Commission will interview candidates ASAP
BY MARK J. CRAWFORD
Telegraph Editor
STARKE — Bradford Commission Chairman Chris Dougherty began a discussion Monday urging the board to expedite the process and hire one of four county manager candidates who had responded to its recent advertisement.
After facing vocal dissent, he ended the meeting by saying, “Bring all four in. Bring them on.”
Dougherty threw his support behind Scott Kornegay, the retired city manager of Keystone Heights.
In addition to being a Bradford County resident, Kornegay is a veteran of the United States Air Force and Florida National Air Guard and received his master’s in public administration from the University of North Florida. He worked for Jacksonville Fire Rescue for nearly 24 years as a firefighter/paramedic as well as in administration.
He retired from Keystone Heights in May 2020 after more than four years after overseeing multiple capital improvement projects and streamlining the city budget. He has since been working on economic development as executive director for the Lake Region Development Corporation. He also serves on the boards of the Keystone Heights Airport Authority and Lake Region Prosperity Partners.
However, commissioners had an opportunity to review all four applications for the county manager post, and both Carolyn Spooner and Diane Andrews thought fairness required speaking to each individually.
The disagreement resulted in another uncomfortable discussion between commissioners, who were also at odds when a split board appointed staff attorney Will Sexton to take on managerial duties in April 2021.
Dougherty asked that a vote be scheduled for the Oct. 4 meeting to negotiate with Kornegay. Dougherty said he is local and “ticks all the boxes.”
“I think he would be a good fit,” Dougherty said.
Spooner said the board had already agreed to interview all of the applicants since only four responses were received.
“I think just through the review of the applications, I think you’ll see that he rises to the top and you’ve got two that are out of state and I personally don’t want to go through the process of trying to get people in from out of state and then dragging this on,” Dougherty said. The county also needs to replace its attorney and auditor. “We need to start moving as fast as we can to get on track,” he said.
Andrews agreed with Spooner, addressing the fairness of the process.
“Mr. Kornegay looks like an excellent candidate, but also we asked these people to come in and do this for us, and I think it would be extremely disrespectful on our behalf if we didn’t at least, interview the four. If there was 44, that I could understand, but there was only four. They did a lot of work on our behalf, and I just think we owe them the respect of interviewing the four candidates,” Andrews said.
Commissioner Danny Riddick, based on reading the resumes alone, said he didn’t think the two candidates from New Jersey and Michigan would be a good fit for Bradford County. On the other hand, he said he’s had many people suggest the county hire Kornegay. He said he’d be willing to interview two candidates, but not all four.
Andrews said deciding based on residence without considering someone’s qualifications was not fair. But Sexton said it could be a red flag that someone from out of state is wrapping up their career and wants to retire to Florida. Positions like this give them an opportunity to do so while still earning an income.
Spooner said Kornegay might be the successful candidate, but she stood firm that there was a process they should follow to get to that point.
“I’m saying we had only four applicants. It’s a reasonable thing that we can interview those persons, even if it ended up being (Kornegay), but in a fair process. Otherwise, we shouldn’t have applicants if we’re going to preselect ahead of the process,” she said.
Andrews defended looking for outside expertise.
“Sometimes you need a little new blood, you need opinions from the outside. Maybe they have better ways and methods of doing things than we do,” she said.
“New Jersey and Michigan?” Dougherty asked.
“Yes, sir,” she said.
“Ooh. Okay,” he replied.
Discouraged by his response and the snickering, Andrews responded, “I’m sorry. Let me just keep my opinion to myself since everybody thinks it’s funny.”
“It’s not,” said Spooner in her defense. “Each of us up here have the same level of authority in terms of one vote, and we shouldn’t dismiss each other that way.”
“I have to apologize,” Andrews said. “I’m just not used to this method where we just pick someone that we’ve known and put them in a position. Maybe they’re our friend or something like that. Where I’ve worked, we had a panel. We interviewed. We gave everybody the same opportunity. It was an equal rights opportunity that people could come in and apply for a job. Why should they even apply? Why would we even run an ad? If we’re not going to interview them, not give them an opportunity, or just X them off because, ‘Well, you live out of state, and I don’t know you, and my family don’t know you.’ That gives us such a bad image doing things like that. It’s irresponsible, and I just hate it. That’s just not the way we should do things?”
Dougherty said he made his decision based on his review of the resumes and was making a recommendation to negotiate with Kornegay. He left it to the other commissioners to agree or disagree. He imagined a drawn out scenario and preferred to move forward.
But Spooner said they could be as expeditious as they want to be.
“We can interview whenever we choose to do that, and it’s only four applicants. Even if it turned out to be the person that you’re suggesting, that is the fair process, and that’s the appropriate process. Preselection is not appropriate,” she said.
Andrews made it clear the people are watching.
“We’re in a position, in an open position, where these people are watching what we do, and they’re seeing us. We got four, only four applicants. I’ve interviewed probably 30 people in one day before, but we can’t interview four? And then we just pick the one that. ‘Well, I know him, so that’s the one’?”
Andrews said Kornegay was an option when she and Spooner tried to fill the manager position in 2021, and the other three voted to appoint Sexton in her absence.
“You didn’t want us to have a county manager, and you thought it was the worst thing. Y’all said we didn’t need one,” she recalled.
Dougherty clarified it was a money saving decision, and one he wouldn’t change. With Sexton’s experience, he didn’t think the county needed a manager at that time.
Riddick said he didn’t want to see the board divided over the hiring process.
“It’s going to be tough enough, whoever we hire out of the four, and I don’t want to already start off dividing the board over this,” he said.
With Riddick resigned to interviews, Dougherty said the candidates would be brought in for interviews. But he said things will not continue as they have been, with strict rules of orders being followed at meetings. He used the unscheduled vote to award $500,000 in federal aid to the Concerned Citizens gym rehabilitation project as an example.
Moving forward, commissioners will not vote unless a vote has been scheduled on the agenda, he said, and all commissioners will “speak through the chair,” which means they will ask for the chairman’s permission.
“If we’re going to start talking about proper order and how we do things, then we’re going to do it properly,” he said.
“I couldn’t agree more,” Spooner said. “I think it’s important that we follow Robert’s Rules of Order as you’re indicating, and we do it through the chair — but you give each person a chance to speak.”
“And everyone has always had an opportunity since I’ve been chair to speak, even if it’s out of turn,” Dougherty said.
“And even if we disagree with each other, we must be respectful for each person,” Spooner added.
“I’m just saying, remember, you’ve always had an opportunity to speak, and you’ve never been cut off from speaking. Nobody from this board has ever been cut off from speaking — not since I’ve been in the chair,” he said.
Spooner disagreed, saying, “Sometimes you have cut me off, and sometimes you have been condescending towards me and disrespectful. Maybe you didn’t realize that you were, but you have done that to me. But the other board members, you have allowed them to speak. I’m just saying.”
Sexton said he would try to set up interviews for the meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 4, at 9:30 a.m.
