North Florida Water Utilities Authority: 9 Months After Dale Williams & NFPS Developed a Job Description, & Months After Its Contract Expried, NFUWA Finally Had Candidates To Choose From
April 19, 2025 10:45 pm | 7 min read
In a rush: read the two minute version here.
COLUMBIA COUNTY, FL – The North Florida Water Utilities Authority (NFWUA or Authority) chose an executive director on Thursday morning, April 17. For months, the word at the Authority was choosing a director would end its spiraling problems. In a likety-split vote, Shannon Roberts, a Suwannee County administrator, was selected without a word of discussion.
The insider candidate didn’t exactly accept the job. Mr. Roberts accepted, pending contract negotiations. Then, at the next Authority scheduled meeting, May 7, the contract will be officially presented to the entire Authority board.
Keeping the People Uninformed:
the agenda left out the job description
The agenda for Thursday’s April 17 meeting, as posted on the Authority website, is a two-page agenda (one page is totally blank) listing one main item: “Selection of Executive Director of NFWUA and Approval of Compensation Package.” The agenda was prepared by Columbia County’s County Commission administrative staff.
The agenda provided at the meeting was a thirteen-page affair, which included the resumes and completed questionnaires of each candidate. Left out – could that really have been an accident? – the job description. On page two are the minimum qualifications.
As reported earlier, North Florida Water Utilities Authority: NFWUA Finally Has Candidates for Executive Director, But Are They Qualified?, neither candidate met the minimum qualifications. However, of the two candidates interviewed, Joe Helfenberger clearly came closest.
NFWUA: the meeting – blurting out and never being recognized is the way it conducts its business
The audience for the meeting had folks comming from Live
Oak to attend.
Chairman Rocky Ford convened the meeting: “We have everybody here. So, we're here this morning to select a director of the North Florida Water Utility Authority and maybe approval of a compensation package. That might have to be negotiated out after we hire somebody, but we'll, we'll see how that works out. So, we've advertised this for several months… We’ve conducted interviews with [the two candidates] at the last meeting. Everybody's had a chance to think about that… I hope we can come up with a decision this morning to hire one of those two applicants. The process that I think that we're gonna use today is we can have a discussion about it to start with, and then at that time, I'll ask for a motion for one of the applicants to be hired.”
North Florida Professional Services (NFPS) and its Business Development Director and lobbyist, Dale Williams (Mr. Williams says he is not a lobbyist), were tasked with the order to find and facilitate the hiring of the Authority's executive director. NFPS was paid approximately $21,000 for this. By the time the NFPS 90-day contract expired, no one had been hired, nor had anyone applied.
North Florida’s good ole’ boys paid the bill in full. Columbia County Clerk of the Courts Jay Swisher, who volunteered the resources of the Columbia County Clerk’s Office to do the finances and pay the bills of the Authority, never questioned the payment.
Chairman Ford asked if there were any questions or any questions for the applicants. Commissioner Franklin White (Suwannee County-w/o being recognized) said, “No, sir. I was pretty good with what we done the last time.”
Commissioner Murphy, who is Chairman of the Columbia County 5 and just about totally ignores its established rules of procedure, particularly the part about being recognized before one speaks, jumped right in, “Is the – chair, is the - you gonna give the audience any opportunity for input prior to us selecting?”
Chairman Ford responded, “If that's what - If you want - If that's what you're requesting, I have no problem with that.”
Those who attended the meeting, some who had driven from Live Oak, appreciated the invitation but did not comment.
Mr. Ford announced that Columbia County had completed background checks on the candidates.
Mr. Murphy (w/o being recognized) jumped in again, picking up on the agenda item regarding action on the “approval of the compensation package.” Mr. Murphy wanted to know about future Authority budgeting and how the director’s position would be funded.
Mr. Ford cut Mr. Murphy off mid-sentence, explaining that once someone was hired, [that person] “will generate a budget for the Authority.”
The monetary contributions from each County have been in cash. Clerk of the Court Jay Swisher does not charge back the Clerk's contribution. Columbia County has been preparing the agendas and has not charged back its contribution to the Authority. Suwannee County has been getting a free ride. Its only claim to fame so far is refusing to record and broadcast the meetings.
Mr. Murphy jumped in again. Mr. Murphy, who many times incorporates Joycean stream of consciousness in his contributions, is quoted as spoken, “As the Authority goes – excuse me David – as the Authority goes on course, you know, once it gets to the point, you know, if, when you accumulate assets, I guess what say, you know, we realize there's gonna be a split, you know, Suwanee County doesn't have as many assets as us. My point is on the executive director side of things as of today. Is it a 50-50 split, or we determine that yet?”
