BY MARK J. CRAWFORD
Telegraph Editor
STARKE — Bradford County kicked it’s manager hiring process into high gear with interviews beginning at 8 a.m. on Monday morning.
Of the four candidates, three were interviewed. It hasn’t been a good year for New Jersey candidate Brian Geoghegan, who canceled his appearance claiming hurricane damage to his Fort Meyers home.
Howell Township also voted unanimously in May to end Geoghegan’s employment as manager, answering Bradford commissioners’ questions about his dual addresses in New Jersey and Florida and how he was able to get away from his responsibilities.
According to online reporting, he exceeded his allotted paid time off in Howell and may have been paid for additional hours he didn’t work. That is under investigation.
When Geoghegan did not contact the county attorney’s office to reschedule, his application was considered withdrawn.
Similar red flags have not been raised for the other candidates: Patrick Jordan, city manager for Escanaba, Michigan; Scott Kornegay, former city manager for Keystone Heights; and Louis Goodin, Hamilton County, Florida, coordinator.
Jordan has a master’s degree in public administration and had held city and county management positions in Michigan and Alaska. He admitted the possible move to Florida was a jumpstart on his eventual plan to retire here, but said his retirement is still years away.
Jordan said he would like to put his 20 years of experience in management to work for Bradford County. That includes assessing needs and planning strategically to carry out projects using often restricted financial resources. He counts among his greatest accomplishments helping his board understand the need to plan for utility and other infrastructure improvements and not neglect them.
Unfortunately, he said elections change things and he feels the politics of local government might mean his days are numbered in his current position.
Kornegay, who lives with his wife on Lake Santa Fe, departed Keystone Heights after four and a half years as city manager, but he didn’t stay retired long. He now heads the Lake Region Development Corporation where among other things, he has been active trying to secure warehouse space for Bradford County in order to keep from losing an anchor tenant at Keystone Heights Airport.
His connections helped. Kornegay said he is a relationship builder and a communicator more so than a general manager with detailed knowledge of every department. He said he is a people person and a consensus builder. It is the best way to get things done, he said, and if that is what Bradford is looking for, it will be hard to find a more qualified candidate..
He was in the United States Airforce and Florida Air National, and and worked for Jacksonville Fire Rescue for more than 20 years, spending his last few years in an administrative job before taking the position in Keystone. Among his greatest accomplishments as city manager was the Water Summit that drew leaders like Sen. Rob Bradley to Keystone and resulted in the Black Creek project to replenish Keystone lakes and recharge the aquifer.
They were also able to roll a city streetscaping project into state plans to resurface State Road 21.
Goodin said he has always been a manager, but his first stint at public management has been his nine years as coordinator in Hamilton County. He joked that he has been an effective coordinator for six years, after three years of on-the-job training.
One thing he is looking forward to if hired by Bradford County is the chance to become a bona fide manager instead of a coordinator, which he described as being a “glorified secretary.” He said he has more to bring to the table, but wants to do that in a rural community.
Among his successes are the millions in dollars of grant funding he has brought to Hamilton County, including a jobs grant that will be used to subdivide 57 acres and establish a logistics park for seven to nine tenants, complete with roads and utilities. A minimum of 200 jobs are anticipated.
During public comments, Carol Mosley criticized the rush to hire a county manager, which involved an early morning meeting with little public notice. For her, the urgency to hire someone was a manufactured crisis stemming from the commission’s decision to delay hiring a manager and appointing its attorney to manage the county instead. Now that attorney Will Sexton is leaving, the commission must fill both posts.
Mosley said the county needs a firm departure date from Sexton as well as a list of pending issues being wrapped up, one of which she would like to be the phosphate mining application process that has been “dormant” for nearly three years.
(The county is also in search of an auditor as well, with Clerk Denny Thompson worried that they are already behind.)
In addition to mentioning Geoghegan’s ordeal, commentor Colson Douglas added his endorsement for Parker. He did the research, watching council meetings and reviewed performance evaluations. Bradford County needs structure, Douglas said. It needs a fresh start, a fresh perspective an no preexisting allegiances within the community. He said Parker has the experience and knowledge necessary.
Whether the commission agrees could be revealed on Thursday afternoon. Commissioners will continue their recessed meeting at 2 p.m. on Oct. 6 to discuss the interviews and rank candidates.
