NIAGARA COUNTY
Lewis seeking manager’s job with county in Florida
LOCKPORT — Niagara County Manager Gregory D. Lewis, who hasn’t been shy about looking for higher-paying jobs, has applied for at least one more.
Officials in Brevard County, Fla., confirmed Thursday that Lewis is among 118 applicants for their vacant county manager position.
Frank Abbate, Brevard County’s human resources director, said the post was advertised as paying $140,000 to $200,000 a year.
Lewis earns $105,000 a year in Niagara County, under a contract that will expire in November 2010.
But he has applied unsuccessfully for several other jobs since starting work here in May 2003.
In February, Lewis was a finalist for the manager’s job in St. Louis County, Minn.
“I didn’t know he was unhappy, if he is. I don’t want to comment without talking to Mr. Lewis,” said County Legislature Majority Leader Richard E. Updegrove, RLockport.
“You can’t begrudge him for trying to raise his salary and support his family,” said Minority Leader Dennis F. Virtuoso, D-Niagara Falls.
Lewis is on vacation this week and could not be reached to comment.
In 2006, when his first Niagara County contract was running out, he interviewed for several jobs around the nation, including a high-paying manager spot in Broward County, Fla., whose county seat is Fort Lauderdale.
He lost out there, but the search for the Brevard County post is being conducted by Colin Baenziger, the same personnel consultant who headed the Broward County search in 2006.
Baenziger said he is reviewing all the applicants and interviewing those who might be suitable if he doesn’t already know them. “I know Greg,” he said.
Baenziger said he will report to the Brevard County Board of Commissioners shortly on suitable candidates they might want to interview.
Abbate said Baenziger is scheduled to suggest eight to 13 candidates at a July 14 meeting, and the commissioners will choose three to five to interview themselves.
The position in Brevard County, located on the Atlantic coast near Cape Canaveral, has been vacant since late January, when the board fired the last county manager.
A local blog, meanwhile, says Lewis also has applied for a vacant manager’s job in Johnson County, Kan.
Lewis grew up in Hutchinson, Kan., and attended the University of Kansas.
Casey Karl, clerk to the Johnson County board of commissioners, said Kansas’ confidentiality laws covering applicants for unelected positions do not allow him to confirm or deny whether Lewis had applied.
The Johnson County manager job falls into a wide-ranging pay scale that starts at $146,608 and ends at $246,013 per year, Karl said. The previous manager retired June 1.
Johnson County’s search is being conducted by Heidi Voorhees, an Illinois consultant who could not be reached to comment.
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