Mr. Ford explained, “The executive director will be a 50-50 split… I don’t know that there's a big difference right now because right now, the only thing we're talking about is Ellisville and the water system at Fort White. That's the only thing the County really maintains right now. So, they've [Suw. Cnty] got about 16, 18 customers. We got about 24 customers at Ellisville.
Mr. Ford continued, “I don't know that's that much of a difference right now. If you take the mega industrial park out of it, and we just contracted with the City [Lake City] for two years on the mega industrial park to operate and maintain that, we don’t know what the future holds right now with the water system at Fort White but, that could be part of it, too.”
As of January 2024, Columbia County had 48 water and 13 wastewater customers in Ellisville. In Mason City, Col. Cnty; had 12 customers. In Ft. White, for which the County is now the service provider (operations and maintenance are outsourced), there are 297 water customers, six times the number of customers in the County minus Fort White.
Mr. Murphy jumped in again, “You know, I come on when I did in November, I just wanna make sure that - No, that's fine. I, I totally understand that.”
Mr. Ford said, “But that's really not what this meeting's about today.”
County Manager David Kraus jumped in (he also does not have a need to be recognized), “I was gonna talk more about the money stuff.”
If you are waiting for the discussion about the candidates, it would go here.
Suwannee County Commissioners (l to r) Franklin White
and Leo Mobley voted in the the Suwannee County "guy" as
block.
Instead, Chairman Ford did not ask if anyone had anything to add. He asked for a motion to hire one of the applicants.
Suwannee County Commissioner Franklin White, the man who said Suwannee County would video record and post the Authority meetings to YouTube [they weren’t], wasted no time in nominating the Suwannee County “insider.” “I move to hire Shannon Roberts.” The motion was seconded by NFWUA Board member and Suw. Cnty. Commissioner Leo Mobley. It was unanimously passed without further comment.
Mr. Ford said, “Motion carries. Mr. Roberts. Congratulations. Do you, do you, you accept the job?”
Franklin White jumped in (again, no need to be recognized), “Without knowing what you are going to get paid? (a lot of laughter). Ha. Ha.
Shannon Roberts: Too Early to Jump Into the Pool
Shannon Roberts, a member of the Suwannee County
Administrative Staff, tells the NFBA to slow down, he
can't start yesterday.
Mr. Roberts wasted no time, “Not yet.” He added, “I'd like to - I'm committed to go through a process to sort out what we need to sort out, and I'm very excited about the [unintelligible].”
County Manager David Kraus (Columbia Cnty.) recommended a negotiating committee of the two County Managers and one board member.
Franklin White jumped in, “Well, I don't feel like Suwannee County should negotiate that since he works for Suwannee County now. So, I would prefer it be one of you two or three to do that.”
Mr. White nominated Commissioner Murphy (Columbia Cnty.) to “negotiate that for the board.”
Mr. Ford asked if Mr. Murphy had a problem “with that.” He didn’t.
There was quick talk between board members, just like a bar stool discussion.
The discussion included Mr. Murphy, Mr. Ford, Mr. White, and County Manager Kraus, chiming in whenever they wanted. The negotiation will take place before the next NFWUA meeting, and the contract will be brought back to the full board on May 7 for approval.
Not So Fast:
Suddenly, No Rush to Fill the Vacant Director Slot
Commissioner White jumped in, “I need to probably throw a little caveat in there.” Mr. White explained that Mr. Roberts currently works for Suwannee County and “is very involved in what we do over there." Mr. White said it's going to have to be more than a two-week notice. “It’s gonna take more time than that.”
Mr. Roberts agreed. He mentioned a four-week transition; picking up his daughter from college; and beginning no sooner than the end of May.
Mr. Ford said, “That's fine.”
Mr. Ford asked if there were “any other comments?”
There were none, other than Shannon Roberts telling the board, “Just contact me when we need to meet. I'll be happy to make arrangements.”
Epilogue
The selection of Shannon Roberts was no surprise to anyone after Dale Williams, and North Florida Professional Services couldn't find one candidate in all of America interested in filling the slot. This part of Florida has its reputation.
The negotiating committee cannot discuss the negotiations among themselves or with the other board members, nor can the two County Managers be used as liaisons between the board members or Mr. Roberts.
The Florida Sunshine Law, the opinions of the Attorney General, and the Florida Supreme Court have determined that the negotiation session is a public meeting open to the public.
We will be announcing the meeting as soon as the date is set.