Review Tod's answers to staff and reader questions.
Deborah and I will celebrate our 24th wedding anniversary this year. We met in College at Kent State University and were married one week after we graduated. We are blessed with two wonderful children - a sophomore daughter and a 7th grade son. My wife is a 8 year U.S. Army Vet and is a current local elementary school teacher.
My education is a precise fit for my role as Your County Commissioner. I have a bachelor's degree in Business Management from Kent State University (1990) and a master's degree in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Tennessee (1994).
Currently I work as your County Commissioner. In addition, I own a small private practice firm in Port St. Lucie specializing in Land Planning and Landscape Architecture.
Prior to my private sector work, I provided close to 10 years of service in Michigan and Florida working as both an assistant city manager and a city manager. My Michigan municipal experiences taught me how to work through very tough economic conditions in both urban and rural environments. While in Jupiter, I coordinated the successful $670 Million effort to attract the Scripps Research Institute to Northern Palm Beach County and Jupiter.
During my time in Michigan, I also served as a private consultant to cities, counties, villages and townships across the State, providing services in economic development, municipal management, recruiting, and municipal planning.
Between the time of my undergraduate and graduate degrees, I served as an economic development director in Tennessee. My graduate thesis focused on the public / private partnerships that helped to shape the City of Chattanooga, TN into a successful downtown and partner in the Atlanta Olympics.
I also served overseas where I spent time in both Geneva, Switzerland with the United Nations and in Zambia, Africa with a nondenominational missions organization.