Escambia County Could Name A New Administrator By Tonight

April 29, 2019

UPDATE: Escambia County has chosen Janice Gilley of Molino as the next county administrator. Click here for updated details.

Previous story:

By the end of Monday, Escambia County may have a new administrator.

There are five finalists to be interviewed today by commissioners. They will hold one-on-one interviews in the morning before the candidates appear before the entire board in the afternoon. The commission’s agenda calls for the selection of an administrator at the end of the day.

There were eight names on the finalist list days ago, but three have been removed.

Ricardo Mendez of Miami withdrew due to a family emergency, and Kimberly Washington of Molino removed her name from the list after accepting another position. Both were added to the list by Escambia County Commission Chairman Lumon May. Mendez was most recently finance director in Sweetwater, FL, and previously served as COO/CFO of Harrisburg, PA. Washington is currently engineering manager with Mississippi Power.

Cedric Alexander also removed his name from consideration. He was added to the list by Commissioner Robert Bender. Alexander has 13 years government experience including deputy chief in the Office of the Mayor in Rochester, NY, public safety director in Dekalb County, GA, and a federal security director for the Department of Homeland Security.

The five finalists remaining are:

  1. Craig Coffey from Flagler Beach, FL. County administrator in Flagler County from 2007-2019, has 20 years experience as a city/county manager with extensive Florida county government experience and 11 years additional local government experience.
  2. Patrick Thompson from Woodbury, MN. County administrator in St. Croix County, WI. Over 36 years local government experience.
  3. David Strahl from O’Fallon, MO. County administrator in City of O’Fallon, MO. 30 plus years local government administration experience, none in county government.
  4. Christopher Martin from Gulf Breeze. He served as the commanding officer of Pensacola Naval Air Station and spent 27 years in the Navy.
  5. Janice Gilley from Molino. She has held the position of vice president of External Affairs at the University of West Florida for 10 years. She served one year as the national policy director for the Foundation for Excellence in Education, one year as deputy chief of staff for the Florida House of Representatives and served as policy director and deputy policy director for year in the Executive Office of the Governor in Florida. She served as an Escambia County commissioner from 2002-2004.

The county paid the Florida Association of County Managers $5,000 to create a short list from the 120 plus applicants.. Coffey, Thompson and Strahl are the only candidates that remained from a short list created by the county managers association. Martin was added to the list by Commissioner Jeff Bergosh, and Gilley was added by Commissioner Steven Barry.

Comments

2 Responses to “Escambia County Could Name A New Administrator By Tonight”

  1. Frank on April 29th, 2019 5:15 pm

    Hand picked. Its time for the state to audit the entire county government. Funny thing is when you apply for a position at the county you must have no affiliation with a sitting BOCC member. Do as I say and not as I do.

  2. Anne on April 29th, 2019 12:29 pm

    Thank you for clarification on which of Our Commissioners added their own person(s) to the list compiled by Florida Association of County Managers.

    I believe it was the District-2 commissioner who brought up the point of adding of candidates by BoCC members, yet did not choose to add on.

    Lord Please Help the person who is “Chosen” they have a LOT of Work to get into.
    Hurricane Season will soon be upon us.

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