Hernando County's new top man ready for the heat

David Hamilton has plans for how he'll spend his first days as administrator. Negativity isn't included.

By BARBARA BEHRENDT, Times Staff Writer
Published January 26, 2008

ADVERTISEMENT David Hamilton is working on his transition from frigid Minnesota to balmy Hernando County.

BROOKSVILLE -- When David Hamilton interviewed with the County Commission this week, he knew that math would be on the test. And he gave the correct answer: Three.

When three of the five commissioners make a decision, even if the other two don't agree, his duty as administrator is to carry out the wishes of the majority, he said.

Case in point: His own hiring. Two commissioners, Rose Rocco and Dave Russell, voted against Hamilton. But three others voted for him, and so he is heading from to frigid Minnesota to balmy Florida.

On Friday, while working out wrinkles of his transition, Hamilton said in a telephone interview that the divided commission vote is just one of many tasks he has to tackle. "Rather than see this as a challenge, I see this as an opportunity," Hamilton said.

He complimented both Rocco and Russell because they called him before he left Florida to tell him that, while they didn't vote for him, they did intend to build a good working relationship with him.

The commissioners who did vote for him, Chairman Chris Kingsley, Diane Rowden and Jeff Stabins, are also the three who are up for re-election this fall. Each has challengers, and the same political foes who created the contentious Government Gone Wild movement last summer have vowed to push for their ouster.

Hernando County is certainly warmer than Minnesota today and several commissioners warned him that things will get much hotter down the road.

Stabins said he was very blunt with Hamilton about the negativity that his predecessors faced from the community, feelings the last two administrators cited as they left, even though they still had the support of the majority of the board.

Hamilton has assured the commission both in public and in private meetings that he can handle the heat. He said he does not give in to negative energy choosing instead to stay focused on long-term goals.

The 58-year-old administrator of Crow Wing County plans to talk with Kingsley soon to work out a contract. Hamilton was confident an agreement will be reached. "The sooner I get there the better," he said.

Hamilton has already charted out in his mind how he would like to spend his first few days as administrator.

Day one will be spent out of his office, meeting department heads and staff and listening to what they have to say. The second day he said he planned to meet with commissioners. By day three he will meet with George Zoettlein, the director of the county's office of management and budget and with interim county administrator Larry Jennings to start talking about critical fundingissues.

Hamilton said he will have to tackle the difficult budget issues as one of his first tasks.

"We'll very quickly need to develop a process that engages department heads and the community," he said. "These major discussions cannot be made in a single room in the government center."

He has studied the county's budget and praised the process of budgeting for two years at a time. His review has shown him that one of the tactics Hernando used to absorb last year's state-mandated and commissioner-supported revenue hit was drawing down some of the reserve funds.

That will have to stop or the county may be in the same bind that Hamilton faced while working in Goodhue County, Minn., where money was so tight the county had to take out a tax-anticipation loan.

"You just cannot continue to trim reserves indefinitely because you're drawing down your financial base," he said.

While he said he believes the budget is the main job of the administrator, the current financial issues facing the county, especially if Amendment 1 passes Tuesday, would make it the "paramount" issue.

"This is the job for the year and everything else must fall into place to make that work," he said.

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

[Last modified January 25, 2008, 21:24:24]