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Pinellas Offers County Administrator Post To LaSala

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By STEVEN GIRARDI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 6, 2008

CLEARWATER - Pinellas County commissioners are reaching to the past for leadership into the future.

Commissioners agreed Tuesday to offer the county administrator position to Robert LaSala, a former assistant county administrator from 1979 to 1989. They are set to meet on the contract Sept. 2, and LaSala would begin in November.

LaSala, 59, would replace his former boss, Fred Marquis, who has served as interim administrator for about a year. Marquis, who led the county for 21 years until retiring in 2000, came back to fill the post temporarily after Steve Spratt resigned in September.

Spratt, who had been administrator nearly six years, departed in the wake of a grand jury report that criticized his administration's handling of the county's purchase of Property Appraiser Jim Smith's vacant private land in north Pinellas for $225,000.

LaSala most recently was city manager in Lancaster, Calif., in Los Angeles County, and previously was city manager of Sunnyvale, Calif. He also has worked as an administrator in Sarasota County.

He also is one of seven candidates for the city manager's position in Boulder, Colo.

LaSala was chosen from among four finalists commissioners agreed on in July. One of them, Assistant County Administrator Mark Woodward, the husband of Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio, withdrew on Friday because of concerns about his residency in Tampa rather than in Pinellas.

The others were Peter Crichton, manager of Cumberland County, Maine, and Bruce Loucks, former Charlotte County administrator.

Reporter Steven Girardi may be reached at (727) 451-2333 or at sgirardi@tampatrib.com.

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