At a recent meeting of the Charlotte County Personnel Committee, eight proposals were received from executive search firms hoping to assist with the search of a new county administrator.

According to a bid receipt confirmation, the firms include Edwards Management Consultants, Gallagher Titan, Hartz Search, S. Renee Narloch & Associates, Springsted Incorporated, Summit Insurance Group, The Berkley Group and Wolfcreek Consulting, Inc.

At a Monday meeting of the personnel committee, members convened in closed session to discuss proprietary information relating to the proposals.

Committee member Gary Walker said he hoped to soon have a recommendation to make to the board of supervisors.

At an April 9 meeting of the personnel committee, Walker also said “Since this is all proprietary information, we will need to go into closed session to review …”

After coming back in to open session, Walker said, “there’s so much volume of information that we need to review, we decided we’re going to do some take home work and evaluate these eight proposals and rank them.”

He said county purchasing agent/planner Monica Elder would also do a ranking to help and make the right decision.

“Hopefully from that point, we’ll be able to make some sort of recommendation to the board,” Walker said.

A request for proposal (RFP) was issued Feb. 28, which said, “The Charlotte County Board of Supervisors is soliciting proposals for Executive Search Firm Services for the recruiting, selection and hiring of a new county administrator.”

The RFP said the consultant would be responsible for a variety of recruiting efforts, including conducting “full background, effectiveness, and performance assessments of qualified candidates and will be required to work diligently to advance the process, ensuring an expedient hire for the new county administrator.”

The RFP followed the announcement of current County Administrator R.B. Clark’s retirement after serving the county since 1981.

Clark made the announcement at a February meeting of the supervisors that his retirement would be effective June 30.

“I’ll be doing all I can to help out with the transition,” he said at that time. However, he said he did not want to be involved in the selection process of the new county administrator.

The RFP said the county administrator would be responsible a variety of duties including “carrying out the day-to-day operations of the county in accordance with the policies of the board of supervisors and overseeing the general operation of the county including budget preparation, funds management, personnel management, purchasing, economic development, property management, compliance with state and federal laws and regulations, planning and zoning.”