FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Donald D. Stilwell, County Administration

(941) 335-2221

LAVENDER NAMED NEW COUNTY PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR

FORT MYERS, Fla. (September 1, 2000) – Lee County Manager Don Stilwell announced today that he has named Jim Lavender as the county’s new Public Works Director.

Lavender, a 25-year county employee, currently heads the county’s Construction & Design Department and has been the interim Public Works Director. He has agreed to accept the position for a two-year period while the county reorganizes the structure of its public works departments and divisions and remedies deficiencies in its Utilities Division. In his position, Lavender will report directly to the County Manager.

The departments and divisions that report to the Public Works Director are Construction & Design, Solid Waste, Natural Resources, Transportation, County Lands, and Fleet Management. Utilities will continue to report to the County Manager until a new Utilities Director is hired.

The change in management team comes after the resignations of former Public Works Director J.W. French, Environmental Services Director Larry Johnson and Utilities Director Glenn Greer in July and early August. Those resignations came in the wake of Clerk of Courts internal audits that discovered problems in the Utilities Division, including lax enforcement of the county’s utilities operations and maintenance contract.

“Jim is well respected in both the public and private sectors, as well as by his colleagues,” Stilwell said. “He always engenders confidence because of his competence and honesty.”

Lavender started with the county in 1975 and has risen through the ranks to become one of the county’s top managers. Construction & Design builds county facilities, including parks, libraries, jails and government buildings. Lavender has been instrumental in the design and construction of many of those facilities, including the Lee County Sports Complex, South and East County Regional libraries, Dunbar Library, Fort Myers Beach Community Pool and Caloosahatchee, Manatee and Bowditch Point regional parks.