Manatee County administrator candidates emerge

With attorney and former Sarasota County Commissioner Charles Hines withdrawing from consideration to be Manatee County's interim administrator, Manatee County Commissioners have until March 23 to fill the role.

But while commissioners talked about Lakewood Ranch Business Alliance President and CEO Dom DiMaio, Manatee County School Board member Scott Hopes and former Manatee County School District Superintendent Rick Mills as being prime candidates for the job, DiMaio said he only would be interested in the permanent job. The other two could be interested in the permanent job as well.

Here is a look at the three.

Dom DiMaio

Dom DiMaio said he only wants the permanent position. He said he enjoys working for the Lakewood Ranch Business Alliance and he wouldn’t want to leave it for a temporary gig,

As much as he loves his current job, DiMaio said part of the reason the permanent administrator job appeals to him is because he misses executive leadership and more intensive problem solving. He likes the idea of working with county directors to find solutions for infrastructure issues caused by development and growth.

DiMaio said the county needs a change in direction and he could use his banking acumen and decades of experience in executive leadership to move the county forward. For example, he suggested the county could use more of its reserves to fund its most pressing projects.

“I'm a problem solver,” DiMaio said. “I've been through two downturns. I know turnaround management. I know how to handle situations when things are going in the wrong direction. I ran a several billion dollar division of a public company.”

Scott Hopes

A previous Florida Commission on Ethics ruling from a similar situation would clear the way for Scott Hopes to remain on the School Board while serving as interim administrator, if he gets the job. However, Hopes said he would leave the board if the Manatee County Commission wanted.

If he does get the interim job, Hopes said the commissioners should go forward with their plan to conduct a national search even if they love the job he’s doing.

“I know everybody in that search is going to be compared to my performance,” Hopes said. “They're either going to be able to demonstrate that they've had greater success in a similar situation than I have had in the previous six months or 12 months, or not. I like competing. I am all for competition. The whole objective is to ensure that the taxpayers get the best value for their money. Whatever that is.”

Hopes said the job he’s done as part of the Manatee County School Board and his extensive business administration background are reasons he is the best candidate for the interim position. That experience includes his time working on the executive team for Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration where he managed a $15 billion budget. He said he knows how to bring “basic business management fundamentals to the county government bureaucracy.”

He also said the new commission needs someone who understands the commissioners’ “side of the fence” and acts in their best interest, rather than controlling the information they have to steer them to the decision the administrator wants to make.

Rick Mills

Rick Mills is retired, but he was formerly the superintendent of the Manatee County School District. Though he has enjoyed retirement, he misses working.

If he earns the interim job, Mills said he wants to get a feel for working with the Manatee County commissioners over his first few months before deciding if he is interested in the permanent job. Likewise, he thinks they should get a feel for working with him.

“I once heard from a sales guy in the auto industry, you don't go buy a brand new model when it comes out,” Mills said. “You wait and see how well it runs and works before you go buy one. We've seen that before. You put an interim in there, you like the results and outcomes and what's going on, you find out that that's not something that you need down the road. That's a natural occurrence that happens all the time. And they've made a commitment to doing a national search. But if they evaluate it after the timeframe they're looking at and it's working really well, and things are going well for the county, it's quite possible they might decide not to do it.”

Mills said he is the best candidate for the interim job because of his leadership experience in the military and government as well as his 16 years of experience in public education. He said he is an outcome-oriented person with a history of producing results based on strategic plans and budgets. He pointed specifically to the improvements he said the Manatee County School District made financially and academically while he was superintendent from 2013 to 2015.

Mills said he would be a transparent and direct administrator who would prioritize regaining public trust. He said his salary is a nonfactor in his interest.