November 22, 2002
SOUTH FLORIDA WATER MANAGEMENT DISTRICT CREATES NEW DEPARTMENT TO FOCUS ON GREATER WEST COAST ISSUES
Contact: Randy Smith
(561) 682-6197 (office) or
(561) 389-3386 (cell phone)
Thanks to the efforts of Trudi Williams – Chair of the South
Florida Water
Management District Governing Board and Fort Myers
resident/business owner –
the agency has created a new department that will focus
exclusively on west
coast communities and resource issues.
Working closely with Williams and reporting directly to SFWMD
Executive
Director Henry Dean, Carol Wehle has been appointed director of
the new
Greater West Coast department. Wehle has been granted local
decision-making
authority regarding crucial resource management matters relating
to all or
portions of the following counties that fall within SFWMD
boundaries:
Charlotte, Collier, Glades, Hendry, Highlands, Lee and
Okeechobee.
"My responsibilities clearly reflect the commitment and
understanding that
the Governing Board and executive management have for the people
and
resources of Florida's west coast area," said Whele.
"My staff and I will
work hard to keep important projects on track and to strengthen
our
partnerships with local governments and the communities we
serve."
Prior to assuming this key leadership position, Wehle was
director of the
SFWMD's Lower West Coast Service Center in Fort Myers. In her
expanded
capacity, she will provide oversight and guidance to three
service centers;
facilitate and coordinate effective strategies that address
watershed
management and restoration efforts in cooperation with other
governments,
stakeholders/partners and the public; and participate in
policy-development
at the state and federal levels.
In addition to the service center located in Fort Myers, she
will also
oversee the Okeechobee Service Center and the Big Cypress Basin
office in
Naples. (The Big Cypress Basin includes all of Collier County and
a small
portion of mainland Monroe County.)
To fill the Lower West Coast Service Center director position
vacated by
Wehle, the agency has tapped Carla Palmer, P.E., to serve in that
local
role.
Governing Board Chair Trudi Williams calls these management
changes a
significant and critical recognition of west coast concerns.
"This action
provides the area with greater local presence and leadership –
along with a
direct line to the executive director of the agency," she
said. "I have long
been a proponent of increasing agency emphasis on west coast
resources and I
am very pleased to see it now become a reality."
A civil engineer, Carol Wehle originally joined the South
Florida Water
Management District in February 2002. Prior to that, she was with
the St.
Johns River Water Management District for nine years. She served
in numerous
policy and management-level positions there, including Deputy
Executive
Director. Her public service experience also includes a four-year
stint as a
Brevard County Commissioner and six years on the Sebastian Inlet
Tax
District Commission. She received her engineering degree from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Carla Palmer brings over twenty-five years of environmental
engineering
experience to her new role. She initially joined the Service
Center as
Regulation Section leader earlier this year, overseeing all
regulation
activities in southwest Florida. Prior to that, she served as the
Special
Water Resources Project Manager for the St. Johns River Water
Management
District. She also has extensive private-sector and university
experience.
http://www.sfwmd.gov/newsr/3_newsrel.html#wehle