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Welcome, and good luck; you'll need it, sir

By Andrew Skerritt, Times Columnist
Published February 10, 2008

ADVERTISEMENT David Hamilton is the new Hernando County administrator.

Memo to David Hamilton: It's not too late to change your mind.

In case the name is unfamiliar, Hamilton is the unlucky guy who got the job. Hernando County commissioners voted 3-2 to hire Hamilton to direct the county's day to day operations. But even before the honeymoon, there is some doubt this marriage can survive.

A few days ago, commissioners approved a contract that would pay Hamilton $135,000 annually to start and give him a 5 percent raise six months later pending a satisfactory performance review. Pretty standard.

Predictably, some folks complained about a bloated bureaucracy and Hamilton being overpaid, and it didn't take long for elected officials to retreat.

Chairman Chris Kingsley called Hamilton and asked him to forego his 5 percent raise, given the county's dire fiscal situation. He hasn't even arrived, and already he has to put on a happy face. Sure, he said, whatever you say.

Hamilton is the county administrator in Crow Wing, Minn. It is awfully cold there this time of year. How nice it will be to trade white-outs for 75 degrees, snowfields for fairways.

But this move comes with a risk.

He's a smart guy, so you can figure he has done his homework, reviewed the long list of administrators who have either been booted or quit after relatively short terms. Surely he read the comments from the last guy, Gary Kuhl, who quit the job last fall.

Kuhl was a seasoned hand, having run Citrus County and the huge Southwest Florida Water Management District. He knew all about Hernando County and had plenty of well-placed friends, but that didn't stop him from leaving town after only 18 months, complaining about incessant negativity crippling county government.

The casualty list is long: Gary Adams, Bonnie Dyga, Paul McIntosh, Richard Radacky. Three years in this job is considered a long time.

Larry Jennings has been warming the administrator's seat. He's been a fixture in county government for more than 30 years, and this post would seem to be the crowning achievement in a solid public service career. But he doesn't want the job. That says it all.

This job can chew you up. And as governments throughout Florida begin cutting budgets and services in the wake of the property tax relief amendment passed by voters last month, it's going to be even less fun.

Some 25 years ago, Pasco County went through administrators about as fast as gasoline through a Hummer. The result was chaos and corruption, a grand jury, a jailed commissioner.

Then came John Gallagher, a local boy who wanted to stay in his hometown. It helped that he was also highly competent - and that elected officials were basically forced by the grand jury to get their act together. The result: continuity, stability and credibility, despite a limited tax base, bedroom communities and smothering growth.

Hernando could use a little continuity.

Good luck, Mr. Hamilton.

Andrew Skerritt can be reached at askerritt@sptimes.com or 813 909-4602 or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 4602.

[Last modified February 9, 2008, 20:38:41]