Q&A – Candidates for Palm Beach County Administrator

This process marked the first search for an administrator in 10 years, as long-time administrator, Verdenia Baker, recently retired. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:13):
If you have questions, Brian has answers. It's time for
today's Q and AM. Today, this is the Brian mud Show.
Today's Q and A candidates for Palm Beach County Administrator.
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(00:33):
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Speaker 1 (01:04):
You may lay down a message right there, maybe for
a future at Q and A, which, by the way,
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the very nice ones that have come in of lat.
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Speaker 3 (01:20):
It's nice to me to get it somewhere. Yeah, it's good,
all right.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
So today's note is this, Hi, Brian, I would like
for you to cover the candidates for Palm Beach County Administrator.
It's a position that holds more importance than most are
probably aware of, and it's the first time in a
decade that the county will have a new administrator. Palm
Beach County is a much different place today than it
was then.

Speaker 3 (01:42):
Thank you in advance.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
Yeah, So today is today that the Palm Beach County
Commission will interview candidates and ultimately decide on a new
administrator following a public candidate forum last night at the
County Convention Center. And this process marked the first search
for an administrator in ten years. As was is referenced
by the listener as longtime administrator Virginia Baker recently retired

(02:06):
now Since June third, Todd Bonaleran has served as the
interim administrator. Now, first, in addressing the importance of the position,
I mean, yeah, you're absolutely right. The Palm Beach County
Administrator is effectively the CEO of a major enterprise. To
give you an idea, this is the overview of what

(02:28):
an administrator does. They're basically the operations manager, overseeing nearly
seventy one hundred employees in Palm Beach County and a
budget of around nine billion dollars. They're also responsible for
the execution of county services, I mean everything from airports,
water sewer by a rescue, Rhodes bridges, parks, libraries, big job.

(02:54):
There is responsibility to budgeting and financial oversight. So the
County Commission obviously that's the terms of everything, but once
they have passed their budget goes to the county administrator
to implement it and to maintain it throughout the course
of the year. So that is obviously a huge piece

(03:15):
of all this policy implementation. So the Palm Beach County
Commission obviously they decide the rules of the road, but
as they pass policy, it is then incumbent upon the
administrator to implement that policy across the county. The county
administrator has responsibility to the county's strategic initiatives, so this

(03:36):
commonly will include coordination with private and government partners in
identifying economic opportunities for the county, competing in some cases
for opportunities against other counties other governments. There's also oversight
of commercial and residential development that goes into to this
as well. And then you have department coordination as well.

(04:00):
Obviously there are a lot of county departments that work
hand in hand with one another in times that there
needs to be that kind of cohesion. So rather than
every department within the county kind of operating as its
own silo without there being continuity, the coordination between departments
so there is at best a seamless delivery of services

(04:22):
to the community is all part of the job as well. Now,
to kind of put this in perspective, Palm Beach County
probably know that it is one of the most populous
in the country, but how much so Where would you
think that Palm Beach County would rank in terms of
overall size of population? The answer is twenty fourth twenty

(04:49):
fourth most populous county, So this position is literally one
of the most demanding local government jobs in the country,
and that brings us to the candidate it's in question.
There were over two hundred applicants for the position that
pays approximately four hundred and fifty thousand dollars annually. There

(05:11):
was a vote. It was a narrow vote, four to
three against doing a nationwide search, so they ended up
maintaining the process locally and as a result, you have
four local candidates that are the finalists under consideration today.
Those four Joseph Abruzzo. He's forty four, a Boytant Beach

(05:33):
resident who has served as the Clerk of the Circuit
Court and Comptroller for Palm Beach County since twenty twenty one,
having served in the Florida Senate and House preceding his
current post. Joe is a registered Democrat. You have Keith
Klint Scales. He's sixty three. He's the founding director of

(05:53):
Strategic Planning and Performance Management for Palm Beach County. He
previously served as a corporate consultant. He's a lake Worth
resident and a registered Democrat. You have isaby Ayala Colazzo.
She is forty six, a lake Worth resident who has
served as an assistant county administrator since twenty nineteen. She's

(06:15):
also a chemical engineer, an attorney, and a registered non
party affiliated voter. Patrick Rutterer is the fourth candidate. He
is fifty seven, a Jupiter resident, has served as the
county's deputy administrator since twenty twenty three, was an assistant
county administrator previously, has served within Palm Beach County's government

(06:37):
for the past twenty two years, and is a registered
Republican and not that necessarily for the county administrator, partisan
politics is a.

Speaker 3 (06:50):
Deciding factor or should be.

Speaker 1 (06:53):
However, you mentioned a lot you know, the listener did
that a lots change in the county over the past decade,
and certainly is the case is the county has not
only grown substantially, but has moved from one of the
bluest counties in the state to one that has been
trending heavily right word and actually has the chance of

(07:14):
outright flipping by way of utter registration in the.

Speaker 3 (07:16):
NAZU distant future.

Speaker 1 (07:17):
So it will be interesting that you do have two Democrats,
one Republican, one NPA under consideration today. Private interviews they
take place this morning between candidates and commissioners preceding the
vote of the County Commission