Politics

Kuhl ready for a move

Political acrimony is making the job difficult, the county administrator says

By BARBARA BEHRENDT, Times Staff Writer
Published August 30, 2007

BROOKSVILLE - Hernando County Administrator Gary Kuhl will be interviewing next week for the job of public works director in Sumter County.

He also would consider applying for another job in county administration; specifically, one that just opened up this week in neighboring Citrus County.

Kuhl, 61, told commissioners this week that he is exploring other job options in the public and private sectors. He said he wanted them to hear it from him and not some secondhand source.

He cites the roiling public controversy over county government spending as a primary reason he is ready to move on from the administrator job he has held since February 2006.

Kuhl said Wednesday that he just didn't believe he was able to make things better through all the turmoil. "It just seems to have gotten personal with me," he said.

Kitty Fields, human resources manager for Sumter County, said Kuhl was among the public works director job candidates slated for interviews next week. Sumter is hoping to find a replacement for Tommy Hurst, who has held the job for 40 years, by Dec. 31.

Kuhl was public works director in Citrus County in the mid 1990s before becoming Citrus County's administrator in 1996, a job he held until 2000.

Though Citrus has a county administrator, its assistant county administrator Tom Dick was fired recently. The county attorney upheld Dick's termination.

Kuhl said he would certainly consider applying for that job. "I am open to really anything that fits my background. I have a wide variety of experience from public works to county administration to the Southwest Florida Water Management District."

Kuhl owns a home in Citrus County and has been renting a house in Hernando County. He said he is interested in a job in this region because he likes the area and his family is nearby. A Florida native, Kuhl came to this area from St. Petersburg.

Longtime Citrus County Commissioner Gary Bartell said he would welcome Kuhl's resume for the assistant administrator's job because Kuhl left on good terms.

Bartell said he wasn't surprised that Kuhl would want to get out of a situation full of political acrimony.

"Gary was not the type of professional to get into the political arena. He knew that was for the elected officials," he said. "That's a shame. In all the years I've been in county and city government, Gary, to me, was the No. 1 administrator ... he always provided professional recommendations."

Professional poker player and businessman Blaise Ingoglia also had kind words for Kuhl on Wednesday, saying he was "a very intelligent and kind man."

But Ingoglia, the face of the Government Gone Wild seminars that have generated much of the negativity that Kuhl said he is ready to walk away from, said this may indicate that the problems with county government may even be more deep-seated than Kuhl could fix.

"I think that he is such a nice man that maybe he is tired of defending the county's actions," Ingoglia said. "If we've had such a hard time keeping county administrators, maybe the problem is deeper than even we thought."

He said the county needs to find a strong leader from the private sector to take over and make the changes needed to make government leaner.

"They need to hire an outsider who has a history of being able to stand up to tough challenges, has a strong backbone and will be able to make strong decisions," he said.

Ingoglia said his seminars are not to blame for the negativity driving Kuhl away. Government itself is.

"I don't feel responsible. The county over the past five years with its spending of five times the growth rate, the county has sort of made their own bed and now they're sleeping in it.

"It's up to the residents of the county to change the sheets."

Barbara Behrendt can be reached at behrendt@sptimes.com or (352) 848-1434.

[Last modified August 29, 2007, 20:31:59]