Local News
County job draws much interest
Gary Pinnell | Highlands Today
Published: January 8, 2013
SEBRING - Apparently, everyone wants to be the assistant county administrator.Published: January 8, 2013
That's a bit of an exaggeration, but when the four-week application period closed on Friday, 21 people had applied.
Many are names with which locals are familiar: former county commissioner Guy Maxcy, who is the current DeSoto County administrator; former county commissioner and current Facilities Director David Flowers; Parks and Natural Resources Director Vicki Pontius; County Engineer Ramon Gavarrete; Road and Bridge Supervisor Kyle Green; Livestock Agent Randy Gornto; Special Projects Coordinator Christopher Benson, and former Human Resources Director John Minor.
Two have held top jobs: Douglas Hewett was the city manager at Hollywood, Fla; Anthony Carson, of Ocean View, Del. was the town administrator for Berlin.
Three more are locals: Candice Ciesla of Avon Park is the director of programs and services at Ridge Area ARC, Jerri Kaplan of Sebring is a secretary in the emergency operations center and Shannon Sapp of Sebring is a vice president and comptroller at Highlands Independent Bank.
One more is from out of state: Suzanne Davis of Leesburg, Ga. works for the City of Albany.
The rest are from Florida: Bill Veach, Tallahassee, director of the State of Florida's Division of Hotels and Restaurants; Sarah Hannah, Plantation, laid off as the financial director for the City of Sunrise; Randal Vosburg of Lakeland, Director of Professional Compliance at Polk County Sheriff's Office; Tory Bombard, business operations manager for the City of Lakeland; Julio Granada, library affairs manager for the Miami-Dade library system; Andrew DeCandis, senior director for planning and government relations for Orange County Public Schools; and Diane Papa, Palm City, human resources manager for the Torrey Pines Institute.
One reason for the high interest is the salary: $39.27 to $64.01 per hour, which calculates to $81,681 to $133,140 per year.
According to the job description, Highlands County's assistant administrator supervises department directors. Flowers, Gavarrete, Green and Pontius are department heads; Minor resigned in 2010.
The assistant administrator is required to have a four-year degree in business or management, although a master's degree is preferred. Eight years of progressively responsible experience and training is also required.
Of the 21 applicants, one — Pontius — has only an associate's degree, one is still working on a bachelor's degree, one lists no degree, five have only bachelor's degrees.
gpinnell@highlandstoday.com (863) 386-5828