South Florida Water Management District's loss likely will be Enterprise Florida's gain.
Enterprise Florida's executive committee Wednesday scrapped its search for a new leader and unanimously approved Vice Chairman Stan Connally's recommendation to offer the president and CEO slot to SFWMD Executive Director Pete Antonacci.
Connally announced the move to participants in a conference call with the committee. “The more I learned about Pete … I learned things like his ability to quickly get up to speed on topics that may not be naturally as familiar to him ... Some would call that a quick study. And I think, given the circumstances in front of us, I think that would be important.”
Though Antonacci's hire still needs the sanction of the Enterprise Florida Board of Directors, it's Gov. Rick Scott who chairs the EF Board, Antonacci is one of his most successful troubleshooters.
Antonacci had approached the Governor's Office saying he was interested in the job, Connally said.
Enterprise Florida, the state's business-recruitment agency, spent most of the 2017 legislative session on life-support and still has much to prove to a body of lawmakers skeptical of its necessity on both sides of aisle.
From the beginning of the year through the end of the legislative session, Scott and House Speaker Richard Corcoran, R-Land O'Lakes, were at war over the agency's survival. Corcoran successfully blocked Scott's budget request for $85 million to keep Enterprise Florida recruiting businesses in 2017-2018 -- until the pair reached a compromise during a special session that gave Scott's baby $85 million for infrastructure projects and job training that could boost economic development.
The Antonacci news could cause consternation for many in South Florida.
SFWMD, embarking on a fast-tracked new component of Everglades restoration -- a reservoir mandated with the passage last session of Senate Bill 10 -- will walk a tougher road without Antonacci's leadership, say many district staff.
It's going to need help. SFWMD is the entity, remember, that collects taxes from 16 counties, guards against South Florida flooding and leads Everglades restoration. It is the largest, busiest and most intricately employed of all five water management districts in Florida.
Antonacci has been its executive director since September 2015, appointed by Gov. Scott to replace Blake Guillory.
He has been a strong leader for an agency that became the object of an Everglades Foundation smear campaign over the SFWMD Board's priorities for completing the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan rather than buy 60,000 acres of EAA land to build a reservoir on. To counter the campaign and go to bat for his staff and the science behind the District's work, he fought back by releasing "fact sheets" to "set the record straight."
"The Everglades Foundation thought we were just going to sit here silently and take their abuse," one staffer told Sunshine State News earlier in the year. "But Pete wanted us to stand up to their nonsense."
Before leading the South Florida Water Management District, Antonacci was best known as Scott's general counsel. But he has also worked as a registered lobbyist with the GrayRobinson law firm, served on the Northwest Florida Water Management District Governing Board and worked as a deputy Florida attorney general.
Connally said Wednesday, in the interests of Enterprise Florida, he wanted to move quickly, and hiring Antonacci would avoid a months-long search. "Given the circumstances and urgency to fill the job, I'm very comfortable bringing his name before you as the next president and CEO,” he told members.
Scott, who was also on the call, said, “My experience with Pete is, he is able to negotiate a lot of good deals. That's part of what you have to do both as general counsel and running the water management district. I think he will do a good job. He'll work hard. He'll get deals done. And he'll also be a good team player.”
Scott did not discuss a replacement for Antonacci at the Water Management District.
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at 228-282-2423. Twitter: @NancyLBSmith
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