Sheryl Rehberg from North Florida Workforce.

Now that Hamilton County Coordinator Danny Johnson’s resignation, effective Sept. 30, has been accepted by the Board of County Commissioners, the search is on to find his replacement.

At the county commission meeting on July 2, a discussion was launched on what was needed to fill the soon to be vacant position.

Johnson explained that the county’s personnel manual encourages the practice of promoting within and as such, as of Tuesday, July 2, he said three applications had been received, all in-house. The three who applied for the job are John Smith, Leslie Carter and Deion Godwin. Johnson recommended and the commissioners agreed that the position should also be advertised, in order to get a larger pool of applicants from which to choose, as well as to find the right person with the best qualifications who has prior governmental experience.

Executive Director of North Florida Workforce Development Board Sheryl Rehberg was in the audience and had earlier spoken to commission chair Randy Ogburn saying that she’d like the board to utilize the services at the NFWDB, which can reach out not only locally, but statewide and nationwide.

“I’m assuming you’re wanting the best skilled, experienced and qualified person that you can find to take over this vital job,” said Rehberg. “What we do is take your job description and we put your job description in that job announcement. We screen your applicants based on your basic requirements and we refer those applicants based on whether they meet your basic requirements,” she added.

NFWDB will do the initial employment and educational history screening, Rehberg explained.

The three people who have already applied will need to follow the process and submit their applications through NFWDB, Ogburn explained. Any other more intense background checks would be done by the county after the list of potential candidates is narrowed down.

Rehberg said the position could be on the NFWDB website within a week and that they will give the commissioners all applications of those who qualify.

The board agreed the position will also be advertised in the Jasper News, as well as the Florida Association of Counties, all of which will direct applications be sent to NFWDB.

One matter that all the commissioners agreed on was that whoever is hired for the position must commit to residing in Hamilton County within six months after accepting the job, if they are not already a resident.

“You want that person to invest in the county,” said Engineer Greg Bailey who was in the audience.

A motion was made and unanimously approved that NFWDB would work with the county in the application process for a new county coordinator with a deadline of August 2, and have all the applications available to the board at their August 6 meeting, with the stipulation that the person hired must be a resident of Hamilton County within six months of assuming the position. It was also noted that moving expenses could be negotiated.

The county hopes to hire someone soon so that the new hire can spend some time with Johnson learning the ropes before he leaves.