County Manager Position

Be careful. Your county is looking at a hopeful named Lyndon Bonner. Do your research on him and you will see that he is hated everywhere he goes. He will take your balanced budget and gut it by creating untouchable accounts thus creating a deficit. Then he will tell you that you have to cut cut cut. He will try to gut your sheriff's office. He's arrogant and will try to privatize county services. He will clash with your sheriff and will make his life miserable because he can't "fire" an elected sheriff, but he will try to force layoffs. Whatever goodies you have, he will strip your agency of them. He will isolate your office from the public and the commissioners if it is something positive and go public via the media if it's something negative to make your office look like it's full of problems. There is no negotiating with him if your in contract negotiations. He will offer NOTHING and will only say that's not good enough on anything your union offers. He comes up with numbers out of the sky. He is a slick talker and your commissioners will probably eat his BS for awhile until they figure him out, but by that time, the damage will be done. He will tell you that he supports the police because his wife is a university cop. Don't buy it. He is no friend of the police. Like I said, do your research. I just don't want to see him ruin another police department like he did ours. We are still trying to undo the damage he created.

[Diamond Dave]

Wow, Thanks for the info.

[Diamond Dave]

Once again, the county is looking for a County Manager...

Any thoughts on the candidates listed, there are six (6).


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FROM WZEP NEWS

Walton Administrator Selection Process

Members of the Walton County Administrator Screening Committee consisting of Leon County Administrator Vince Long, Bay County Administrator Ed Smith and Santa Rosa County Administrator Hunter Walker met at the Administration Center in DeFuniak Springs Wednesday to review applicants for the Walton County Administrator position. Also present were FAC Executive Director, Chris Holley, Walton County Support Services Director Brady Bearden, Walton County Interim Assistant Manager Dede Hinote and one member of the press.

After two and a half hours of discussion, the following represents their findings:

The Committee was unanimous in their opinion that Walton County has many of the attributes that could attract top quality candidates for the position of County Administrator. The Committee felt an obligation to assert to the Board, however, that this could only happen if the Board demonstrates a commitment to the professional Council Manager form of government.

There was a consensus by the Committee that Walton County is at a pivotal point and should select a professional manager due to the organizational demands of the county which are growing and will continue to do so in the future.

The committee further wishes to advise that the community and organizational profile (size, scope, issues, trends, etc.) of Walton County and Walton County government currently warrants a professional manager. The committee strongly believes that the community and Board would be best served by a professional manager with the fiscal, strategic and operational expertise to most effectively lead county government operations, as well as the policy expertise to best advise the Board on policy matters.

The candidate pool was narrowed, in part, by eliminating some of the candidates that were part of the previous selection process; The Committee asked county staff for guidance which was provided.
There was a strong desire by the tenured Committee to recommend candidates with strong professional experience that also met the profile articulated by the Board on July 9, 2013.
There was a lengthy discussion about traditional vs. non-traditional candidates.

The candidates selected for recommendation as having traditional experience are: Jack Brown, Richard Hampton, Wendell Taylor and Ron Rabun.

The non-traditional candidates possessed some unique attributes that connected with the Board's profile, but did not possess local government, county manager experience. The candidates selected for recommendation as non-traditional candidates are: Tony Gomillion and Larry Jones.

The official in-person recommendations will be made at the next Walton County Board of Commission meeting to be held on August 13th beginning at 4:00pm at the County’s South Annex. At that time, the members of the Board will receive the recommendations of the Committee and will have the opportunity to conduct discussion and take action on who they wish to interview