IN THE PUBLIC EYE: David Bullock

Age: 60
Home: Sarasota
Previous municipal experience: Longboat Key Town Manager, 2011 to present
Sarasota County deputy administrator, 1997 to 2011
Sarasota County solid waste director, 1994 to 1997
Potter County, Pa. Solid Waste Authority Manager, 1981 to 1987
Education: Bachelor’s degree in education from West Chester State University in West Chester, Pa.

Bio: David Bullock has served for 14 years in the No. 2 slot in Sarasota County. But on Oct. 3, the Longboat Key Town Commission voted 6-1 to give Bullock a one-year interim town manager contract.
Before his appointment, Bullock told the Longboat Observer his experience with the county has prepared him for the position because the county and town face similar issues, including beach renourishment, pension issues and budget shortfalls.

Bullock began his career operating his own construction company that provided excavation services for five years before becoming manager of the Potter County Solid Waste Authority in Pennsylvania, where he served from 1981 to 1987. From 1987 through 1994, Bullock worked as vice president of GBB Inc. Waste Management Consultants in Falls Church, Va., before he was hired as solid waste director for Sarasota County in 1994. He stayed in that position for three years before becoming a county deputy administrator in 1997.

Bullock counts the construction of a bus-transfer station and the negotiation of a 30-year water contract as two of his biggest accomplishments with the county.

Bullock will assume his new role Nov. 1. As interim town manager, he will earn a salary of $180,000 per year and receive an additional 17.8% of his salary in deferred compensation.

Bullock told the Longboat Observer that he looks forward to the opportunities that working in a smaller municipality will afford him.

“One of the things I like about working with a larger organization is there’s always a challenge and opportunity,” he said. “There’s a lot going on. One of the things I don’t like about it is it’s very hard to touch what you’re doing. It’s very rare that I would get to follow a project through from beginning to end. By being closer to the people you work with, you get to start a project out and see it through, and that appeals to me a lot.”

Contact Robin Hartill at [email protected].