HICKEY: New Administrator : A ‘Squeaky Clean’ Florida Man Named New County Chief

A career administrator credited with helping expose rampant corruption in a Florida county’s government was named Monday to be the next chief administrator of San Diego County.

Norman Hickey, 58, county administrator in Hillsborough County, Fla., will take over early next year as the top administrator in San Diego, county officials said.

Described by associates in the Tampa area Monday as a hard-working professional who shuns the limelight but toils quietly to implement programs and policies approved by the elected officials he serves, Hickey will replace Clifford W. Graves. Graves submitted his resignation in July under pressure from the county Board of Supervisors after a major scandal and allegations of mismanagement involving his appointed department directors.

Hickey, who will be paid $107,500 annually, acted as an FBI informant for more than a year before three of the five Hillsborough County commissioners who hired him were indicted in 1983 on charges of conspiring to extort $75,000 from a developer who was requesting a zoning change.

After one of the commissioners pleaded guilty to the 1983 charges and two others were convicted by a federal jury, Hickey helped reorganize the county government, a move that added two members to the commission and prohibited the elected commissioners from interfering in the day-to-day operations of the county.

Hickey also has cooperated in an ongoing investigation that led to a second series of indictments in May. U.S. Atty. Robert Merkle said the probe revealed that, before the reorganization, Hillsborough County had been “held hostage to a corrupt governing authority” that demanded bribes for everything from cable television contracts to permits for the sale of alcohol.

Hickey was the unanimous first choice of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, which voted in closed session Wednesday to allow Chairman Leon Williams to negotiate with Hickey, whose background was checked and cleared by San Diego County Dist. Atty. Edwin Miller.

Williams said Hickey is a “squeaky clean” professional who could help California’s third-largest county overcome its problems.

“We have a lot of work to do in this county,” Williams said. “We were looking for someone who could really put together the county, who could work with the staff, the board members and the community.”

Supervisor Brian Bilbray said Hickey showed in Florida that he was an administrator “who can rise above the troubled waters.”

San Diego County has been plagued this year by management problems in its Department of Health Services. State and federal health officials threatened to close down county-run geriatric and mental hospitals until emergency improvements in management, patient care and maintenance were put in place.

In 1983, the county canceled a $24.5-million contract for a new internal telephone system amid a scandal that eventually resulted in the indictment of 13 people, including two former county officials, on charges of racketeering, bribery and fraud.

Although San Diego County, with almost 2 million residents, is more than twice the size of Hillsborough County, Hickey said he thinks his varied background in government service gives him the skills he’ll need to pull the county out of its doldrums.

“Maybe I have enough experience to help,” the soft-spoken Hickey said. “I hope so.”

Hickey was born in New Jersey and was reared and educated in Pennsylvania, but almost 30 years in Florida have given him a Southern drawl and a down-home personality to match.

When he was city manager of Daytona Beach in 1964, Hickey hired as a college intern Sylvester Murray, who in July of this year was named city manager of the City of San Diego. In an interview Monday, Murray called Hickey’s selection by county supervisors “a good move.”

A former Marine, Hickey left his Daytona post to serve as a civilian adviser to the government of South Vietnam in the 1960s. He also spent a year as an adviser on housing and development affairs for the government of Colombia.

Hickey returned to Daytona Beach after his work overseas, then spent a year in Hollywood, Fla., before moving to Titusville, a city of 40,000 that is home to the John F. Kennedy Space Center. He was city manager there from 1974 until 1981, when he was named administrator of Hillsborough County.

Soon after he arrived in Hillsborough, Hickey was offered a sweetheart land deal that aroused his suspicions and prompted him to notify state law enforcement officials. Those authorities contacted the FBI, and Hickey acted for the next 18 months as an informant for the bureau during its investigation of county corruption.

Hickey, a Democrat, describes himself as an “apolitical” administrator who likes to take a low profile when issues reach a public forum.

“Our work is usually done by the time it gets there,” he said in an interview.

County commissioners interviewed Monday said they would be sorry to see Hickey leave Florida, where he earned $96,000 a year. They said he was known there for hiring well-qualified assistants and setting them free to do their jobs. They said he has the backbone to defend himself and his staff when under fire but that he is flexible enough to know when it is time to compromise.

“He’s been a pillar of strength in this county at a very difficult time,” Commissioner Jan Platt said. “He’s a public servant from the old school. He’s not in this for personal gain or glory or any of that. He’s just a hard-working man with high ideals who wants to get the job done.”

Among Hickey’s accomplishments in Hillsborough were the establishment of a program to assess developers’ fees to pay for their impact on public services, the shepherding of approvals for a controversial trash-burning power plant, and the creation of a special office to handle citizen complaints.

All three issues are of concern in San Diego County as well, where the rate of growth is a constant subject of debate, a citizens’ group is fighting the construction of a trash-burning power plant in San Marcos, and the San Diego Chamber of Commerce recently blasted city and county officials for involving themselves too much in the solving of constituents’ problems.

Hickey said he established the citizens’ complaint office so that the professional staff, not the elected officials, could respond to everyday problems such as potholes, traffic signals and delays in obtaining social services. Under the system, citizens are said to receive a letter from the county within five days of their complaint, outlining the steps that will be taken and when the problem will be solved.

“Sometimes we have to say no when no is the right answer,” Hickey said. “But where citizens get upset is when there’s no answer at all.”

If there’s a blemish on Hickey’s reputation, his associates say, it would be his low-key demeanor and his desire to avoid the limelight when possible. But elected officials often see that trait as a plus if it allows them to receive credit for popular successes.

“He’s not a salesman, he’s not the type to go out and rally the troops,” County Commissioner Rodney Colson said. “He has a businesslike approach.”

Terrell Sessums, a former Florida state representative and one-time Chamber of Commerce president now practicing law in Tampa, said Hickey is well-liked in the business community because he is courteous and keeps his cool under pressure.

“He’s not flashy or flamboyant,” Sessums said. “For people looking for a strong leader on a white horse, he may come across as a little too soft-spoken or a little too plain. But I think he wears well. The more you work with him the more you appreciate what he has to offer.”