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City tries to find the right mix

As it nears an important decision, Brooksville will interview the three finalists for its city manager opening this week.

By BARBARA BEHRENDT
Published April 29, 2007

BROOKSVILLE - The City Council faces a pivotal decision this week as members prepare to choose Brooksville's next city manager.

Contentious personnel issues have filled the council's agenda for the past several months, and now officials are ready to get back to the more routine business of running the city.

The three city manager finalists have a busy two-day interview process ahead of them, beginning with a tour of the city by key staff members Monday afternoon.

They will then meet with department heads, face citizen questions at 5 p.m. in council chambers and end Monday at a dinner with city officials at the Brooksville Country Club at Majestic Oaks.

On Tuesday, the finalists have one-on-one interviews with individual council members and a city employee group. There will be a public reception at City Hall at 5 p.m. and formal interviews with the council at a special meeting at 7 p.m.

A decision on who will replace outgoing manager Richard Anderson is expected late Tuesday evening. The council will also discuss its negotiating strategy after making that selection.

The job has been advertised with an annual salary between $69, 396 and $106, 869.

All three applicants said last week that they are looking forward to the interviews, and all of them believe their background, education and experience make them the perfect fit to lead Brooksville.

* * *

Lester B. Baird Sr. said he "fell" into the profession of government management.

He started his career as a building inspector, and before he knew it he wanted to do more.

Now Baird is hoping to continue his career in Brooksville after more than a decade serving as administrator of rural Hendry County, southwest of Lake Okeechobee.

Why the Brooksville job?

"It looks very challenging. I thrive on challenge, " he said. "From what I understand, it's a beautiful city."

Baird sees the big task in cities like Brooksville to be managing growth and providing the level of services that residents expect.

In Hendry County, his challenge was to find additional funding sources to help get the county what it needed.

Then, late last year, four of the five county commissioners came to Baird, one at a time in private, and told him he needed to help them devise his departure strategy.

He left the job in February.

"In most situations, when a manager is asked to leave, it involves politics, " Baird said. "They didn't give me anything significant" as the reason they wanted him to leave. "Maybe they just got tired of me, " he said.

Hendry County Commissioner Janet Taylor was Baird's sole supporter at the end.

"I always thought he had worked well with the Board of County Commissioners, " she said. "There was a line of communication between us and him."

Taylor praised Baird's resourcefulness at securing much-needed grant monies for the rural community.

And while in the end, a majority of the commission asked him to pack his bags, his tenure for more than a decade "is in itself an accomplishment, " Taylor said.

Other commissioners could not be reached for comment.

Baird said he believes he possesses many attributes that make him the best choice for the manager's job.

"I've always maintained a very positive attitude. I'm very calm. I produce results. I work well with the staff, " he said.

He also said he believes that elected officials need to be informed to make good decisions and his job is make sure they are equally informed.

"That's very, very important, " he said.

Baird said some might see his weakness as being a willingness to give employees time to either show they can or cannot do the job.

He thinks he has what Brooksville needs.

"I will bring a sense of stability, " he said.

* * *

As Mitchell M. Bobowski crafted the ideal job in his mind, he described a place much like Brooksville.

Though he lives in Madeira Beach in Pinellas County, the congestion and the threat of flooding have made him think twice about life near the water.

"Brooksville, it's a great town, close to Tampa Bay without being in Tampa Bay, " he said.

While he looks forward to a chance to "get back to the country, " Bobowski also sees big-city problems even for a municipality like Brooksville.

"The major challenge that we'll all be facing is what's going to happen statewide regarding our tax structure and insurance rates, " he said. "That could have significant impacts on local communities and their budgets."

While Bobowski has not been a city manager in Florida, he has been a city manager in Michigan and has spent the past seven years as general services director for the city of Seminole.

He lost his job last year during a restructuring.

Seminole Mayor Jimmy Johnson said he didn't know Bobowski well, but was aware that Bobowski's position was eliminated and that when the job description was rewritten, Bobowski did not meet the requirements.

Bobowski calls the reason for his departure "professional growth." The elimination of the position allowed him to take his city manager experience and his Florida experience and be able to market his varied skills to a future employer.

