- April 26, 2024
-
-
Loading
Loading
County commissioners have chosen Heidi Petito as Flagler County's next county administrator.
Petito has served in that role in an interim capacity since July, when former interim administrator Jerry Cameron stepped down. At a County Commission meeting Oct. 4, commissioners decided unanimously to keep Petito on permanently, removing the "interim" designation on her job title.
"I'm extremely humbled and honored to be considered for the position," Petito said after the meeting. "The board's been great to work with. I look forward to continuing what we have in store for Flagler County. We've got a great team and a great board, so I appreciate their support."
The subject of the county administrator position wasn't on the Oct. 4 meeting's agenda, but Commissioner Greg Hansen brought it up toward the end of the meeting, making a motion to remove the interim designation from Petito's title and direct the county's HR department to develop a new contract for Petito.
"It's time to do this," he said.
Other commissioners agreed.
"I love what we've done, giving her a 90-day, kind of a trial period," Commissioner Joe Mullins said.
"You've done a great job," Mullins said to Petito. "Staff and everybody's continued to be very happy."
Commissioner Andy Dance had reservations about the board making such a significant decision without putting it on a public meeting agenda so that the public would know about it and be able to comment.
"I'd rather have seen it come forward as an agenda item, and maybe even have some formal review so that she has some constructive thoughts moving forward," Dance said.
He also suggested that the commission have its chairman, Commissioner Donald O'Brien, direct the creation of Petito's new contract, rather than leaving it to the HR department.
"It puts HR in a difficult position to be putting forth a contract for their boss," Dance said. "I think the chair would be in a better position to be able to negotiate the contract on our behalf."
O'Brien noted that Petito's contract itself will come before the commission for approval at a future meeting, which would allow for public input.
Dance asked who would be setting her salary. O'Brien said the commission would decide on salary and other details of the contract.
"My guess is it's going to look very, very close to what we have now," O'Brien said.
Dance suggested having County Attorney Al Hadeed, who answer directly to the commission rather than to the county administrator, oversee the creation of Petito's contract. Other commissioners agreed.
