Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/83745
Sarasota News Leader September 21, 2012 in Martin County, he learned that it and Sarasota County were considered mirrors of each other, on their respective coasts. Each has an urban service boundary and strong ethics regarding environmental and growth-management issues, for example, he said. Both also have had considerable resources to use in getting things done. Additionally, he said, "If you look at [the] counties that have been innovative, using different technologies in different areas … some in economic development, a lot in environment, a lot in resource protection," Sarasota has been among the leaders. "So I was intimately aware of Sarasota County," Reid says. "I have always thought that this was one of the nicest places to live in the state." Page 25 Still, he said, it worked out for the best for him and his family that Jim Ley was hired all those years ago in Sarasota County and he won the Alachua County job. He had three children getting ready to go to college, and Alachua has a strong univer- sity system. "My family stayed intact four years longer than most families do," he add- ed. "[My children] went away to college, but I beat them there." In fact, he said, the announcement about his hiring in Alachua County came one week before his daughter arrived in Gaines- ville for college. Asked about his interest in applying for the Sarasota job again as the County Com- mission and Interim County Administra- Sarasota County Commissioner Nora Patterson and County Administrator Randall Reid prepare for the start of a regular commission meeting this month. Photo by Rachel Hackney