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Politics

First female manager is unanimous selection

Commissioners quickly choose June M. Fisher, 43, of Sebring as their next county administrator.

By CATHERINE E. SHOICHET
Published September 27, 2006

INVERNESS - County commissioners quickly - and unanimously - chose June M. Fisher to be the next county administrator Tuesday.

Today, the 43-year-old Sebring resident will start negotiating her contract with commission Chairman Gary Bartell and County Attorney Robert "Butch" Battista.

If negotiations are successful, Fisher will be Citrus' first female county administrator. She could begin work as early as next month.

"I am so pleased and surprised and happy and just thrilled," Fisher told commissioners after the vote. "I appreciate your confidence in me, and I can guarantee you I will work my hardest and my best to fulfill your goals."

She told reporters that in the coming months, she will meet with commissioners, staffers and residents to shape her goals. But one goal was clear: community involvement.

"People in the community should know who the county administrator is," she said.

Fisher said she plans to move to Citrus with her husband and 18-year-old son. And she said was eager to live and work in a community that has both coastal and rural characteristics.

"This person's got to be good for the board to be unanimous," Bartell said shortly after the vote.

Fisher was the first candidate to meet publicly with commissioners Tuesday in an interview that lasted less than 30 minutes.

Commissioners appeared particularly impressed by the depth of Fisher's Florida experience.

The Miami native told commissioners that she has spent her entire career in the Sunshine State, facing every facet of government and county administration.

She told commissioners that she was familiar with zero-based budgeting practices.

"I think that's a great idea every few years," she said. "I think that your budget needs to be adapted to the community."

Fisher, a planner by training, is a project manager for Banks Engineering in Port Charlotte. In that role, she helps developers with large-scale residential and commercial projects.

"Growth can be a good thing as long as it's managed well," she said during her Tuesday morning interview.

Her most recent work in the public sector was in De Soto County, which has an $80-million budget and a population of 35,000. There, she served as the interim county administrator from 2004 to 2005.

She helped lead recovery efforts after Hurricane Charley ripped through De Soto in 2004, lobbying officials in Tallahassee and Washington, D.C., for assistance in the aftermath of the storm.

From 1998 to 2003, she was De Soto's development director. From 2003 to 2005, she was the deputy county administrator.

After graduating from the University of South Florida, Fisher began her career working in government in the planning department of Highlands County, where she worked as a planner from 1992 to 1995.

In Glades County, she worked as the planning director from 1995 to 1996 and the county manager from 1996 to 1998.

Fisher said the growth issues that Citrus faces are similar to issues she has dealt with in other jobs around the state.

She told reporters Tuesday that she was eager to return to the public sector.

"I really missed local government," she said.

The unanimous vote came a few hours after commissioners' brief public interviews with each of the four finalists for the job.

They had blocked out the entire morning for questions, but most commissioners said they had already asked enough questions in their private one-on-one interviews with finalists Monday.

All five commissioners praised the group of finalists and thanked human resources director Randy Petitt for his help with the search.

In other commission business:

Backed by area law enforcement officials, commissioners approved a resolution banning all-terrain vehicles from county roadways.

A new state law that goes into effect Sunday allows driving ATVs on unpaved public roads with a speed limit of less than 35 mph. But commissioners decided to opt out.

The unanimous vote followed comments from Sheriff Jeff Dawsy and Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Tod Cloud, who expressed concerns about safety after a number of recent ATV accidents in Citrus and Hernando counties.

Times staff writer John Frank contributed to this report. Catherine E. Shoichet can be reached at cshoichet@sptimes.com or 860-7309.

[Last modified September 26, 2006, 19:59:04]