Dave Harner began his first Lee County Commission meeting Tuesday as the newest county manager sitting in a leather chair that was occupied by his mentor Roger Desjarlais for a full decade prior.
Harner, a county employee for 32 years, including stints as parks and recreation director and, more recently, deputy county manager, will oversee a $2.6 billion budget and about 2,800 employees. He’s one of three county employees, including the county attorney and hearing examiner, that can be selected via a vote by the five county commissioners. They unanimously agreed to hire Harner as Lee’s ninth county manager since 1970 on June 6.
“We just happen to have a great team in the county in general,” said Harner, who served with the U.S. Navy, stationed overseas in Bahrain in the early 1990s during Operation Desert Storm.
Thereafter, the Pittsburgh native relocated to Lee County, where he worked his way up as a maintenance worker in the parks and recreation department. He went on to earn a master’s degree in public administration from Florida Gulf Coast University.
“I’ve been proud to work with this group,” Harner said. “If you go back to Hurricane Irma, if you go to the pandemic, we’ve been together – and that includes all of our employees – working together to provide for the community. It’s just an honor to do that, to lead that group. You just can’t beat it.”
Dave Harner
On June 20, the commissioners approved a five-year contract that began paying him Tuesday an annual salary of $270,000, a 12% raise from when he made $240,440 as deputy county manager. Harner also will receive $500 a month to use his personal vehicle for county business. Prior to 2019, he was making $168,647 as assistant county manager.
Harner’s path to the county’s top job may have been 32 years in the making, but it took less than 20 minutes of discussion among the commissioners to name him.
“I think Dave fits the profile, but I also think that a national search, regardless of whether we want to keep him in the long term is necessary,” Commissioner Kevin Ruane said on June 6. “What I’d like to do is have a county manager in the interim.”
By the time colleagues Cecil Pendergrass, Mike Greenwell, Ray Sandelli and Brian Hamman had their say, Ruane not only acquiesced and voted along with them, but he made the motion to do just that.
Ruane later said once he realized he didn’t have support for a national search, he had no problems with Harner getting the job, or he wouldn’t have made the motion to do so.
Of all the commissioners, Pendergrass has known Harner the longest.
“I don’t think [Ruane] realized he didn’t have the support,” Pendergrass said of Ruane’s initial desire to run a national search. “I’ve known Dave for 30 years. Dave’s experience with the county and his leadership style is the best fit for the county. At this point in time, with where we are in Lee County and all the destruction we experienced, we need a competent, stable man to lead us through this over the next couple of years. We cannot take a day off in this recovery. And besides the recovery, we are growing so fast. We have to stay ahead of it. He understands all the elements of the county. He understands the board’s priorities of assisting residents.”
During the June 6 discussion, Greenwell seconded the motion to name Harner as the new manager.
“We are a county that promotes [from] within,” Greenwell said. “We pride ourselves in that. I think we should continue to be that county. I have the same fear of the national search. We’re still recovering. We’re going to be recovering for years. We have a lot on the line here, for the federal government to work with us. I think having someone in place is really, really important.”
Hamman, the chairman of the commissioners this year, said Harner learned more than enough as the deputy county manager to have deputy removed from his job title.
“I think it was all about performance,” Hamman said. “I’ve had a chance to work with Dave for nearly 10 years now. I think his performance is second to none. The other thing that really persuaded me was, this is a time of tremendous uncertainty in our community after the hurricane and the devastation. I think what our community needs right now is a seamless transition and stability.”
Hamman also had no desire to run a national search.
“They take a long time,” he said. “And if you say yes to a national search, you’re saying no to certainty in a time of uncertainty. We’ve just been devastated. If you say yes to a national search, again, you’re saying no to quick transition. You’re also going to spend money on it. Everybody interviews really well. They all come in here on their best behavior. The truth is, until you work with that person, you really never know what you’re going to get. Here, in Dave Harner, I’ve got somebody who’s been working for the county for three decades, who I’ve worked with personally for nearly a decade, who I know will not let me down. So, for me, it was easy to promote from within.”
Harner had expressed an interest in landing the county manager job in separate conversations with Pendergrass and Hamman, both confirmed.
Sandelli said he never had such a conversation with Harner but that he did seem like the heir apparent to Desjarlais.
“That was a very difficult situation when the pandemic started, and he told Dave, ‘This is your hill,’” Sandelli said of Harner organizing the pandemic response on behalf of Desjarlais. That response included setting up multiple COVID-19 vaccination sites, which administered more than half a million shots – approaching 50% of the county’s population – during the first few months of vaccine availability.
Actions speak louder than words, Sandelli said, and Harner guiding the county through the early stages of the pandemic set him up for the promotion.
“Most people are somewhat reticent to say, ‘Hey, I’m going after this,’” Sandelli said. “He let his work speak for itself.”
