Schools

Administrator's list goes from 31 to six

Here's a look at the candidates who have made the first cut to take over the county's top job.

By BARBARA BEHRENDT, Times Staff Writer
Published December 18, 2007

BROOKSVILLE - A committee from the public and private sectors has evaluated the 31 applicants for the job of county administrator and narrowed the list to six.

That completes the first step in the process of finding a replacement for Gary Kuhl, who left the top county job last month.

The six remaining applicants, who have a variety of experiences in government and business, will face their first round of interviews with committee members Wednesday and Friday. The committee will further pare the choices to send on to interviews with the County Commission on Jan. 8.

The hope is that a selection can be made and a contract approved in time for the new administrator to start by early March, said Barbara Dupre, county human resources director.

Here is a bit of information about each of the candidates:

-Daniel W. Fitzpatrick, has spent 25 years as a municipal manager. Since April 2003, he has served as city manager of Peekskill, N.Y., a historic Hudson River city of 25,000. For 10 years before that, he was city manager of Oak Park, Mich. He has also been city manager for Augusta, Maine; Ogdensburg, N.Y., and Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

He is a published author of various articles on city management and has also spent several years as a private sector administrator.

Fitzpatrick has his master's degree in public administration and his master's of business administration from the State University of New York at Albany.

-David N. Hamilton cites his experience and education for shaping his "open management" leadership style and his commitment to building healthy organizations. He lists his communications skills as one of his particular strengths.

He has been county administrator of Crow Wing, Minn., a community of 60,000, since 2006. From 2000 to 2006, he served as county administrator in Goodhue County, Minn. Hamilton spent several years as a government and business consultant and worked in Thunder Bay, Ontario, from 1985 to 1997, serving as mayor the last six years.

Currently enrolled in a program to earn his doctorate, he has his master's degree in public affairs from the University of Minnesota and his bachelor's degree in business administration and political science from Lakehead University in Thunder Bay.

-County administrator of Jackson County since 2003, Ted O. Lakey has more than 23 years of managerial experience in county and city government.

He served from 1998 until 2003 as superintendent in the Escambia County Public Works Department, working for several months as interim director of the department. His experience includes 14 years with the Birmingham Police Department in Alabama, where he worked his way up to a lieutenant incorrections.

Lakey has his master's of public administration from the University of West Florida and his bachelor's degree from the University of Alabama.

-Tom Marko, who has served as development coordinator for Miami-Dade County since 2005, cites his 23 years of well-rounded experience in county government and private sector management as his qualifications to be Hernando's next countyadministrator.

From 2002 through 2005, Marko served as assistant to the county manager, and before that he spent several years as senior budget analyst there.

He also has worked as a Realtor, operations director for a Hollywood railway company and had been a small-business owner.

He earned his master's of public administration and his bachelor's degree both from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.

-The assistant city manager of Surprise, Ariz., since 2004, Kathy S. Rice has 28 years of city management experience in Florida, Texas and Arizona.

She served briefly as interim planning and zoning director in Temple, Texas, and was Waco, Texas, city manager from 1998 until 2003. Rice was deputy city manager in Clearwater from 1989 to 1999, city manager of Gulfport from 1986 to 1989 and city manager and chief executive officer of Lake Mary from 1983 through 1986.

Rice earned her master's of public administration and her bachelor's degree from the University of Georgia.

-Mike Shalati's work experience includes city and county management, engineering, land development, project management and customer service in the public and private sectors.

He was county manager of Union County, N.C., from 2001 through earlier this year. He also worked from 1988 through 1999 as public works director there and held several private sector jobs in engineering firms.

Shalati earned his master's of business administration from Queens University of Charlotte and his bachelor's in urban environmental engineering and civil engineering from the University of North Carolina.

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

[Last modified December 17, 2007, 19:56:32]