Santa RosaCounty’s search for a new county administrator is winding down as three candidates were interviewed Wednesday afternoon.
Ted Lakey of Gracevilla, Florida; Randall Dowling of Hoschton, Georgia; and Tony Gomillion, current Santa Rosa County public services director, answered questions from the board and gave their final thoughts before a final choice is made Monday at the Board of County Commissioner meeting.
“All three made good presentations and all have similar and different qualities,” said Commissioner Don Salter, chairman of the board.
The Florida Associations of County Management assisted with the search for the new administrator after the announcement that Hunter Walter would be retiring by the end of the year about 10 months ago.
The county received 56 applications and narrowed it down to eight candidates. Two weeks ago it was narrowed again to three.
During the two-hour interview process, the local options sales tax referendum and the county’s need for a new courthouse were main points of discussion.
Dowling, who has 30 years of background in local government management having worked in Texas, Florida and Georgia, said the Santa RosaCounty courthouse will be among the county’s bigger challenges, including infrastructure and lack of long-term planning.
“On the phone I said, ‘Is the courthouse that bad?’ When I drove by … yes it is,” Dowling said.
At his previous post in JacksonCounty, Lakey saw the county courthouse receive a $1.9 million renovation. Looking at Santa RosaCounty, he counted the courthouse and the local option sales tax as resolutions he liked to see solved within his first year.
A familiar name to Santa RosaCounty, Gomillion said he would tackle the tax referendum by looking to “our neighbors to the west” who have successfully passed similar referendums twice in recent years.
When it comes to what he’d like to accomplish in his first year, Gomillion said the first thing to do is identify goals.
“Talk less about dollars and more about priorities,” he said.
The county administrator is the chief executive officer for the county, explained Salter.
“They’re in charge of 800 employees, 160,000 citizens,” he said. “It’s an extremely important decision. It’s been a long process, but we wanted to get the best.”
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Commission expected to hire administrator Monday