Select county attorney in open, honest process

By A TIMES EDITORIAL
Published October 16, 2007

One of the rare jobs for a Pasco County commissioner is hiring staff. ¶ None of the current board was around when John Gallagher came on board as administrator 25 years ago. Now, for the first time in 16 years, commissioners are conducting an extensive search for a new county attorney.

It is a task so rare that few seem to know how to go about it in an appropriate, professional manner. This search has featured more machinations, whispering and behind-the-scenes politicking than an episode of Survivor.

Here is a recap:

-Commission Chairman Ann Hildebrand withdrew from the three-person search committee after a columnist at another publication criticized her for being too close to one of the applicants, Chief Assistant County Attorney Barbara Wilhite.

Give Hildebrand credit for trying to avoid even the appearance of conflicting interests. Too bad others didn't follow her lead.

-A confab of development interests met to discuss the characteristics they believed the next county attorney should possess. The top quality, said one of the participants, was the ability to get along with Gallagher. It is a position echoed by Commissioner Michael Cox.

Some community activists responded by lobbying for commissioners to set aside the building industry's sentiments. Balancing those sometimes-mutually exclusive interests is the chore that falls to commissioners each day they are in office. Why should selecting the next county attorney be any different?

A bigger question, however, is why being Gallagher's chum is the leading prerequisite for being county attorney. Certainly, Gallagher and retiring County Attorney Robert Sumner have clashed, though not in public meetings, but the citizenry as a whole has been served well by the current administration and legal team. Neither office should be a pushover for the other.

-Sumner recently portrayed one of the five remaining candidates, Tim Hayes of Land O'Lakes, in an unflattering light as the developers' choice. It is a description Sumner later retracted.

It was wise to apologize. Hayes and the others should be considered on their own merits and should not have their work histories tainted by people with vested interests. Sumner's interest is seeing his chief assistant, Wilhite, get the job. The retiring county attorney made his recommendation and now should allow his bosses to do their job in picking his successor.

-Cox said in an interview Monday that he will "entertain anybody for the job except Barbara," meaning Wilhite will not get his vote. No secret there considering Cox championed a wide-ranging search after Sumner announced his retirement. National search is government speak for "nobody from the office down the hall" when it comes to filling high-profile vacancies.

But, this search would be better served if Cox had watched the actions of Sumner and Hildebrand. Both stepped back after realizing - whether accurate or not - that their roles could influence the outcome unfairly. Cox should enter today's scheduled interviews with an open mind.

This isn't an endorsement of any of the five finalists. More appropriately, this is an endorsement of an honest, open interview and selection process untainted by backroom posturing, special interest pandering or predisposal toward advance vote counting.

Let the next county attorney earn the job because of his or her knowledge, experience, enthusiasm, management skills and other qualities needed to help commissioners do their job of governing Pasco County.

[Last modified October 15, 2007, 20:36:24]