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Former county official fined

Violations on a private job he did while he was county architect lead to a fine and probation for Thomas H. Williford.

By BARBARA BEHRENDT
Published October 2, 2005

INVERNESS - A former county official who oversaw key county construction projects in recent years, including the troublesome Courthouse Annex project, was disciplined by his state licensing board.

Thomas H. Williford, county architect while the annex was under construction, earlier this year was fined and placed on probation for several violations on a private job he did on the side while he was county architect.

The disciplinary case wasn't settled and the punishment wasn't accepted until months after Williford had left the county job; the incident that prompted it and the investigation took place while he was still working for the county.

County officials knew that Williford was doing work on the side and even ordered him to avoid work that could create a conflict of interest, but they said last week they never knew that Williford was facing charges before the Florida Board of Architecture and Interior Design.

If they had known, he could have been subject to some discipline by the county, according to Randy Petitt, county human resources director.

"That could have been a disciplinary action or we could have been monitoring him closely," Petitt said. "It would depend on the degree and the intent factor."

If county officials had known, Petitt said, they would have worked closely with the licensing board. "It does concern me," he said.

County commissioners contacted, who also said they did not know about the board of architecture's investigation, said that such a finding leads them to wonder about the job Williford did for Citrus County.

"Any time you draw attention to yourself as being non-professional, it definitely casts a shadow on the other projects you've done," said Commissioner Gary Bartell.

Williford oversaw numerous county construction projects. In the Courthouse Annex project he provided the sites for the soil testing firm to examine. Those soil tests are central to what went wrong in the drainage plan with the testing firm, the county and the civil engineer all pointing fingers of blame at one another.

Just last week the County Commission hired a law firm to oversee mediation to determine who is to pay the more than $1-million in extra costs that failed drainage plan has cost the county taxpayers and to sort out other problems with that building's construction.

But it is work outside the county's realm that got Williford in trouble.

In February, the board of architecture determined that Williford had improperly certified work prepared by another, had assisted in unlicensed activity and had signed and sealed plans that did not conform to acceptable architectural practice, according to documents the state provided the St. Petersburg Times last week.

For the violations, Williford paid a fine and costs totalling $3,708 and was placed on probation for three years. That means he must submit a project for state review every six months while he is under probation.

Contacted at his home on Friday, Williford asked if a reporter was going to imply in an article that he had done something wrong in his role as county architect. "I can't believe you're going to write about this," he said. "I don't even know what to say to you right now ... I'm just so disappointed."

Williford then hung up.

Originally, Williford attempted to challenge the licensing board's findings before the state Division of Administrative Hearings but later agreed to settle with the board, pay his fine and accept probation.

According to the administrative complaint filed with the board of architecture, Williford signed and sealed plans in February 2003 for an addition to a home in Belleview, plans which had been drawn up by Wyland Fowler, owner of Construction Drawing Service Inc. Neither Fowler nor his firm were registered or certified as architects.

The plans were submitted to the building department, which rejected them over 13 deficiencies ranging from a inadequate glass and venting in the proposed family room to missing smoke detectors and exhaust fans to a host of missing information on the plans.

Williford never supervised the development of the plans, didn't have a written agreement with Fowler or the builder of the house, and didn't prepare or maintain any necessary documentation of the drawing of the documents or site visit information, according to the state's file.

According to the complaint, Williford "has adopted the aforementioned plans as his own work and thereby accepted professional responsibility" for the plans.

"The respondent functioned as essentially a "plan stamper' for Fowler's plans since Fowler is not licensed to practice architecture in the state of Florida," the complaint states.

It also states that he was "negligent in that he failed to exercise due care to conform to acceptable standards of architectural practice in such a manner as to be detrimental to the public."

By Florida law, an architect cannot sign and seal plans if he did not prepare them himself or supervise the drawing of another. Architects also cannot assist unlicensed individuals to practice architecture.

Williford, 54, worked as county architect from 1994 through June 2004 when he retired. He had previously worked for the Citrus public schools in a similar capacity and the Hillsborough schools.

His county personnel file includes a set of evaluations which show his performance at or above expectations and a series of merit raises for handling the many projects he was responsible for that, along with yearly cost-of-living increases, nearly doubled his salary in the time he worked for the county. During that time, his annual pay rose from $35,191 to $66,134.

Some of the merit increases credit Williford for being able to handle overseeing multiple projects at once, including, in one case, work at the historical old courthouse, the construction of the Citrus Springs Community Center, the courthouse expansion and the Courthouse Annex.

The file includes a May 2004 letter to Williford from Petitt telling him that the county administrator had agreed that he could do work outside of his county job but that "you will do no work whatsoever on matters reviewed and/or approved or regulated by Citrus County" except for projects already under way.

One of those projects concerning a property on Gospel Island landed in Bartell's corner when he got a complaint about Williford helping a local couple in a dispute with a county inspector. After Bartell passed that information along to county officials, a memo came out to all county employees reminding them that they needed county approval to work another job outside their county duties, Bartell said.

Tom Dick, assistant county administrator and former assistant public works director, said he did not know anything about a state investigation into Williford. He also said that he did not believe that much of Williford's work for the county was actually under his architectural seal. He more frequently worked as a project manager or "clerk of the works" on larger projects that had their own architects.

Commission Chairwoman Vicki Phillips said she also wasn't sure how much of the time Williford was acting as an architect, but she still found the information about Williford's discipline troubling.

"Having heard about this, my biggest concern is that we should go back and look at all of the projects he did ... to be sure there isn't anything we should have a concern about," Phillips said. "Out of fairness to the citizens ... that's the only prudent thing to do."

--Barbara Behrendt can be reached at 564-3621 or behrendt@sptimes.com

[Last modified October 2, 2005, 01:57:16]