While Bobowski said he is focused on good customer service, some in the Seminole area found him challenging to deal with.

"His people skills with the public are just minimal, " said Bruce Hall, developer of the upscale Thurston Groves community in Seminole. "I don't think that the city of Brooksville is doing itself any favors" by picking Bobowski, he said.

Hall said that Bobowski was curt with people who needed city approvals. He said if Brooksville needs someone to bring the city back together, Bobowski would not be the right personality.

"For that you need to bring in a Dr. Phil and not a Rosie O'Donnell type of personality, someone who will help heal rather than tear people up, " Hall said.

Bobowski took the criticism in stride, pointing out that developers often try to squeeze every bit of a profit out of their property, even if the plan doesn't meet local growth rules.

"They're not going to be happy when someone is in a position to say no, " he said.

* * *

When T. Jennene Norman-Vacha decided to step down as Hernando's deputy county administrator in October 1997, she cited frustration because commissioners were stepping over the line and trying to do the job of county administrators.

She chose to enter the private sector and set up her own human relations consulting firm, which she has operated ever since.

Now she hopes to return to public service, this time with the city of Brooksville, another place where charges of micro-management fill the air.

But Norman-Vacha said she is ready to take on that challenge.

"I've been a part of this community for a long time, and I've been very involved in the community, " she said. "I look at it as an opportunity to get back into the public sector. ... I look at it as an opportunity to make a difference."

Former Hernando County Administrator Richard Radacky said that Norman-Vacha can do the job.

"She'll do fine, " he said. "This lady has a lot of courage."

Radacky and other former co-workers of Norman-Vacha describe her as having a "can-do" attitude, and they say she is an efficient problem solver.

"She's a very no-nonsense person, " Radacky said. "She's very professional and communicates well both orally and in writing."

Radacky also said she was a "hands-on manager who will go into the field and get her hands dirty" to accomplish her task.

"I think she would do a fine job" as city manager, said Frank McDowell, code enforcement director for Hernando County. "I always found her to be very helpful and very knowledgeable."

Norman-Vacha said her style in dealing with employees is to be straightforward. "I try not to leave anything unsaid. Don't sugarcoat it, " she said.

She said she believes "pulling the city team back together" is the biggest immediate challenge facing the new manager after the divisions that have prevailed over the last few months.

With significant experience in human relations, Norman-Vacha said she believes she is the person to accomplish that mending.

"I think I have the background and the education to do the job, " she said. "One of my strengths as a person is that I'm very good at facilitating things, helping things come together, bringing people together."

Barbara Behrendt can be reached at behrendt@sptimes.com or 352 754-6117.

Fast Facts:

The candidates

Lester B. Baird Sr.

Baird, 62, of LaBelle, served as Hendry County administrator from 1996 through early 2007. He was asked to resign from the job in late 2006. Previously, he worked as city manager of South Bay from 1990 through 1996. Baird also served as city and town managers in other cities in Florida and worked for nine years as city administrator in Eureka, Mo. Baird earned his bachelor's degree from Thomas Edison State College in Trenton, N.J., and his master's in public administration from Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton.

Mitchell N. Bobowski

Bobowski, 55, of Madeira Beach, was general services director for Seminole from 1999 through 2006. From 1995 through 1999, he worked as a jet commander for Air Trek Air Ambulance and in 1999 was an instructor for Air Southwest Florida Inc., both in Punta Gorda. From 1987 through 1994, he worked as city manager and planning, building, public works and community development director in Hazel Park, Mich. An Army veteran, Bobowski received his bachelor's degree in aeronautical science from Embry-Riddle University in Daytona Beach.

T. Jennene Norman-Vacha

Norman-Vacha, 43, of Brooksville, has worked since November 1997 as owner and consultant of Professional Human Resource Partners Inc., a Brooksville firm that provides human resources and management services for small and midsize businesses. Also, from 1999 through 2002, she worked as an account executive for broker Brown & Brown Inc. Norman-Vacha worked for Hernando County from 1984 through 1997, serving the last five years as deputy county administrator. She graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor's degree in pre-law and art from St. Leo College and earned her master's in public administration from the University of South Florida.

[Last modified April 28, 2007, 19:06:33]