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Politics

Background checks ahead for city manager finalists

A selection is likely at the March 27 meeting of the Indian Rocks Beach City Commission.

By SHEILA MULLANE ESTRADA
Published March 12, 2007

Two city manager finalists were picked Thursday and will undergo extensive background checks.

The commission, which voted unanimously for Patricia C. Quigley and Gregory S. Wood, is expected to select one of them as the next city manager during its March 27 meeting.

Mayor Bill Ockunzzi said the two city manager candidates "seem like a good fit" for the city.

"I am impressed with both of them. They are highly qualified," Commissioner Jose Coppen said.

Indian Rocks Beach's last city manager, Al Grieshaber Jr., is now the subject of a criminal investigation relating to money the city says was erroneously paid him for moving expenses and compensation time. City officials want him to pay back more than $15,000.

Wood was clearly the commission's first choice, but officially he will be considered equally with Quigley during the background check and contract negotiations.

A third candidate, Donald W. O'Neal, at first appeared to be the commission's second choice but was bumped over concerns he would not be willing to accept the $85,000 salary the commission is offering the other two candidates. Wood made $96,000 at his last job as city manager for Eastpointe, Mich.

Quigley lives in Woodstock, Ga., and currently works as a consultant for the city of Toccoa, Ga., which is in the process of converting to a city manager form of government. She has a master's degree in public administration from Troy State University.

She last served as city manager in Woodstock and held similar positions in East Palestine, Ohio, and Lakeside, Ore. Previously she served as director of the regional planning commission in Lake Charles, La.

While working for Woodstock, Quigley managed the financing, construction and implementation of a new wastewater treatment plant. She was active in winning grants for public parks and community development.

During her career in the public service sector, Quigley says she has acted as finance director and city clerk and in code enforcement, human resources and planning.

Wood lives in Deltona and until last summer served for a year in a U.S. Air Force Reserve as a commander of an aeromedical evacuation squadron. His unit responded to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and later served at Balad Air Base in Iraq to evacuate critical care and urgent patients from the Iraq theater.

Wood's public service career includes serving as assistant city manager and economic development coordinator in Holly Hill, executive director of the Volusia Council of governments in Daytona Beach, recovery project director for the Apalachee Regional Planning Council in Blountstown, and city administrator for Valparaiso and Mexico Beach.

At Holly Hill, where he served for four years, ending in 2005, Wood directed the city's economic development, special projects, wrote and administered state and federal grants, and was also responsible for code enforcement.

He has a master's degree in public administration from the University of West Florida.

[Last modified March 12, 2007, 07:14:37]