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Deile applies for vacant county commission seat

4 min read

A Cape Coral City Council member has joined the list of those seeking an appointment to the vacant District 1 Lee County Commission seat.
Commissioner Bob Janes died March 10 at age 78. His district encompasses Sanibel, Captiva, Pine Island and the Cape. Gov. Charlie Crist intends to pick someone to fill the seat until the November election, when voters in Lee can elect a new commissioner to finish Janes’ term. The term expires in 2012.
According to documents released by the Crist’s office, Councilmember Bill Deile and two others had submitted applications for the appointment as of Monday evening. The recent additions raise the number of applicants to 23.
Deile said Monday evening that he did not think he had a chance of winning the appointment, and that applying merely cost him a few pennies.
“Why not?” Deile asked. “It only cost 47 cents.”
Deile, a disabled veteran, is a Republican and has served as a Cape council member since 2007. He is a member of the charter school board and has served on the audit, budget review, transportation advisory and community development grant committees. Deile was elected to his council seat.
Asked if he would make a full run for the commission seat in the November election, Deile responded that he would not.
“I wouldn’t give up the city seat for that,” he said.
Deile is currently the Southwest Area vice president of the Military Officers Association of America and is a member of the Cape Coral Art League, Cape Coral Republican Club and Lee County Executive Committee. He worked with FEMA following Hurricane Charley, and he served in Vietnam and the Gulf War.
From 2002-03, he taught American National Government and State and Local Politics at Edison College as an adjunct professor of political science. Prior to that, Deile operated a private law/consulting practice in New Jersey, and was employed at AT&T as an attorney and manager. He was also a law clerk.
Deile was born in New Jersey and he graduated from Wayne High School in 1961. Deile has a wife, Janet, and one son, Billy, who is an officer with the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Protection Service.
According to Sterling Ivey, the governor’s press secretary, there is no deadline for submitting an application. The Governor’s Appointments Office will accept them until an appointment is made and each one will be reviewed.
After the interviews are completed with the prospective candidates, a background screening will be conducted through the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. There is no set time frame in which Crist must make the appointment, Ivey reported. It can take from six to eight weeks or longer.
According to the released documents, the applicant list includes:
Wayne Daltry, former director of Smart Growth for Lee County
Bruce J. Scott, former state representative and Lee County commissioner
John Manning, former Lee County commissioner and Cape Coral City Council member
Richard Hoffman, deputy sheriff with the Lee County Sheriff’s Office
Carletha Griffin, owner of a consulting business
Robert Chilmonik, Lee County School Board member
Linda Carter, executive director for Emergency Preparedness for the ADA Advisory Board of Southwest Florida
Nicholas Sacca, formerly of Adecco Employment
Charles Dauray, chief executive officer and chairman of College of Life Foundation
Chelsey M. Perry Sr., retired Fort Myers resident
Donna Loibl, retired Matlacha resident
Gerald Finan, substitute teacher
Christopher Berardi, former Cape Coral City Council member
Noel Andress, real estate Broker and business owner
A.J. Boyd, former Cape Coral City Council member
David Barton, former Cape Coral board member
Donald Devoe Slisher, former Lee County commissioner
Donald Farrell Eslick, former Lee County committee member
Michael W. Denham, former Sanibel City Council member
Paul D. Asfour, former Cape Coral City Council member
Bill Deile, Cape Coral City Council member
Mike Jackson, former Cape Coral Economic Development director
Sonny Haas, retired North Fort Myers Fire Department engineer