The South Florida Water Management District is bringing in Gov. Rick Scott’s former general counsel as its next executive director.
The district’s governing board unanimously agreed Thursday to work out a separation agreement with Executive Director Blake Guillory, who will step down Sept. 30 from the $165,000-a-year position, and to offer the job to Peter Antonacci at the same annual rate.
Antonacci is expected to begin Oct. 1. Guillory didn’t comment Thursday during the board’s discussion.
Board Chairman Daniel O’Keefe said Antonacci will provide the agency with “expertise and experience, particularly in Tallahassee.”
“I think that he will bring a skill set that could be very beneficial to this water management district at a time when we have a focus on identifying the projects we want to complete over the next 10, 15 years,” O’Keefe said.
The selection came two days after the Suwannee River Water Management District Governing Board selected Noah Valenstein, Scott’s environmental policy coordinator, as its next executive director.
Scott, after appearing Thursday at an event in Tallahassee for first responders, said Antonacci’s selection was up to the South Florida board.
“Pete did a great job as general counsel, and I’m sure he’ll do a great job there, but that was a decision by the board,” Scott said when asked what role the governor’s office played in the turnover.
The change in leadership at the South Florida district comes less than two months after the board hastily backtracked on a decision to maintain the current tax rate instead of offering a tax cut.
The board, focused on Everglades restoration and the need to combat a projected rise in the sea level, had opposed Scott’s desire for a fifth year of tax cuts. But two weeks after voting to hold the line on its tax rate, the board reversed its decision, agreeing to slash about $21 million from its $754 million budget.
The district, which oversees 16 South Florida counties, is expected to spend about $371 million this year on restoration projects. The state is chipping in $181 million, with the majority going toward work to improve the Everglades.
Scott said the tax-rate decision was also up to the board.
“The board makes that decision,” Scott said. “I have the opportunity to appoint the board, but they make those decisions.”
Antonacci left the governor’s office earlier this year and has been a registered lobbyist with the law firm GrayRobinson since March. His client list includes Accelerated Learning Solutions, Key West, Corizon, JP Morgan Chase Bank, the National Notary Association and PC Solutions & Integration.
State law prohibits Antonacci from lobbying the executive branch for two years from the time he left the governor’s employment, but he can still work the halls and offices of the Legislature.
Antonacci became Scott’s general counsel in January 2013, replacing Jesse Panuccio, who Scott appointed as head of the Department of Economic Opportunity.
Antonacci, who has been a member of the Northwest Florida Water Management District Board, had previously served as deputy state attorney general and as a lobbyist. Prior to joining Scott’s staff, Antonacci led the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office.
Before exiting the governor’s office, Antonacci was embroiled in the controversial removal of Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Gerald Bailey.
The Bailey ouster, engineered by the Scott administration, led to questions about whether Cabinet aides improperly discussed the issue behind the scenes.
The governor’s office has said that Antonacci advised Bailey on Dec. 16 that the governor wanted new leadership at FDLE and requested the resignation. Bailey left the job that day.
State laws require Scott and the Cabinet members — Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam — to agree on hiring and firing the leader of the FDLE. Putnam and Atwater have said they were advised in December by Scott’s staff that the governor was interested in making a change at FDLE, but expected the change to come up at the January meeting.
Guillory, a civil engineer who came to the South Florida Water Management District in July 2013, received praise from board members as he prepares to leave. O’Keefe will negotiate a separation agreement that he said is expected to go “very favorably” for Guillory.