Ten people from seven different states have been selected as finalists in the search for a new Okaloosa County airports director.
“I think we have a decent pool of applicants,” County Administrator Ernie Padgett said.
Padgett will make the final selection and recommend that candidate to county commissioners sometime in the next two months.
“Paramount will be someone who knows the airport business, not someone it would be a training ground for,” he said. “I’m looking for someone who can come in day one and recognize any deficiencies.”
Padgett said he is seeking someone skilled at short- and long-range planning and innovation.
“I wouldn’t want a person who would be satisfied with status quo,” he said. “In a lot of areas if you’re not moving forward, you’re really gradually sliding backward. We can’t just sit around and accept that what we have is what we have.”
With successful airports in Pensacola and Panama City, Okaloosa County must continually be looking for new markets, Padgett added.
“There’s a lot of competition out there, so I want someone who knows their way around and can keep us in the mix of things,” he said.
The 10 finalists, who were culled from a pool of more than 100 applicants, are:
- Steven V. Brian, executive director of the Glynn County Airport Commission in Brunswick, Ga.
- Michael J. Clow, director of Morgantown Municipal Airport in Morgantown, W.Va.
- Randall S. Curtis, an adjunct professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
- Bryant W. Garrett, vice president and CFO of Sanford Airport Authority in Sanford, Fla.
- Sunil Harman, aviation director and CEO of the city of Tallahassee Department of Aviation.
- Richard A. McConnell, aviation project manager, CH2M Hill, Boise, Idaho.
- Quincy Mosby, senior systems engineer, CGI Federal in Bedford, Mass.
- Kenneth L. Penney, independent airport planning consultant with Garver Engineers in North Little Rock, Ark., and resident of Fort Worth, Texas.
- Tracy A. Stage, deputy airports director for Okaloosa County.
- Richard S. Walsh, co-founder and managing partner with a3i Global Aeronautics Advisors in Denver, Colo., and resident of San Bruno, Calif.
The new director will oversee Northwest Florida Regional Airport, Destin Airport and Bob Sikes Airport in Crestview. The job has a salary range of $79,913 to $145,350.
A screening committee will hold phone interviews with the candidates later this week before narrowing the pool to three to five people, county Human Resources Director Kay Godwin said.
The committee will conduct in-person interviews May 21. A new director is expected to be in place by early July, she said.
Contact Daily News Staff Writer Kari C. Barlow at 850-315-4438 or kbarlow@nwfdailynews.com. Follow her on Twitter @KariBnwfdn.