Local finalist keeps lid on Swiftmud budget

© St. Petersburg Times,
published October 3, 2001

NOTE: This is the second of four profiles of the finalists for the Pinellas County administrator job. Other profiles will appear this week. County commissioners are scheduled to make a choice Oct. 12.

A former colleague praises Eugene Schiller for keeping finance meetings boring, with no surprises.

Local governments have a life all their own, says Eugene Schiller, one of four finalists to run Pinellas County government.

"They're living organisms," Schiller said this week. "They grow. They get ill. They catch cold."

And some treatments -- careful spending, effective organization, dedicated people -- keep them healthier than others.

That's how Schiller began thinking of cities more than 30 years ago, when he was studying urban sociology and political science at Bates College in Maine. It's an analogy that has led him through a 29-year career in local government.

Since 1992, Schiller has been a deputy executive director at the Southwest Florida Water Management District, or Swiftmud, where he directs the annual budget process and supervises finance, human resources, information resources, risk management and general services. He makes $123,800 a year at Swiftmud; the county's top job would pay from $117,500 to $182,200 annually.

Since Hillsborough County Administrator Dan Kleman dropped out of the running last week, Schiller is the only local finalist. Because of his work with Swiftmud, Schiller said, he knows many of the regional challenges Pinellas faces.

He also knows the county well enough to appreciate its history of good government, he said.

"I consider Pinellas to be a rare jewel, in terms of its history of policymaking and how it's operated," Schiller said. "I really consider it an honor to be a finalist."

But his boss, Swiftmud executive director Sonny Vergara, has mixed feelings.

"He's just phenomenal," Vergara said. "I'd hate to lose him. Just absolutely hate to lose him."

Vergara said Schiller has presided over "very smooth" budgeting processes and helped keep Swiftmud from increasing tax rates or debt for nine years. The district's budget is about $239-million a year, smaller than Pinellas' $1.5-billion.

But Vergara said Schiller also was instrumental in arranging complex financial packages to enact the regional partnership that established Tampa Bay Water and ended the regional "water wars." Schiller also has played a key role in planning Tampa Bay's first seawater desalination plant.

"He's innovative," concurred St. Petersburg lawyer Roy Harrell, former chairman of the Swiftmud board. "It's thinking out of the box but still having solid business principles."

Harrell was chairman of the board's finance committee and so worked closely with Schiller for years. He said Schiller knew every budget detail, kept the district out of debt and the board away from surprises.

"What you want are boring finance meetings," Harrell said.

Harrell wrote a letter to commissioners to recommend Schiller for the job.

Before joining Swiftmud, Schiller directed financial operations for Sarasota County, for St. Paul, Minn., and for a Connecticut state agency. He's also a trained arbitrator and mediator, and worked early in his career leading local governments in three small Northeastern towns.

All that experience would transfer well to Pinellas, Schiller said.

"Many times when you're dealing with county government, you've got dollar problems and nickels to spend," Schiller said. "You've got to figure out how to spread those out. A lot of visions have to be translated to reality through resource allocation."

Eugene Schiller

AGE: 53

FAMILY: Wife, two sons

EDUCATION: Bachelor of arts, Bates College, Maine; master's of public administration, University of Hartford.

CURRENT JOB: Deputy executive director, management services, Southwest Florida Water Management District.

PAST EXPERIENCE: Finance director, Sarasota County and St. Paul, Minn.; town/city manager in small towns in Connecticut, New York, Vermont.

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