Manatee County Government
Community leader David Klement joins Manatee County Government
Klement will analyze Manatee County Government programs and services, then map out policies and business strategies that will more efficiently and effectively ensure quality services are being delivered to Manatee taxpayers.
MANATEE COUNTY, FL (Sept. 2, 2010) – Manatee County Government has hired community leader and former Bradenton Herald Editorial Page Editor David Klement as Organizational Development Manager.
Klement’s role will be to analyze Manatee County Government programs and services, then to map out policies and business strategies that will more efficiently and effectively ensure quality services are being delivered to Manatee taxpayers. He will begin his new role Sept. 13.
“In David, the organization has gained a trusted community leader,” said County Administrator Ed Hunzeker. “His critical eye will help facilitate a leaner county government and he will ensure greater public involvement in on some of the biggest issues facing the community.”
Klement retired from the Herald in 2007 to become director of the Institute for Public Policy and Leadership at the University of South Florida's Sarasota-Manatee campus. At Manatee County he will similarly engage the public on discussions of how they want Manatee County to grow over the next two decades.
“I look forward to serving the citizens of Manatee County in a new capacity,” Klement said. “Having observed and commented on Manatee County Government from the outside for almost 35 years, I appreciate this opportunity to work with its leaders from the inside to improve efficiency and effectiveness. I am gratified at the trust placed in me by Administrator Ed Hunzeker, and I promise to do my utmost to live up to that trust.”
He previously worked at the Bradenton Herald from 1975 to 2007. His journalism career began in 1962 with The Daily Oklahoman in Oklahoma City and he worked as night metro editor, deputy business editor and photo editor for The Detroit Free Press from 1966 until 1975.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of North Texas and a master’s degree in mass communication from the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg campus.
Gov. Charlie Crist in October, 2009 appointed Klement to the Public Service Commission, the state panel responsible for regulating the rates, services and safety of privately owned public utilities. But in April, Klement and another Crist appointee were rejected by the Florida Senate, as the result of political fallout between the Governor and the legislature.