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Suncoast Pasco News

County Attorney Search To Continue

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By Carl  Orth | The Suncoast News

Published: October 23, 2007

NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. - NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. - Commissioners today delayed a decision for two weeks on choosing the successor to retiring County Attorney Robert Sumner.

The County Commission did take action, voting 3-2 to remove Land O' Lakes lawyer Tim Hayes from the list of county attorney finalists.

Commissioners Michael Cox and Jack Mariano nominated Hayes for the county attorney's post, but Commission Chairwoman Ann Hildebrand and Commissioners Pat Mulieri and Ted Schrader voted no.

Some critics had charged Hayes was too close to builders and developers to serve as county attorney. Hayes had disputed suggestions he could not be neutral on land-use issues.

Commissioners went along with another Cox motion, holding additional interviews with the top three remaining candidates.

They are:

• Pasco Chief Assistant County Attorney Barbara Wilhite.

• Jeffrey Steinsnyder, a former assistant county attorney in Manatee County now in private practice.
• Douglas Wyckoff, a municipal attorney for various Florida cities who resides in Defuniak Springs, in the Panhandle.

Mulieri suggested a possible compromise, naming Wilhite interim county attorney for a year. Hildebrand said she would support promoting Wilhite to interim chief of the county legal department.

Sumner first came on board as the interim county attorney in 1999 before deciding to stay in the post, Schrader recalled.

Sumner, 71, has endorsed Wilhite as his successor. He intends to leave by the end of the year.

Read more on the search for a new Pasco County attorney in Saturday's issue of The Suncoast News.

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