Rowden.
While Tolbert is serious about getting the job, he is just as serious about what is best for Hernando County, he said, and is confident that the commission will pick the best administrator, whether it is him or another of the contenders.
"I want the best person for the job," Tolbert said. "I live here."
- Will Van Sant can be reached at 352 754-6127. Send e-mail to vansant@sptimes.com
GARY D. ADAMS
BORN: Dec. 14, 1947, in Urbana, Ill.
EDUCATION: Bachelor of arts, Eastern Illinois University, 1981; master's in business administration, University of Illinois, 1983.
CURRENT POSITION: Village administrator for Rantoul, Ill.
SALARY: $93,000
FAMILY: Married with two daughters, 29 and 25, as well as an adopted granddaughter, age 9.
JAMES V. CHISHOLM
BORN: Feb. 17, 1945, in Kissimmee.
EDUCATION: Bachelor of science in business administration, Troy State University, 1975.
CURRENT POSITION: County administrator in DeSoto County.
SALARY: $99,000
FAMILY: Married with one 11-year-old daughter.
GRANT E. TOLBERT
BORN: March 15, 1948, in Lenoir, N.C.
EDUCATION: Bachelor's in engineering technology, University of South Florida, 1980; master's in public administration, University of South Florida, 1998.
CURRENT POSITION: Director of development services for Hernando County.
