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NORA KOCHTom McKone joins the East Lake Tarpon Special Fire Control District, replacing longtime board member Daniel J. Bobel.
EAST LAKE - Fire commissioners this week selected a new member to fill an open seat on a board split by controversy over replacing the current chief.
Tom McKone, president of a company that recruits employees for health care organizations, was unanimously voted into the seat vacated this month by fire Commissioner Daniel J. Bobel.
McKone, 53, already was running for another seat on the five-member board of the East Lake Tarpon Special Fire Control District. Three of the seats will be decided in the general election. McKone withdrew from the election and will serve the remaining two years of Bobel's four-year term.
For the past four years, McKone has been a trustee of the department's employee pension plan, a position he resigned from Thursday. McKone says he will bring 25 years of experience in management and human resources to the commission.
After accepting the appointment at the board's regular meeting Wednesday night, McKone was asked to give a short speech.
"I'll do my best to serve the public . . .,' McKone started.
"Well, I'm sure you will," interrupted Commissioner Chuck Dedman, noting that McKone had been in the audience at nearly every board meeting in recent years. "But if you're as diligent as you've been as a citizen, I'm sure we'll get some good work out of you."
Bobel, a longtime board member who left the commission because he moved out of the district, was part of the two-member minority that supported keeping Chief Jeffrey Parks. Parks, who has worked for the district for the past 20 years, has been chief of the 38-person department since 2001.
In May, the board voted 3-2 not to keep Parks as chief, with Bobel and Wilbur F. "Bill" Cannon voting against his dismissal. Parks, however, is still in the job until a successor is chosen.
As a new commissioner, McKone said he comes to the board without any preconceived notions about the controversy.
"I'm a pretty fair individual and like to look at both sides of every story and like to make up my own mind," he said.
He will be sworn in at a future meeting. McKone lives in the Grey Oaks subdivision with his wife, Olivia, a senior systems analyst for Aegon Insurance. The couple have two children, Amelia, 29, and Tom, 27, and two grandchildren.
At its meeting Wednesday night, the truncated four-member board also discussed its $4-million budget for 2004-05 and the process for wading through the 36 applications to fill Parks' job.
At a special meeting next Wednesday, the board will discuss selecting a committee to review applications and then present the board with a ranked list of all the candidates.
The East Lake fire district has a history of turmoil going back to the early 1990s. Then, a movement by local civic groups to change the process for choosing the board set off controversy that drew the involvement of Pinellas County officials. Along the way, the board changed chiefs twice. Parks also was fired during that storm, for about a week. He was soon reinstated.
McKone was nominated by Commissioner Jim Nobles. Cannon tried to nominate former commissioner Wayne Ferguson but was unable to receive a second on the motion to put it to a vote.
McKone's appointment takes him out of the race for Seat 5, now occupied by Chairman James Galloway. With McKone out of the running, Galloway is challenged only by former commissioner C.G. "Chuck" Schult.
Nora Koch can be reached at nkoch@sptimes.com or 727 771-4304.